From a Templars’ Retreat to a Cobbler’s Last Stand: The Many Lives of Brathwatte

I see a rock outcrop on the crest of a hill and feel a maddening urge to investigate. So, naturally, I ended up on Tor Hill Crags, gazing down over Westerdale.

Or, perhaps, that should be Camisedale—a name found in the Domesday Book, while Westerdale, notably, is not. The general presumption is that they are, in fact, the same. The name Westerdale surfaces for the first time around 1180 in a rather thoughtful charter by Bernard de Balliol, who, apparently seized by either sudden generosity or a concern for his soul, granted land to Rievaulx Abbey.

The crags provided a fine vantage point from which I could view the scattered remains of the medieval messuage of Brathwatte. On the extreme left lies Leath House, while just right of the centre is New House Farm. Between these two modern farms, split by the charmingly named gill of Stockdale, there were once seven distinct farmsteads, with another two lurking just out of sight this side of the beck. Quite a centre of settlement, or perhaps ‘hamlet’ is a better word.

The name Brathwatte means a ‘broad clearing,’ doubtless a grand effort to clear trees by men with far too much time on their hands. This area was once in the grip of the Knights Templar—those self-righteous devotees—who perhaps enjoyed the place as a retreat. It was ideally remote, sufficiently far from their Preceptory further down the dale. One can picture them, heads bowed, contemplating the deeper mysteries of existence, or perhaps, debating the finer points of accumulating wealth.

In 1771, a farm inventory recorded the area as Braithwaite Farm under the care of a certain William Barker. In the 1980s, the foundations of a rather sizeable building were unearthed during some building works at Leath Farm, leading to speculation that it might have been a Templar aula (hall) or, at the very least, a capella (chapel). Even later, someone with a good eye for antiquity noted a window mullion pressed into service as a door lintel at nearby Hill House.

One of those seven forsaken farmsteads stood up the gill of Stockdale, at a nominally higher elevation than both Leath House and New House Farm. Stockdale House, nowadays, is little more than some fallen stones choked with bracken, home to nought but memories. It was last occupied by a cobbler in the 1960s—a lonely vigil, no doubt, but then cobblers are accustomed to sole pursuits.

Source:

Wilson, Carol M. “Westerdale: the origins and development of a medieval settlement”.