Dovenby Village

Click the menu above to see items, some pages complete, some pages under construction.

Please send any pictures, audio, text to Peter at Lanefoot or come and see me.

Any quality of picture is OK at this stage mobile phone pics are fine, though normallyplease hold the camera with the long side at the top – landscape.

Please write your personal recollections and thoughts about the village and its surrounding area – you thoughts of life in the village of now are the history of the future.

Record things now, or they will be gone – for examples of things that have gone that should have been photographed:

The ramp down to the watering troughs opposite Trough House Farm, and the stone troughs there – now with a wall and the troughs overgrown, hidden and needing to be cleared.

The packhorse bridge on the way through the fields – the 2009 flood swept away the old tree on the downstream side and the roots could have dislodged bridge stones, so it may not last forever.

The ridge and furrow field behind the houses that you walk over – did you realise the historical significance, it may not be protected.

There was a phone box in the village, in two different locations – where? One was used for illegal activities and our attentive residents helped to get the criminals dealt with.

Some houses have listed building protection, but the history behind those houses may be lost forever soon.  The original deeds to houses contained much history but modern sales have only a computer record so the history in the original deeds may be lost.  If you have the deeds and they are of interest then please contact me.

At least four houses in the village were once barns, one of which had a threshing machine with its shaft protruding through the barn wall for a tractor belt to connect and turn it.  I have the shaft, but which of you had the barn?  If anyone has photos of the renovation of the barns into the high quality accommodation of today then please send the photos to me.

I will include Bridekirk village because the Ballentyne Dykes of Dovenby Hall are commemorated there on wall plates.  The Sentinels of Bridekirk and the secrets of the runic message on the font are something to stimulate an interest in our local history which is so special. 

Please don’t keep your own knowledge and skill undeveloped, please contribute.  Please contact me to give help and suggestions.

Peter Nicholson, Lanefoot Cottage