On Tuesday evening [10 June] we were featured in the Channel 5 programme The Yorkshire Vet: At Home with the Greens. Jean Green visited our search room with The Yorkshire Vet, Peter Wright, to find out about the history of Stoneybrough Farm, Thirsk, where she and husband Steve have farmed for over 50 years.

You can watch the 60-minute programme online via this link to Channel 5’s catch up service (episode 1 of Season 2; registration required). We appear at the beginning of the show.

Jean looked back at the changes to the area surrounding the farm over the last 50 years, and the expansion of housing. The map below shows the farm, north of Thirsk, in 1912 surrounded by fields but there is now housing up to the southern boundary.

Extract showing Thirsk from the Ordnance Survey 25 inch to a mile map sheet 87-11, 1912 edition

We used records from our collections to trace the history of the farm including trade directories, deeds and maps. The earliest mention of the Stoneybrough property as a farm was in a trade directory of 1890, listing George Ellis as the farmer.

Extract from Bulmer’s History and Directory of North Yorkshire 1890, showing a list of farmers in Thirsk

We explored entries in the North Riding Register of Deeds to trace the ownership of Stoneybrough Farm back from when it was purchased by Steve Green’s family in 1944. It changed hands a number of times through sale and inheritance over the years. The property at the farm appears to have been built in the 1840s.

Peter and Jean explore the records in our Archives’ search room

We also located some deeds in the Bell family of Thirsk collection that show the purchase of some land at Stoneybrough in the early-18th century.

Deed from the Bell family collection, showing an extract relating to two acres of arable or meadow ground lying and being in a field called Stoney Brough being sold by William Bickers to Robert Bell on 15 June 1706 [ZAG 38]

We were pleased to be able to help Jean and Steve understand more about the history of their farm. If you would like to find out how to use the Archives to explore the history of your property, please see our online House History Guide.