Scarth Wood Moor

I’ve previously posted how Major Herbert Peake, of Bawtry Hall in Doncaster, gifted the 220 acres or so of Scarth Wood Moor upon the National Trust back in 1935¹‘220 Acres For The Nation’ (1935) Times, 13 Sep, 12, available: https://link-gale-com.ezproxy.is.ed.ac.uk/apps/doc/CS202976557/GDCS?u=ed_itw&sid=bookmark-GDCS&xid=ebe2b168 [accessed 23 Aug 2021]..

Peake has an interesting history. Born in 1859 to Henry Peake of Westholme in Lincolnshire, he wouldn’t have been exactly raised in the humblest of surroundings. His education took place at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and he later was called to the Bar at Lincoln’s Inn. An inheritance of a coal mine provided him with that golden opportunity, assuming the roles of Chairman and Managing Director at both Strafford Collieries Co. Ltd. and Airedale Collieries Ltd. in Castleford. All of this, of course, was in the era preceding nationalisation.

When the War kicked off, Peake spent a 18 months with the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry, earning the pips of a major, a rank he clung to even in retirement. Afterwards, he assumed the Chairmanship of the Yorkshire Pitwood Association, set up during the War to supply timber to Yorkshire’s collieries, and was also a Director of the Yorkshire Electric Power Co., and the Lincoln Wagon Co²Durham Mining Museum. 2014. ‘Durham Mining Museum – G. Herbert Peake, Maj.’, Dmm.org.uk <http://www.dmm.org.uk/whoswho/p002.htm> [accessed 16 December 2023]. Not one to pigeonhole himself, Peake also dabbled in matters of farming and land drainage.

Peake died at the venerable age of 91, at his then home at Sutton Hall, near Thirsk³‘Death of Major G. H. Peake | Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer | Thursday 12 October 1950 | British Newspaper Archive’. 2023. Britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000687/19501012/137/0006> [accessed 16 December 2023].

In 1895, he had married Miss Evelyn Dundas, eldest daughter of John Dundas from Thornburgh Hall, Leyburn, and the niece of the Marquis of Zetland⁴‘Marriage of Miss Evelyn Dundas. | York Herald | Saturday 29 June 1895 | British Newspaper Archive’. 2023. Britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000500/18950629/087/0011> [accessed 16 December 2023].

Ah, connections. The Dundas clan, the dynasty that traces its ascent chiefly to Sir Lawrence Dundas of Kerse, first baronet (1712–1781), who started as a purveyor of wine, transitioned into a military supplier, and subsequently burgeoned into one of Britain’s most formidable and affluent landholders. His vast domains spanned Scotland, Orkney and Shetland, Yorkshire, Hertfordshire, and London, accompanied by widespread involvements in commerce, finance, and considerable political sway⁵‘Summary of Lawrence Dundas, 1st Earl of Zetland | Legacies of British Slavery’. 2023. Ucl.ac.uk <https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/11279> [accessed 16 December 2023].

Dundas additionally procured two plantations in the West Indies, one in Dominica and the other in Grenada, reaping considerable recompense upon the abolition of slavery in 1833.

The enduring aftermath of slavery, akin to the intricate threads of mycelium, that subterranean web of fungal intrigue, which has permeated its insidious course throughout all facets of our society.

• 1
  ‘220 Acres For The Nation’ (1935) Times, 13 Sep, 12, available: https://link-gale-com.ezproxy.is.ed.ac.uk/apps/doc/CS202976557/GDCS?u=ed_itw&sid=bookmark-GDCS&xid=ebe2b168 [accessed 23 Aug 2021].
• 2
  Durham Mining Museum. 2014. ‘Durham Mining Museum – G. Herbert Peake, Maj.’, Dmm.org.uk <http://www.dmm.org.uk/whoswho/p002.htm> [accessed 16 December 2023]
• 3
  ‘Death of Major G. H. Peake | Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer | Thursday 12 October 1950 | British Newspaper Archive’. 2023. Britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000687/19501012/137/0006> [accessed 16 December 2023]
• 4
  ‘Marriage of Miss Evelyn Dundas. | York Herald | Saturday 29 June 1895 | British Newspaper Archive’. 2023. Britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000500/18950629/087/0011> [accessed 16 December 2023]
• 5
  ‘Summary of Lawrence Dundas, 1st Earl of Zetland | Legacies of British Slavery’. 2023. Ucl.ac.uk <https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/11279> [accessed 16 December 2023]