Farmers, crofters, weavers, and forestry workers once lived in this area of Yorkshire. Now it’s a tourist hot spot and a magnet for those interested in photography, industrial history, and rural life.
Crux of the matter
Workshops within the museum hold a surprising number of old hand tools and equipment that are still familiar. But cruck-built farm dwellings are what I came to see here. My interest concerns four specific dwellings, each representing different periods of life on the North York Moors, all connected to farming.
The Tudor Manor House, Crofters Cottage, Stang End Farm and Pickards Cottage on show here all fit the brief perfectly. Preceding these would have been sod-built hovels made with whatever people could find to keep themselves dry.
The Manor House came from Harome, near Helmsley, and it is believed that parts of it (lintels and some of the decorative stonework) may date back to the early 1200s. Tree ring sequencing done on one of its timbers confirms felling around 1565, suggesting this house was built not too long after that.
Records at RFM confirm that the first occupants were John and Suzanne Morrett and it became a ‘safe house’ for persecuted Catholicscommunion at Easter. Ironic, because the Manor House was also the meeting place where such fines would normally have been doled out.
