Some History of Barnby Moor
Some History of Barnby Moor
In 1086, the village was called Barnet-Juxta-Blidas, changing through the years to Barneby Super Le Moor, Barnbie on the Moor, Barnebi and finally to Barnby Moor. The most used Norse suffix ‘by’, meaning a farm and Barn, from ‘Beorn’, a town. The addition of ‘Moor’ was due to the land around being a mixture of woods, moorland and fen. Blidas (Blyth) was always the better-known settlement.
In the thirteenth century, many land-owners, including Wyot de Barneby and his heirs, released land and woods to the Convent of the Benedictines of St. Mary’s of Blyth and tournaments held locally attracted competitors from afar. In 1690, Ogilby’s Itinerary, a book of maps, shows the Great North Road (currently Old London Road) running from West Drayton by Jockey House and through Barnby Moor. It was a lonely road and a haven for highwaymen. However, in the eighteenth century as more traffic increased the demand for better rods, these sandy lanes were abandoned and the new road was made through Gamston, Retford and Barnby Moor. The A1 subsequently replaced this road as the main road north from London to Edinburgh. For many years, the Bell Inn was a private residence and divided into two. Part of the current inn was used as a chapel as the village was without a church, unusual for the time. In the sixteenth century, the village was the headquarters of The Royal Army Forces who were summoned to crush a rebellion in Doncaster.
The village coaching inn, the ‘Blue Bell’ was always referred to as ‘the Bell’ and subsequently became ‘The Olde Bell Hotel’. The inn rose to fame in the eighteenth century when stagecoaches began running and in 1714, one traveller remarked that there were so many coaches at the Bell that ‘some were ill to find room’. The most notable landlord was George Clark, a highly respected sportsman and horse-breeder. Sylvanes, a well-known sportswriter described him as ‘the gentleman innkeeper’. Around this time, a Captain Swing and his men set fire to hayricks close to the Bell during a bitter feud between peasants and landowners.
Travellers always looked forward to the first sight of the four elm trees which stood opposite the Bell. These were later cut down and the adjacent pond filled in. From 1840, the Bell had stabling for 120 horses and beds for the post boys and if more stabling was required, they used the White Horse Inn, a listed building still open in the village. Princess Victoria, later queen, stayed at the Inn as did a number of film stars over the years – even Edmund Glenn, famously Kris Kringle in the 1947 Hollywood classic ‘Miracle on 34th Street’. Sir Walter Scott was familiar with the Bell, noting changeless scenes from the skeleton hanging from the gibbet to the deep colour of the landlord’s nose! In later years, a porter at the Bell claimed that he saw reflected in the glass panel of a door the ghost of an old lady in grey who subsequently moved down the corridor and climbed the stairs. Maybe a different type of spirit was involved!
John Cromwell, a congregationalist, was presented by Oliver Cromwell (no relation) to the rectory in Clayworth but in 1664 was sentenced to life in prison for alleged complicity in ‘The Yorkshire Plot’, a famous case at the time. He became very ill in prison and was rescued by the Duke of Newcastle – returning to Barnby Moor to soon die and be buried in nearby Sutton-cum-Lound where the family has an engraved headstone.
In the eighteenth century, Barnby Moor had a Mansion House and pleasure-grounds and these were built on by Mr Darcy Clark when Barnby Moor House was built. Joshua Gladwin Jebb purchased it in 1875 and it was demolished in 1881 to be replaced in 1883. Vergers welcomed Jebb’s return but he died in 1901 and his son Sydney took over. He then inherited Firbeck Hall from an aunt and preferring that, sold Barnby Moor House to the Barber family. The Barbers owned coal rights, including Harworth Colliery. One of the Barbers married into the Darleys, who were a respected brewing family. During World War Two, the Barbers’ large entrance hall was used as a clinic for young mothers to take their babies to be weighed and collect ‘Virol’, a malt extract containing bone marrow which was sold as a nutrient at the time.
Mr Fred Boulby, a signalman at Botany Bay crossing had five sons and two daughters. His eldest, Ernest, followed in his father’s footsteps and went to work on the railway with the next two sons, Sid and Harry setting up a bicycle repair business opposite the White Horse Inn in Barnby Moor in 1912. The motor car was becoming prevalent so the turned their hand to engine repair as well as cycles and prams. The other brothers, Frank and Len served their apprenticeships with the company and during the second world war, having all joined up, they all worked on tank repair. Indeed, just after the war, an air force ‘plane came down in a field next to the village and after no-one from the armed forces was able to repair it, Frank offered his services and got it flying again. For years, a photograph of him working on it was used to advertise Boulby’s Garage with the slogan ‘we repair anything from bikes to aeroplanes’. The garage existed until 1999 at which time houses were built in the site.
The 7th Earl Fitzwilliam purchased the Grove Hounds from the then Lord Galway in 1907. The former was then master of two family packs at Wentworth and Fitzwilliam together with the Coollattin in Ireland. The kennels were designed by his land agent, Mr G Wilson, who was also secretary to the Fitzwilliam / Wentworth hounds. He supervised the purchase of the land and all the building works to completion in 1912 at a cost of £12,000 (£1.5m in 2022). They remained the home of the Grove Hounds until a 1952/3 amalgamation with the Rufford Hounds and are still so and known as the Grove and Rufford Foxhounds. After negotiation with the Fitzwilliam estate, the kennels passed into the ownership of the Grove and Rufford |Hunt Trustees. Originally, the kennels supported 70 couples of foxhounds with as much staff and horses as this required. Recently, politics and urbanisation has meant a reduction in hunting and some has been sold off or leased and the kennels are much reduced with an uncertain future (2022). The village Boxing Day meet used to be at the Old Bell Hotel, was moved to The White Horse Inn and in recent years has been lost to the village. The Earl Fitzwilliam also set land aside for the village hall to be built and a cricket pitch to be laid. The latter has unfortunately been incorporated into kennel land.
At the north end of the village was a scrapyard owned by the grandson of Frank Thorley, a well-known racing cyclist. Photographs of him with former world champion and Olympic silver medallist, Reg Harris were displayed along with his own awards in the Milestone Café at the site, run by his wife. The café was very popular with soldiers from the Ranby Camp as well as holiday makers on the Great North Road. Douglas Bader, the famous disabled wartime pilot and his wife used the café regularly. After the A1 took the lorries away, the business dwindled and was demolished in 2004 to make way for new housing.
At about the same time, a rather odd couple, known as Ebb and Flo, could be seen walking around Barnby Moor. Mostly dressed in black and pushing an old pram containing all their belongings, they walked the area and slept in woods and hedgerows, covering themselves in leaves and old blankets for warmth.
The Pig Improvement Company now have a pig breeding farm which was formerly named 'College Chicks'. All the land once belonged to the Priory of Blyth which was taken by Henry VIII at the Dissolution of the Monasteries. It was later handed over as an endowment for his new foundation of Trinity College in the University of Cambridge.
The village has expanded but it is still one of the smallest in the county. Where men used to work on the farms, now most of them commute to different towns. The smithy has long since gone and the village shop, post office and church have all been altered to form private residences. The Reindeer Hotel is now an old people's home and they, like the Olde Bell and White Horse, have to draw staff from outside the village. In 2021, a glamping and caravan site was opened at Hill Crest Farm on Old London Road and this has successfully brought holidaymakers into the village who spend money in the village at the Old Bell Hotel, the White Horse Inn and the Indian restaurant, Yash, now operating from behind the pub in the former ‘Oliver’s’ restaurant. Some recent ‘infill’ development on the Great North Road has led to a number of new residences so Barnby Moor might see some good population growth in the coming years.