Boxer Peacock’s Cottage, Arkengarthdale

Another post from last Thursday’s jaunt from Arkengarthdale, when I walked straight past one of the curiosities in the dale. On the track up from Fremington, I spotted what looked like a broken bit of Victorian drainpipe stuck in the bank, overflowing with water. I gave it barely a glance and walked on. Fool.

Back home, I discovered it was actually a rather fine salt-glazed stoneware drinking fountain and hand basin, set up by Boxer Peacock himself — the last man to call this glorious ruin home. The water feeding it comes from a nearby spring, said never to freeze. Peacock, it turns out, was something of a man of taste. He also hung his shaving mirror in the branches of an overhanging hazel tree. As you do.¹‌Boxer Peacock’s wash basin – SWAAG ID Record Number 905. Swaledale and Arkengarthdale Archaeology Group (SWAAG) <https://new-swaag.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Vernacular-record-2.pdf> [accessed 6 March 2026]

The farmhouse, with its attached byre, is mapped as Castle House Farm and dates from the early 1700s. Built of coursed rubble with a stone slate roof that has seen better days, it now serves mainly as a rather grand sheep shelter. Generations of the woolly tenants have left their mark — their deposits inside rise almost to the old mantlepiece.²‘Heritage Gateway – Results’. 2026. Heritagegateway.org.uk <https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=2118929&resourceID=420> [accessed 6 March 2026]

But who exactly was Boxer Peacock? Records are thin on the ground. One Joseph Peacock of Arkengarthdale obtained a game licence in 1853 — could that be a connection? Same family, surely. Beyond that, the man remains a complete mystery, remembered only by the ruin he left behind and the rather splendid washbasin he installed 300 metres or so from it.³Sheffield Independent – 01 October 1853 https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000181/18531001/002/0002

I could kick myself for not having a closer look the basin. I will not make that mistake twice.

• 1
  ‌Boxer Peacock’s wash basin – SWAAG ID Record Number 905. Swaledale and Arkengarthdale Archaeology Group (SWAAG) <https://new-swaag.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Vernacular-record-2.pdf> [accessed 6 March 2026]
• 2
  ‘Heritage Gateway – Results’. 2026. Heritagegateway.org.uk <https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=2118929&resourceID=420> [accessed 6 March 2026]
• 3
  Sheffield Independent – 01 October 1853 https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000181/18531001/002/0002