Yafforth Atkinsons
Yesterday me and Jane and Elvis went to Yafforth, a tiny village near Northallerton in North Yorkshire.
As usual Elvis was quiet all day (juststood on the dashboard wagglin’) and Jane only offered her usual stuntedconversation (At the roundabout. Take. The. 3rd Exit….Turn around. Whenpossible.).
Anyway the last cencus I can find my great, great, great Grandad on is the1881 cencus, and at that time he was living in ‘Yafforth Village’ so I wenton the off chance that he might be buried in the church there. Yafforth really is very tiny (maybe quarter or half a mile square), and althoughI didn’t find a William Atkinson buried there, to my surprise the small graveyard did have lots of Atkinson graves.
Some of the graves were marked as late ‘of Yafforth Lodge’. The 1890 Bulmer’s Directory lists Atkinsons at both Yafforth Lodge and also The Old Hall. I went to see The Old Hall which was marked on my OS map (although it’s a private farm now), a lovely building from the 1600s.
I need to do some further work to find out if all these farming Atkinsons and those who are now in the graveyard are relatives. It seems likely giventhat 3g grandad moved there and was still Ag Lab’ing at 63 and also given that the place is so tiny.
I also went up Greta Bridge and Barnard Castle looking for any Bowron graves. I didn’t find anybut I did stumble accross Egglestone Abbey so I had a mooch round there. It was very impressive and also free, which appealed as I’m currently broke!
most of my family are buried in yafforth churchyard as well as several generations of my family were born there ie brittons, lightfoots and maybe be realted to the atkinsons as well