William Wray - 1589
By Andrew Hutchinson
The earliest written record of a house at Hob Green is to a William Wray possessing a “messuage copyhold in Hobgreene” in 1589. He died there on the “9 daye Aprill 1599”. William Wray was a mercer, selling cloth in Ripon to the local gentry. A record of his trading exists in the form of a book kept by him and his son, also called William Wray. The book covers not only his trade details but other personal matters including a detailed inventory of all the “goods & chattels” owned by him at the time of his death.
The inventory describes the rooms within the house with a list of the contents of each room and a description of the outbuildings and their various contents. There is also a list of his livestock. Hob Green at the time was a small farm, with the number of livestock being typical of many of the farms in nearby Nidderdale.
Did William Wray have a garden? Almost certainly, self-sufficiency was vital to survive. Farmers of the Elizabethan age will have grown many of the vegetables, fruit and flowers that we know today. Vegetables grown included artichokes, cabbages, turnips, broad beans, Rounceval peas, pumpkins, skirrets (a multi-forked parsnip like vegetable) radishes, carrots, parsnips, onions, garlic, leeks, spinach, sorrel, lettuce as well as numerous herbs used for cooking and for medicinal purposes. Asparagus, kidney beans, runner beans, cardoons, horseradish and the potato would have been unknown to William Wray. The potato arrived in London in 1597 but it would have been some time before it reached North Yorkshire.
Fruit would have included gooseberries, currants, apples, pears, damsons, quinces and bullaces. The Elizabethan garden would have included both ornamental flowers such as roses, carnations, wallflowers and geraniums as well as flowers grown for salad use such as cowslips, violets and primroses and flowers grown for the kitchen such as harefoot, penny-royal and marigolds.
Sadly the inventory of William Wray’s possessions does not list the typical garden tools that might hang in our potting sheds today. He did have “three axes and a hacke”, the latter being described as a strong two-toothed pickaxe, perhaps tools of the overgrown and heavy soiled garden! The inventory also contains the phrase “all other husselment”, loosely translated as odds and ends, as part of the contents of the barn. Surely his favourite garden fork and weedhook were part of his “husselment”.
The Reynard Family
1687 - 1948
By Andrew Hutchinson
The house passed through various hands during the 17th century, including William Wray (the younger), John Southwell and Robert Markenfield, before in 1687 being sold by George and Margaret Usher (the latter being one of the daughters of Robert Markenfield) to William and Robert Reynard. The property is described as “Hobgreene House with all edifices gardens and orchards”. The Reynards were yeoman farmers from nearby Scarrow, part of the parish of Ripley.
So began a period of ownership for the Reynard family which lasted for 261 years. The Reynard family over the next two centuries built most of what now exists at Hob Green and laid out the gardens.
On Robert Reynard’s death in 1723 the property passed to his son William. William would have been part of a yeoman class aspiring to acquire the status of a gentleman. In October 1745 he enlisted in Captain Danby’s Company of the Yorkshire Association against the Scottish rebellion. He must have comeback unscathed for in the following years, he took on various local roles, including acting as a Commissioner for the enclosure of Bishop Thornton Moor in 1758. In the Enclosure Award, William is described as “Gentleman” so had made the transition from yeoman by then. He also acted for Edward Norton as his Steward and acted as an arbitrator in a dispute between George Horner of Woodale and his tenants at Nidderdale in 1763. The latter may have had an important influence on the future of the Reynard family, for William’s son, also William in 1764 married Mary the daughter and one of the heirs of George Horner. The Horner family were a wealthy yeoman family from Nidderdale with other members of the family being successful merchants in Hull.
During the 18th Century the Reynards added to their land ownerships around Markington and Bishop Thornton thereby cementing the transition to the gentleman class. William and Mary’s eldest son Horner Reynard inherited the Hob Green Estate in 1810, he himself having been active in acquiring land in the preceding years. Then in 1812, Horner Reynard inherited from his uncle Simon Horner, the brother of his mother Mary, a substantial estate at Sunderlandwick, near Driffield.
The Hutchinson Family
By Andrew Hutchinson
The Hutchinson family trace their roots to Alston in Cumbria, where they had lead mining and farming interests. William Hutchinson and his nephew Teasdale Hutchinson moved to Pateley Bridge in the late 1790s to prospect for lead around Greenhow Hill. Teasdale Hutchinson built Grassfield House in Pateley Bridge in 1810 and lived there until he died in 1845. His son Hanley took over the lead mining interests. The family were mainly involved in the Cockhill-Sunside mines but took shares in other mines around the area. They also had a lead rolling mill in Pateley Bridge. Hanley lived at Grassfield House until moving to Ripon in 1884.
