Memories from the Ainsty

Joan Coulthard, whose grandfather William Warnes was a groom at Nun Appleton Hall, and whose father David Arrand was a chauffeur there, has written a marvellous chapter for the book about life at Nun Appleton from 1920 to 1940.

The house and estate was bought in 1920 by Bradford textile manufacturer Sir Benjamin Dawson. There was a full complement of staff at the hall back then, Joan writes – including her own mother Grace, who was a nursemaid, as well as a cook, a housekeeper, housemaids, parlour maids, a butler, a kitchen maid, a scullery maid and a boot boy. And they were just the “indoors” staff.

Outside, there were dairymaids, gardeners, the gamekeeper, groom and joiner.

The estate had its own fire engine – which had to be pressed into action when a fire broke out in part of the old stables that had been converted for estate workers to enjoy socials and dances.

“A major fire after a ‘sausage and mash’ supper and dance organised by The Junior Imperial League (later to become The Young Conservatives) was disastrous,” Joan writes.

“The estate’s own fire engine attempted to put out the fire, but everything was destroyed. Only the shell of the building remained.” Out of the ashes of that fire, however, a theatre was built, which provided a speaking platform and entertainment centre for local people.

When war broke out, the Hall was taken over by the London Maternity Hospital – and the Dawson family moved to the theatre, living in a flat above the kitchen. “They managed with the help of only a cook, Mrs Trappe, during this time,” Joan notes.

The Theatre itself, once used for social events, was “packed with furniture, including two grand pianos (one was a Steinway and one a Bechstein) and the contents of the library,” Joan writes. “Paintings and pictures were hung all around the room.”

German prisoners of war and some Italians came to work daily on the estate from the camp outside Tadcaster – as did a number of British conscientious objectors, who lived at Red Lodge on the estate.

“Another valuable source of labour was the Land Army with its complement of girls from all walks of life,” Joan writes.

Some were local and others came from further afield. They worked in the fields, at the farm, in the walled kitchen garden, in the dairy, and also cared for the poultry.”

During the war itself, many local men from the Ainsty were exempt from service because agriculture was a protected occupation. Some, such as agricultural worker Norman Ellis, regretted not being able to go and fight.

“I was disappointed, because all my friends had gone,” he says, in a conversation recorded for the book.

“My brother went and was at D- Day, but he came home with shellshock, it was sad to see him like that. We had to keep quiet at home after he came back.”

For those who couldn’t go to war, there was always the Home Guard, known locally as the Local Defence Volunteers, or LDV (which stood for ‘look, duck and vanish’ according to some locals). The LDV was regarded with tolerant amusement by Jackson Hudson.

He wasn’t a member at first, he says, in another conversation recorded in the book.

“But it was a good Sunday morning out: we’d have never stopped Gerry over here. We used to go to different places on exercise. We did things like take Naburn Swing Bridge. It was just like Dad’s Army.”

With, at least initially, Sir Benjamin Dawson of Nun Appleton Hall in the Captain Mainwaring role as commander of the unit. “But he didn’t know the right end of a rifle and eventually Mr Tait from Bishopthorpe took over.”

• Living History In The Ainsty, edited by Marjorie Harrison, is published by the Ainsty Villages History Group, priced £7.50. It is available from the Barbican Bookshop, in Fossgate, York.