A.O.S.A. 2003 ANNUAL REPORT

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During my time at Ayton in the late forties and early fifties I never gave any thought to the origins of the site or the buildings, assuming that they were all purpose built to house the school and its activities, although they had obviously been added to over the years. It had never crossed my mind why the range of buildings below Rawdon House and the yard behind them were called the' Mill and Millyard' - it was what they were called , like the 'Boys Schoolroom' or the 'New Block.'

It wasn't until last year when Gill Jackson and I were talking on the phone on the subject of the origins of the taddy tank that she told me that the building had been a linseed mill prior to the coming of the school. It was this information that made me suggest that the taddy tank might have been a retting pool, as retting is part of the process of turning the flax plant (from which linseed comes) into linen. After the plant has been cut the stems are either laid on the ground for about three weeks to 'dew' rett, or placed in water. The retting breaks down the flesh of the plant and makes for the easier separation of the fibres, which after further processing become the linen thread. It is basically a rotting process (I would imagine the two words are from the same root ), which removes all the oxygen from the water and causes pollution and a revolting smell.

Unfortunately the word 'retting' seemed to have filtered through my beard and sounded to Gill like 'wrecking', hence the note to that effect at the end of Sonia Wade's Presidential address in the 2002 magazine! This little misunderstanding led to Gill lending me a copy Dan O' Sullivan' s excellent history of the village¹, which has enabled me to understand quite a bit about the school site, both before and after its acquisition by Thomas Richardson in 1841.

There are records of linen being produced in the village as far back as the 14th century, but while the spinning and weaving (as in the other textile industries) were mainly cottage industries, the production of the fibre and particularly the finishing and bleaching of the cloth was more of a factory process. It was this process that a Quaker named Philip Hesleton was carrying out at the junction of Station (then Dyke’s) Lane and Little Ayton Lane. The bleaching area was situated on the north side of the lane on the site of where most of us recall the 'San.' to be, while the related linseed mill was across the road adjacent to the waterpower made available by the beck. I had always assumed that the High Dam and Lake, together with the flume that ran down from them, were created to power the turbine which generated electricity for the school at one stage. It is probable that the concrete flume was a replacement of an earlier stone one, therefore it would seem likely that this whole water management scheme originated for powering the linseed mill and was only utilised later for generating electricity. The 1892 O.S. map does not show the existence of the lake so that must have come later to act as a reservoir for the generating scheme.

Philip Hesleton owned the house on the Green next to the Meeting House that generations of Aytonians knew as the Headmaster's. This was sold in 1841, together with 74 acres of land, to Thomas Richardson as the site for his 'North of England Agricultural School', and included land on the far side of the lane behind Harbottle’s Joinery, as it was here that the school farm was situated. Philip Hesleton was either very perceptive or just lucky in disposing of his mill and linen processing business at this particular time, as both industries were on the decline in the middle of the nineteenth century. Probably the decline had already started by 1841, in which case it was just plain commercial common sense, as it earned him £6,500 !

The other industry that was carried out in the district was the tanning of leather. I certainly knew that the swimming baths were the site of a tanning pit, and it would seem that this was part of a tanyard operated by the Martin family. This was still operating at the time the school land was purchased, indeed, Isaac Martin, whose son (also Isaac) was running the yard then, was the brother-in-law of Philip Hesleton! Isaac junior died in 1843, and left the business to his daughter Betsy, who continued to run it until her retirement in 1861, when it was run on her behalf by another member of the Martin family, William. However only two years later a disastrous fire almost totally destroyed the premises, and it would seem likely that that was the end of the business, as it had certainly ceased by 1871. Miss Martin's cottage was later pulled down to make way for an extension of the school buildings. Remnants of the wooden tan pits were unearthed when the foundations for the new sports hall were built in 1980. The Jackson family (possibly related to our ‘Tanner’) had a business in what is now Yarm Lane, which was still in operation in 1881, but it may not have lasted many years beyond this date. A teenage apprentice at that time, one Thomas Langstaffe, said later that he had to leave the tanning industry at the end of his apprenticeship in favour of work in agriculture due to lack of opportunity.

Tony Browne (1947-53)

¹Dan O’Sullivan, Great Ayton – a History of the village. Pub. 1996 by D. O’Sullivan

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