Hanley’s son William qualified as a solicitor in 1876 and practised in Ripon. William Hutchinson had two sons, Hanley and Charles. Hanley qualified as a solicitor and joined his father in 1914 but was killed in France during the First World War. In 1919 William Hutchinson joined up with Robert Buchanan to form the partnership of Hutchinson & Buchanan. Charles Hutchinson also qualified as a solicitor and joined his father in the firm in 1926. He married Mary Cheston in April 1932 and in February 1933 they had a son Michael.
In need of a home for his wife and new son, Charles took a 10 year lease of Hob Green in 1933. He also took a lease of the sporting rights over the Hob Green estate. The lease of the sporting rights was to start on 1 February 1933 and the lease of the house was to start on 1 May 1933. Does this suggest that the shooting was more important than having a house to live in! Certainly shooting was a lifelong passion for Charles Hutchinson. The lease was later extended to a 15 year term.
The lease describes the property as “the capital mansion house called Hob Green, Markington with the out-offices stables coach houses kitchen gardens and grounds vinery hothouses and other appurtenances”. The lease included the chauffeur’s cottage and the gardener’s cottage. There was an obligation on the tenant to “keep the gardens and hothouses properly stocked planted cleaned and preserved, to keep the glass in the hothouses in good repair and well and sufficiently to preserve all plants shrubs fruit trees and other trees now growing in the gardens and hothouses”. The basic layout of the garden was the same as it is today, the last major feature of the garden, the Long Border, having been added around 1900. The main greenhouse is still standing although the height and the width were reduced a number of years ago. Large cast-iron pipes from the boiler in the house heated the greenhouse. There were further greenhouses, now demolished, at the far end of the kitchen garden. If there was a vine when Charles Hutchinson took over, it is no longer growing today.
It may be the case that Charles had some work to do to get the garden into a good state of cultivation. Photographs from 1934 show the long border only sparsely planted and the soil appears very stony. However, from a photograph of 1937 the long border has matured with a fine example of Echinops showing prominently.
On taking the lease of Hob Green the property had its own generator to provide electricity. In 1934 Charles Hutchinson arranged for a mains supply to be provided, paying the yearly sum of £38 for the privilege of the connection and 3 1/2d a unit for all electricity supplied. The property was not connected to mains water but had its own private borehole.
During the Second World War the house was requisitioned by the army, and Charles and Mary moved back to the family house in Ripon. In order to keep the gardens going Charles entered into an agreement with the Ripon Spa Hotel Limited that for a rent of £6 pounds they would lease the “fruit, vegetable and flower garden situated Hob Green, Markington together with the 3 acre field now occupied and used for vegetable production”. The tenant was to employ at least one full time gardener and was to be entitled to the production from all fruit trees, vegetables and plants and stocks of seeds. The tenant was to have use of all tools and garden implements but if these were lost or broken or irreparably worn out they were to be replaced by the tenant. Not knowing how long the war may continue, the lease was for an initial period of one year with an option for a further year.
In April 1945 Charles and Mary had a daughter, Virginia. The family with their new addition, returned to live at Hob Green after the war.
In 1948, on expiry of the original lease, Charles negotiated to purchase the house together with the rest of the Hob Green estate. The estate by then comprised approximately 1250 acres split into twelve farms, woodlands, a public house and a joiners shop in addition to the main house, gardens and cottages. Four of the farms were immediately sold to their respective occupiers as well as the public house and the joiners shop. Charles Hutchinson purchased the rest of the estate extending to 905 acres for the sum of £28,900.
A valuation of the property carried out in 1948 describes Hob Green as ‘a detached stone built residence with a Westmorland slate roof and is of very considerable charm. The condition of maintenance both outside and within reflects heavy capital expenditure. The size and design is such as to obviate inconvenience and cost in running and there is no doubt that these facts, combined with the beauty of its situation and outlook, would command a very ready sale on the open market.” The valuation continues with a description of the main rooms in the house making note of the “exceptionally comfortable staff quarters and bedrooms with bathroom and sanitary accommodation”, no doubt something for Charles to fall back on if ever in dispute with his staff! The gardens and grounds are described as being “of outstanding character and consist of some 2 acres of well designed and heavily stocked flower and kitchen gardens with two tennis lawns and adequate glass (heated). Also two paddocks.” In total an area with the house of just over 8 acres. The use of the word “adequate” seems to imply that a minimum amount of greenhouses were still expected with a property of this type in 1948.