Clapham – the Anglian settlement
Clapham was an Anglian settlement, the home or enclosure of a elaborate door head of the reading room has the inscription' WCI 1701.' After passing to the Morleys it was bought by James Farrer in 1856. Spare rooms for rent is Spain
The crest of the Farrers is to be seen on the inn, the Flying Horseshoe, a mile and a quarter out of the village near Clapham station. A family of yeomen, they hailed from the neighbourhood of Halifax and from Chipping in Lancashire, and a Richard Farrer settled in Clapham in the early eighteenth century. His grandson, James, built the three storeyed Georgian house, Yew Tree House, on the west side of the village.
Oliver Farrer, Richard's great grandson, called Penny Bun Oliver because of his frugal habits whilst a legal junior in London, founded the family fortunes; and, buying first shooting rights on Ingleborough and then a farm here and another there, built up a large estate that eventually reached to the head of Ribblesdale. He converted a farmhouse into a shooting lodge, called Clapham Lodge, and this, added to from time to time, became the present Ingleborough Hall.
In the first years of the last century thousands of trees larch, spruce, pine, oak, and other varieties were planted in Clapham Gill. Later the two brothers, James William and Oliver Farrer, nephews of Penny Bun Oliver, carried out the major alterations, including the building of the front of the hall. About 1833 they completely transformed the top end of the village. They demolished several buildings, including the vicarage and tithe barn, which stood southeast of the church, rerouted roads, and made the tunnels that still lead under the grounds to the lanes to Austwick and Selside, and to the back door of the hall. They dammed Clapham Beck to flood eight acres of land for a lake in the grounds; and built a new vicarage on the west side of the village.
The Farrers were true lovers of their native countryside, and some of them were the first to explore the caves in those exciting early years of discovery. One branch of the family was given a peerage, and another counts amongst its members Reginald Farrer, the botanist. Owing to many deaths in recent years much outlying property has been sold, and the present owner, Dr John A. Farrer, came from Australia to succeed to the estate in 1953.
Ingleborough Hall has an elegant staircase and pillars of Dent fossil marble. During the last war it was occupied by a boys' preparatory school from Broadstairs, and in 1947 it was sold to the West Riding County Council for use as a school for delicate children. The kitchen garden, the famous shrubberies, and the moraine and water gardens, made by Reginald Farrer, were eventually sold by the council; and though still visited by botanists they have fallen into neglect.
The crest of the Farrers is to be seen on the inn, the Flying Horseshoe, a mile and a quarter out of the village near Clapham station. A family of yeomen, they hailed from the neighbourhood of Halifax and from Chipping in Lancashire, and a Richard Farrer settled in Clapham in the early eighteenth century. His grandson, James, built the three storeyed Georgian house, Yew Tree House, on the west side of the village.
Oliver Farrer, Richard's great grandson, called Penny Bun Oliver because of his frugal habits whilst a legal junior in London, founded the family fortunes; and, buying first shooting rights on Ingleborough and then a farm here and another there, built up a large estate that eventually reached to the head of Ribblesdale. He converted a farmhouse into a shooting lodge, called Clapham Lodge, and this, added to from time to time, became the present Ingleborough Hall.
In the first years of the last century thousands of trees larch, spruce, pine, oak, and other varieties were planted in Clapham Gill. Later the two brothers, James William and Oliver Farrer, nephews of Penny Bun Oliver, carried out the major alterations, including the building of the front of the hall. About 1833 they completely transformed the top end of the village. They demolished several buildings, including the vicarage and tithe barn, which stood southeast of the church, rerouted roads, and made the tunnels that still lead under the grounds to the lanes to Austwick and Selside, and to the back door of the hall. They dammed Clapham Beck to flood eight acres of land for a lake in the grounds; and built a new vicarage on the west side of the village.
The Farrers were true lovers of their native countryside, and some of them were the first to explore the caves in those exciting early years of discovery. One branch of the family was given a peerage, and another counts amongst its members Reginald Farrer, the botanist. Owing to many deaths in recent years much outlying property has been sold, and the present owner, Dr John A. Farrer, came from Australia to succeed to the estate in 1953.
Ingleborough Hall has an elegant staircase and pillars of Dent fossil marble. During the last war it was occupied by a boys' preparatory school from Broadstairs, and in 1947 it was sold to the West Riding County Council for use as a school for delicate children. The kitchen garden, the famous shrubberies, and the moraine and water gardens, made by Reginald Farrer, were eventually sold by the council; and though still visited by botanists they have fallen into neglect.
