High Blean re-visited: High Blean B&B Bainbridge.

A recent guest to High Blean B&B, Bainbridge came armed with very interesting information about High Blean and with a desire to visit the birth place of her grandmother, who was born at High Blean in 1878.

The family had lived at Low Force Farm [pronounced Low Foss, locally] where the family coat of arms can still be found. However, due to the growing family, they had moved up to High Blean, as it had more room.

By the census of 1881 the family had moved out of High Blean, and appear to have built a house, which can still be seen on the map as Thwaite End House, which was the family name. [OS Map SD921 869]

The present owner of the land, on which the remains of Thwaite End House can be found, informed us that it was not uncommon to take down an existing building, due to subsidence or simply to enlarge the property, and then re-build it close by.

In this way, a house could move around a piece of land, leaving a trace of where it stood, if one knows what to look for.

High Blean, which was a farm until fairly recently, had by then  passed to the eldest son, who having been educated at Giggleswick  School was not really suited to the hard life of a farmer, so sold the farm and the Thwaite family then moved to Manchester.

Then by coincidence, we found out that the father of a landscape gardener, who is coming to do some work at High Blean, was  born at High Blean. We hope to find out some more when he comes to do the work and hopefully obtain some photos of the house.

Given the house was built in 1674 there must have been many births and deaths at the house over that period.

Here is a photo, which we think might be around 1911, showing the Hogson family but we are not sure of the year. It appears to show someone, who we thought might be the Doctor, visiting the house and we wondered, due to the position of where they are standing, if the two young women were servants.

Photo of the Hodgson family out side High Blean Raydaleside which is now High Blean B&B Bainbridge

Hodgson Family Circa 1911

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