… on the way up to Urra Moor. Solid enough to bare my weight … almost. It was fun until the crust gives way and I end up with a face plant.
The ruined dry-stone wall marks the boundary between the parishes of Bilsdale Midcable and Ingleby Greenhow and a dressed stone declares the land ownership. ‘Foulis’ on the east face and ‘Feversham’ on the west, both written vertically.
There is a date inscribed below the Foulis, ‘1848’, when William Duncombe, the 2nd Baron Feversham owned most of Bilsdale.
The Foulis refers to the Lady Mary Foulis who had inherited the manor of Ingleby Greenhow on the death of her father, Sir William Foulis, 8th Baronet, who had died in 1845. She was just 19 years old.
It must have been quite daunting to be suddenly thrust as a major landowner at such a tender young age. Her mother had died in 1842. But I guess, as an only child, she would have been somewhat prepared. Nevertheless, in 1850 she married Philip Sidney, 2nd Baron de Lisle and Dudley who changed his name to Sidney-Foulis, in accordance with her father’s will.
As an aside, I did a quick search in local newspapers for the name ‘Foulis’ and it turns out there were many reports, largely because old man Foulis was a magistrate dealing with cases of larceny, poaching etc., was frequently guest of honour at various functions, and other activities due to him being part of the gentry. But there was one report that did intrigue me and I think it worth telling. It appeared in the Cleveland Repertory & Stokesley Advertiser on 1st February 1845, the year of his death. I’ve kept the original spelling:
A HUGE POTATOE
A huge potatoe, known in this neighbourhood by the term “White Irish” was grown last summer on the farm of Mr Beckwith Seaton, the property of Sir Wm. Foulis, Baronet; and weighed full four pounds, – a greater weight than we have ever heard of a potatoe weighing, grown in any part of England.
That’s the same as a couple of bags of sugar isn’t it. That’ll make some cracking chips.
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