Dovenby – a rural village past and present
A brief history of the significance of Dovenby Hall with its pele tower is shown in the newspaper article, entitled “a rather special mulberry tree”, reference to which can be seen on the songsheet, the originals of which remain in the scrapbook.
The said Squire Dykes (Thomas Dykes) did in fact escape on the occasion when he hid in the tree, but as is recorded in the newspaper article, he was eventually captured, and his captor, a parliamentarian called Salkeld, who was the occupier of Cockermouth castle at the time, sought by whatever means to persuade him to renounce his allegiance to the crown.
He did not change sides, giving rise to the family motto “Prius frangitur quam flectitur” (loosely translated as “you will have to break me before I shall bend”), and reference to this can be seen again on the family tree, by the inked * about half way down on the left.
Thomas Dykes it is said perished in the bottleneck dungeon of the castle, aptly named since once incarcerated therein, there was no way out.
Presumably matters were patched up between the Dykes and the Salkelds since it can bee seen that his Thomas’s son Leonard married a Salkeld daughter!
The Mulberry tree, and a gatepost of Warthole Hall still exist (as far as I know) in a field between Gilcrux village and Wardhall Guards Farm, and a cutting of that tree can be seen in the grounds of Dovenby Hall. Moreover, a cutting of that tree (the Dovenby Hall tree) was cultivated by my mother, and (again, as far as I know) can be seen in the garden of a bungalow which used to be called Dolfinby and xvas owned by the family, across the road from this school.
These photographs of the church at Bridekirk are reproduced from originals in the family scrapbook. It is interesting to compare them with views of the building today, surrounded as it is with many beautiful and mature trees.
Given the role that FLB Dykes had in the financing and construction of the new church in the 1860’s, it is interesting to speculate on why it was that his design for a church in memory of his mother – see the photograph of the model -was not adopted.
It is certainly arguable that his building is the more interesting and attractive, but possibly it is precisely because his building was the more ornate, that the present building was built instead.
The church is of course famous for its Saxon font, which is very well documented in local records.
As can be seen from the handwritten caption by Joseph Ballantine Dykes, whose signature appears at the head of the right hand column of names, the menu is that of a dinner which was held to celebrate the publication of a feasibility study for the Channel Tunnel in 1959.
Joseph Ballantine Dykes was a civil engineer, specialising in railways, whose work took him far and wide around the world.
He never expected to inherit the family estates at Dovenby from his father, my grandfather, but the untimely death in action of his elder brother in Egypt in 1942, meant that the responsibility of carrying on the family tradition would fall to him.
He had read engineering before the outbreak of war, served with distinction as an Officer in the Royal Engineers during the war, and made it his career upon the cessation of hostilities.
The construction method suggested in the Channel Tunnel report, with which he was heavily involved, was, as far as I can recall, the one finally adopted – ie of two main rail tunnels bored beneath the sea-bed with a communication/service tunnel bored between them.
As the jottings and doodles show, my father was optimistic that the “chunnel” would soon be built.
As it was, we have had to wait for another 35 years for the completion of an enterprise which was actually first mooted before the Napoleonic wars, but which was shelved for security reason, since it was thought -perhaps with some justification – that Napoleon would use it as a means to invade.
Sadly my father did not live to ride through the tunnel, but perhaps it was as well, since he would never have had the pleasure of seeing a steam train negotiate the journey. (see jottings!)
I cannot help feeling that to invite French Engineers to a dinner held at the Union Club which once had its premises -in 1824 – in Trafalgar Square – could be said to have been a little insensitive. Perhaps in view of this it is even more miraculous what was eventually achieved -a tribute to the “entente cordiale”!
In the year 1994 in which another Miss Dykes (my eldest daughter Emily – a Norland Nanny) achieves her majority, it seemed appropriate to include in this display a song written for one of her forebears on a similar occasion. (I have promised not to sing it to her on her birthday, though one could hardly fail to agree with its sentiments).
The Dykes family, formerly of Warthole (now Wardhall) lived at Warthole Hall until they acquired by marriage the Dovenby estate and Dovenby Hall around 1807.
The Warthole Dykes, now of Dovenby, seem to have been a pretty irresponsible lot, and it is of (probably) Fretcheville Dykes, of Warthole, that it is said that having staked his wife in a gambling session (and lost) he staked the Warthole estate on the final hand of a game of cards.
He is reputed to have said at the time
“Up now with a deuce or else a tray,
or Warthole’s gone for ever and aye
Subsequent family history suggests that the two or three needed did turn up, and the estates were saved. The famous words can be seen carved into the stone on the east wall of Dovenby Hall.
One wonders whether – in this emancipated world – what today’s feminists would say about his priorities!
Interestingly the Dykes family history as lobster fishermen on the Solway is reflected in the fact that the Ballantine Dykes family coat of arms has as it supporters the lobster and the gryphon – the lobster being, I understand, the only heraldic lobster in existence.
The acquisition of Dovenby can clearly be seen from the coloured copy of the family tree fourth shield from the bottom on the left, where the marriage of Fretcheville Dykes of Warthole to Mary Brougham, daughter of John Brougham and sister of Peter Lamplugh (formerly Brougham) of Dovenby Hall is recorded.
Note the way that history takes a full circle insofar as their daughter Mary Dykes, having married Joseph Dykes Ballantine, was (at the time of the printing of the family tree) the present Mrs Mary Ballantine Dykes of Dovenby Hall and is the present Head of the family.
My mother is Mrs Mary Ballantine Dykes, and although not of Dovenby Hall, is indeed the head of the Family!