Conclusion seems too definite a word for the author`s vague postulations. Envoi should convey the idea of a woolly uncertainty of view. I set out to throw light on why Marrs and Greens shifted their ground over such distances and so many times. The result is more like a glimmer of a candle than a searchlight.
No explanation is needed for the ‘local’ move from Welton to Bishop Burton. The availability of a relation`s farm, grass being greener on the other side of the fence, a lower rental – any of those would do.
Marrs
The moves of Thomas Norrison Marr from good arable land at Bishop Burton to Kingthorpe, and of Richard to Thornton-le-Dale in the 1840s are not so easy to justify. There was a certain amount of turmoil in the towns, reaction against machines, revolution in the air across Europe and perhaps doubt about the future of corn based arable farming such as TNM probably practiced, in the light of the Free Trade agitation, which culminated in cancellation of the Corn Laws in 1846.
The ‘Filey strip’ which included Kingthorpe and Thornton-le-Dale, and also Willerby Wold, Flotmanby and Hunmanby to which Marrs were to move later, was also good arable land, with a bias towards sheep. It was further from industry, so labour costs would have been lower, and rents were possibly lower too. Kingthorpe is on the higher land on the edge of the moors and had possibly been recently cleared from the Waste.
These might have been the factors deciding TNM to move. Richard, for whom TNM took the Farmanby Farm at Thornton-le-Dale, probably heeded his brother`s advice. From all one has heard of TNM he was somewhat overbearing, and financially successful with it.
In less than 10 years, TNM moved again to Wrangbrook, on the edge of the woollen-cloth-weaving and coal mining region at South Elmsall, close to Wakefield and Pontefract. This farm lies on the edge of the good arable land stretching up into the Plain of York. Maps show it as dairying and mixed farming.
My guess is that TNM realised that the swelling population of that industrial region needed milk and meat and potatoes for which the farm was well suited. Wages would be higher but rewards must have justified the increase. (2 of his men from Kingthorpe went with them to Wrangbrook). Harry had a cowman, which supports the dairying hypothesis; the considerable tonnage of potatoes, sold when they moved again in 1890, confirms that suggestion too. The still standing buildings imply their use for mixed farming in past years – though I must admit that when we called there in 1987 we did not examine them, for the house is no longer involved with tilling the land.
Greens
There is no need to explain William Green’s move from Church Fenton to Holderness. He was a fugitive from the law.(escaped from the Press Gang). His son (James) had no reason to move away from Holmpton, because the land was excellent arable farming with sheep, horses and cattle. It was not until the 1870s that his grandson (William) took himself off to Crofton, not very far from Wrangbrook.
He too must have realised that there were advantages in producing milk and other farm products for industrial workers. At that time cows had to be kept near their customers. With no refrigeration, or bottling or fast transport the milkman had to serve his customers by ‘float’ and churn and measure, as was still done when I was a boy in Cambridge. We know that Willliam James had a milk round: There is a photograph of him in that role to prove it. Henry Green’s peregrinations were probably partly motivated by calls of the spirit which took him to various circuits in Yorkshire, and latter to Cambridgeshire, but from a more earthly view, he too probably followed the example of his brother in going to Crofton from Holmpton. The excursion to Gembling may well have been inspired by the nearness there of his wife`s relations at Foxholes.
By the end of the 1880s the coalmines were encroaching on the Crofton and Wrangbrook areas. Farming prosperity was very depressed, as indeed was industry too, because our factories were already rivalled by Germany and America equipped with more modern machines. William James Green abandoned his thought of going to Illinois, but instead, in the late 1880s, moved to Highfields, Childerley Gate, near Cambridge, where arable and folded-sheep farming on heavier, good land at lower rental, with lower labour costs, was possible. Henry Green followed to Catley Park soon after.
In 1890 a railway line crossed the Wrangbrook farms, and the same financial stresses as William James Green endured at Crofton were also applied to Harry and Jo Marr, so they too decided to change their farming policy and they returned to the Filey strip, Harry to Flotmanby and Jo to Hunmanby.This phase lasted for 10 years for Jo, and 13 for Harry.
But there were poor harvests, and it is said that Jo at least had disagreements with his landlord. The arguments which caused the Greens to move 10 years earlier to Cambridgeshire would still seem sensible. So the Marrs moved again, Jo going to Malton, between Cambridge and Royston, in 1900, not very far from William James Green. Harry took the same step to Barton a few miles closer to Cambridge and to William, in 1903/04. Other Yorkshiremen took the same road.
For the final moves on which I will comment there is actual confirmation of the reasons behind them. Granville Green, William James` grandson says that WJG gave up arable farming in 1925, because the bottom had dropped out of the price of corn. So the family moved to the Midlands, near Redditch, to take up dairying at Beoley Hall farm. Edwin Green made a similar move to Tookeys Farm, Astwood Bank, south of Redditch a few years later. Horace Marr was to make the same change of farming policy when he left Barton to start a dairy herd at Springhall, Haslingfield. After WWII corn and crops like mechanically-harvested brussel sprouts were again profitable, and skilled cowmen scarce, so Horace switched back to arable farming at Leycourt, Great Gransden.
No crystal ball, but a glass of wine is at my side as I type out this final stanza. To my surprise there are still some farming Marrs. The Greens have all taken other paths. With my wine a drink a salute to our forefathers, I wish good luck to those still in the business and to those who follow different furrows. I drink to future generations over the next 200 years and wonder what they will bring? Won’t you join me in the toast?
Charles Press
24th June 1991.
