Adamthwaite Miscellany
Adamthwaite Farm at Ravenstonedale in Westmorland
Adamthwaite is an
isolated farm on the moors, about 1000ft above sea-level, in the parish
of Ravenstonedale, Cumbria, England. The original farm is
mentioned in documents dating back to about 1500, but the main building
was rebuilt by Thomas Adamthwaite in 1684.
At the end of the 17th
century it consisted of several small farms.
In 1683, Thomas
Adamthwaite was admitted as a tenant of Upcast – one of the properties
at Adamthwaite at Fell End. However, he appears to have sold ‘one close
called Mean Close with two gates in Adamthwaite sslass’ to Richard
Mowland in 1684 and ‘one whole messuage and tenement’ to Michael
Knewstubb in 1694.
In 1690 John
Adamthwaite had left the largest of the four farms to his daughter,
Sybel, who subsequently married Thomas Adamthwaite of Sedberg in 1697.
After their marriage, Thomas became known as ‘Thomas Adamthwaite of
Adamthwaite’
In 1716 the smallest of
the farms had been owned by Thomas Adamthwaite (not known who owned this
portion before 1716)
In 1733 the farm passed
to William Adamthwaite.
In 1741 this farm also
passed over to William Adamthwaite who already owned the larger farm.
This William died in
1755 and the two farms passed to William Dixon who left them to his sons
in 1766, but in 1766 Richard Dixon (a son) transferred them back to
William Adamthwaite who seems to have been the son of the William who
had transferred the farm to Dixon.
This William sold the
largest farm to John Relph in 1766. In 1790 he appears to have
been a tenant farmer at Stenerskeugh and then he left Ravenstonedale
shortly afterwards.
William had two sons,
Edward (b. 1771) and Matthew (b. 1778) and two daughters, Jane (died as
an infant) and Margaret (b. 1781).
Edward and Matthew
walked to London where Edward’s family grew in the Paddington area (see
the YELLOW line on the tables) – nothing is known about Matthew.
This is now the only farmhouse at
Adamthwaite - over the door is carved "TA1684"
By the time of the 1841 census, the only
Adamthwaite left in Ravenstonedale was Mary Ann, daughter of William and
Mary (Knewstubb).
Right > the spinning gallery at the
Farm is one of only a few remaining in the district (another is at Yew
Tree Farm where Beatrix Potter lived). It was used by the women for
spinning and for drying the wool.
