Now! Then! James Lonsdale Broderick (45) makes his final journey, from Hawes over Buttertubs Pass to a grave above the family farm near Crackpot (Swaledale)

28 December 1886: James Lonsdale Broderick (45) makes his final journey, from Hawes over Buttertubs Pass to a grave above the family farm near Crackpot (Swaledale)

The Broderick farm at Spring End and James Broderick’s resting place at Birk Hill (Ordnance Survey 1914).

Ella Pontefract. 1934. Swaledale. London: J.M. Dent and Sons. Get it:

Excerpt

A large house on the left of the lane is Spring End, a home since Elizabethan days of the Broderick family, one of whom has the peculiar epitaph on his tomb in Muker churchyard. Resting as it does close under the fells, for six months of the year the sun never reaches the back of the house. The front stands bravely up to the weather. An ancestor of the Brodericks planted two Dutch elms near the house to show his allegiance to the Orange family. Some years ago, when the interior was being altered, one of the dividing walls was found to be double, and a skeleton had been built in between; its story is unknown. The name of the family shows them to be of Scandinavian descent, their ancestors probably coming into the dale with the Norse chief, Gunnar, who named Gunnerside. They remained for many generations yeomen farmers. During the last century one of them expressed a wish to be buried on a ridge of the fells behind Spring End, over which he had roamed, and which he had loved, as a boy. He died in Hawes on 22nd December 1886, and from there a few days later, in bitterly cold weather, his funeral procession started out. On the Buttertubs Pass it was overtaken by a blizzard, and snow lay thickly. It was a wild journey, but the mourners struggled on, to be met at Muker by the vicar with the news that the bishop had forbidden him to read the burial service over one who had deliberately planned to be buried in unconsecrated ground. In a hailstorm, relays of bearers carried the coffin to the grave on a level terrace of the hill, and a brother of the dead man read the service. It is known as Birk Hill. No rails or inscription mark the grave, simply a mound with a heap of stones at its head.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Abbreviations

Comment

I think Ms Pontefract has confused the dates of death (22 December) and burial (which I’m taking to be her 28 December). Her Elizabethan claim is also interesting – English Heritage thinks Spring End farmhouse and Joe House are both late 18th century. I suspect that the stone memorial (page has more info on JLB) was already there by the time the book went to press. The “peculiar epitaph” in Muker churchyard is not on the gravestone of James’s brother, Luther Broderick (1847-1933), but on the one Luther composed for his parents, Edward (1807-75) and Ann (1819-77):

I want the world to know,
That I know,
That there is no fame,
That all life is co-equal,
That deficiency of intellect is the why
of deficiency in action.

That everything is right,
That every atom vibrates
At its proper time, according
to the true results of the forces
that went before.

Hints of Luther’s life and struggles may be found in this index to the Broderick papers at the Richmondshire Museum. I hope someone will tell me more about this remarkable family.

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Original

ACROSS THE VALLEY TO HARKERSIDE
THE road going up the dale from Gunnerside crosses the Swale over a bridge which slants conveniently upwards with the hill. Just below this bridge Gunnerside Beck empties itself into the river. Above it a narrow lane turns to the left to run along the hill on the south side of the river to Summer Lodge and Crackpot.

A large house on the left of the lane is Spring End, a home since Elizabethan days of the Broderick family, one of whom has the peculiar epitaph on his tomb in Muker churchyard. It is still owned by the family, though now only used as a holiday residence, and one end is a farm-house. Resting as it does close under the fells, for six months of the year the sun never reaches the back of the house. The front stands bravely up to the weather. An ancestor of the Brodericks planted two Dutch elms near the house to show his allegiance to the Orange family. Some years ago, when the interior was being altered, one of the dividing walls was found to be double, and a skeleton had been built in between; its story is unknown.

The name of the family shows them to be of Scandinavian descent, their ancestors probably coming into the dale with the Norse chief, Gunnar, who named Gunnerside. They remained for many generations yeomen farmers. Some of their descendants have had unusual ideas about their tombs and burial-places. During the last century one of them expressed a wish to be buried on a ridge of the fells behind Spring End, over which he had roamed, and which he had loved, as a boy. He died in Hawes on 28th December 1886, and from there a few days later, in bitterly cold weather, his funeral procession started out. On the Buttertubs Pass it was overtaken by a blizzard, and snow lay thickly. It was a wild journey, but the mourners struggled on, to be met at Muker by the vicar with the news that the bishop had forbidden him to read the burial service over one who had deliberately planned to be buried in unconsecrated ground. In a hailstorm, relays of bearers carried the coffin to the grave on a level terrace of the hill, and a brother of the dead man read the service. In 1932, another Broderick was buried there, but his remains were first cremated.

It is a peaceful spot, this terrace above the house, sheltered and nearly hidden by a border of birch-trees. It is known as Birk Hill. No rails or inscription mark the grave, simply a mound with a heap of stones at its head.

456 words.