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Kearby

Kearby maps

Historic maps of Kearby and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis.   View all Kearby maps

Kearby photos

We have no photos of Kearby, although we do have photos of these nearby places:

Kirkby Overblow| Harewood| East Keswick| Collingham| Spofforth| Wetherby| Thorner| Harrogate| Boston Spa| Roundhay| Clifford| Bramham| Adel| Far Headingley| Horsforth

Kearby area books

Displaying 1 of 28 books about Kearby and the local area.   View all books for this area

Memories of Kearby

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West Yorkshire memories

The Norfolk Family


I am John Howard Norfolk and although I have never lived in Yorkshire I know that my Norfolk family were farmers, millers and tanners in Harewood and nearby Wharfedale villages for many hundreds of years until the late 1800's. I have found records of my Norfolk family living in the parish going back to the early 1600's.

I have visited the church in Harewood and found several family graves - how alarming it is to see a tombstone with your own name, John Norfolk, on it !  

Some of the family lived in Harewood Mill and others in the nearby hamlet of Dunkeswick. Looking at the area in modern times at so much farmland and parkland it is hard to believe that in centuries past there were so many inhabitants and worshippers at the church.

I believe that the last of my family to be raised in the parish was my great-grandfather James Henry Norfolk who moved to Leeds and then London. If... Read more

Childhood Memories

I was born in Harewood in 1971 and lived 14 amazingly happy childhood years there!!
My father was born there in 1947 and he has amazing tales of his childhood too!!
My memories were of taking a picnic and heading out on adventures to "the rockies" with tunnels and caves; now I understand they were built by the landscape artist Capability Brown.  We would venture deep into the woods to "the roman pool" and catch tadpoles and newts, a few accidents with us falling in!!  Then before dusk it would be a trip to the castle to climb up the steep, spiral staircase to the top of the world!!!  I think it was falcons that used to nest up there, but it was a breathtaking view!!
These memories will never leave me!!!!

My Grandmother

I remember talk about my grandma May who worked at Harewood House about 1918-19, she became pregnant with my father who was born in 1920. She was banished from the House, forbidden ever to reveal the father's name.  i often wonder who my grandfather was!

Park Mount

Station Road c1955
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House on the right looks similar, as it did when I used to live there in the mid 70's - just missing the white wash look.

Balcony House

High Street c1955
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The taller light coloured house on the left, near the centre of the picture, is called Balcony House. The balcony was removed, I believe, in World War 11. The house was built in the mid 19th C by the local apothecary. I lived there c 1977-1982. The shop belonged to a butcher. The four small cottages are older than Balcony House, and behind them lies a farm belonging to the Spinks family.

Mill in Flames

Weir From Bridge 1909
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As a small boy around 1945/1947 walking home from Wetherby Church School I remember one day watching from the bridge as the mill was engulfed in flames and burning down. I wonder if anyone can provide the exact date or has a similar memory. I don't have any other memories of these schooldays other than sometimes being treated to a sticky bun from a small bakery just above the bridge. I was probably eating this whilst watching the flames. Having to walk home a mile or so down the Great North Road I remember seeing the Tanks and also special RAF lorries carrying Aircraft fuselage and wings. In fact because of the danger from this traffic we walked behind the safety of the park wall.

The School Bus Stop

Market Place c1965
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I was 11 years old in 1965 and had moved to Wetherby in 1963. I walked around Bernards store several times. The shop across the side street from Bernards Store was a small Newsagent. The lampost in front of it was the pick up point for Tadcaster Grammar School pupils school bus. When this photograph was taken I was a pupil at Wetherby High School, but from 1970 I went to Tadcaster Grammar School and was picked up from this point by the school bus at about 8:20 every morning. The white building just beyond the newsagent was a fish and chip shop if I remember correctly and the building beyond that was the Post Office.

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