Journal entry – John Grey – 11 Dec 1833

Wednesday 11th December 1833



Being most anxious to proceed to let the farms now at liberty, I proceeded to make a round of those to the west ward, most of which I had taken opportunities to examine & value, since the time they were given up, taking Mr Hunt with me, that he might be acquainted with the covenants & ready to advise with or instruct respecting any new fences etc, to be hereafter made, which I find very useful.  I may be here proper for me to explain to the Board, why I have not yet in any instance, availed myself of the permission they kindly gave me, to call in the assistance of a land valuer to fix the rents.  In the first place, I know of no one in this immediate neighbourhood, whose opportunities of judging of the value of land, have been greater than my own, and in the second place, I have always considered it, & often see it proved, to be a dangerous & absurd thing to bring a land valuer, however celebrated, from a distance, to estimate the value of land in a district, upon a cursory survey, of whose produce & localities he had no previous experience.   I can hardly conceive of any Man being a good judge of the quality of land, the various management & rotation of Crops which it should be subjected to, & the expense attending its management, who has not considerable experience on the practice as well as knowledge of the theory of agriculture.  With both I may claim some acquaintance.  Having theorised with Book makers on the subject & revised in the proof Sheets, & made many additions etc to Sir John Sinclair’s Code of Agriculture, / 3rd edition / as well as having seen the practice of most of the Counties in Great Britain, but by far the best apprenticeship, I found to be in a close attention for many years in my life, to the management of 2000 Acres of land, a part of it rented and a part my own.  Although I have never been what is technically called a land valuer, I have very often been the Arbitrator, in a matter of dispute or reference, where the value of land was the subject.  And in an exchange of property lately projected, though never effected between the Duke of Northumbd & Earl Grey, his Lordship who has known me all my life, intrusted solely to me the valuation & management of the matter, as the arbitrator on his side.  It is always disagreeable to have to speak of oneself, but not having had the honor of being previously known to the Commissioners, I hope I may be excused for having said so much, on the presumption that it might be satisfactory to them to know upon what grounds I have taken upon myself the responsibility of valuing & letting their Farms.



The first place I came to was Westwood, which I had previously valued at £320, but owing to its very favourable situation & the request to have two Cottages built, which are certainly wanted, there being only one at present, I fixed the rent at £330.  Mr Snowball said he intended to give £300 only but eventually acceded to my offer and took it at £330.  This is £50 above the rent of last year as let by Mr Hooper.  



I then went as quickly as possible ten miles further to Vauce, Lough, Sillywrae, Deanraw, Harsondale & Lees, all of which I had previously examined, indeed I never pass through a farm from long habit of observing, without taking particular note of its soil, produce & cultivation, but at each of which I had something to look into more minutely, but without stopping to discuss matters with the Tenants, that I might have all the use of daylight, appointing some to come to me at Haydon Bridge at 8 in the evening, & others in the morning, when I should have made my calculations.   The Vauce is a farm much too small to be advantageously occupied, & like others in that district depended for its rent upon the carriage of Ore and lead, when the Hospitals Tenants had all the carriage of Langley Mills among them.  This is now at an end, & the land must be farmed at its intrinsic value. Unluckily this place, from the arrangement of fences & buildings, cannot be united to any other farm with convenience.  My valuation of it was £85.  The Tenant who is a decent & industrious man, began at £75, but came by degrees up to my price.



The Lough Farm & Limestone Quarry, occupied by an industrious & good tenant together with the small farm adjoining, of Sillywray, held by the late Agent of Stublick Colliery at an enormous rent, I valued at £155.   Bell could hardly be persuaded to advance beyond £140 chiefly on the ground that the quarry was now becoming of hardly any value, the stone growing yearly deeper under the surface, leaving no chance of burning Lime to a profit, the price in the County being generally reduced.  This is indeed the case & I suspect in two years more the Quarry must be abandoned .



We agreed at £150.  The union of these two small Farms will save building & cause them to be more cheaply managed, four horses being adequate to the work when joined, which would require five or six if separate.  West & Middle Deanraw, the former occupied also by Bell of Stublick Colliery and left in shocking condition, I also recommended to be united for the same reasons.  The two, let to John Pigg a very respectable man possessed of some land, for £145.  Harsondale is in an exposed situation, much like Vauce, but consisting of worse land, which is injured besides by the Smoke from Langley Mills.  Here, as well as at Vauce & the Lough, I saw in the summer good crops of barley, but on returning in harvest found two thirds of the Grain had been knocked out by the storms of wind.  My valuation of it was £120.  The Tenant offered £100 and left me but has since returned and agreed to the Terms, on my engaging to drain a field of coarse Grass, which is very unproductive, & which he is to plough out & Lime.



The Lees is the farm which I found it most difficult to value and to let.   It has been greatly over rented and the young man who has held it for six years, has by his own Account, which is believed by his neighbours, lost £1000 by it, having had to Mortgage a small Estate in Cumberland to pay the rents.  It had been in wretched plight & produced scarcely any Crops during the first three years, & the low price of grain since, has contributed to his loss.  I regret to say that it will be attended with considerable outlay still to both Landlord & Tenant many of the fences being useless, & the dwelling House is in great want of a new roof & other repairs.  Watson is an active young man, & I think would farm well in more encouraging  circumstances.  My valuation was £293, from which I found it necessary to take £5 for four Acres of waste & gravel by the Tyne, which I had omitted to deduct, leaving £288.  Watson offered £260 & after much discussion & a detail of losses etc, we parted.  He returned however next morning and advanced to £280.  I told him I must abide by the valuation which I had made with care.  He said he felt assured that the Commissrs would not charge the £8, if they knew how much he had lost. As however I could not act upon that principle however just it might be, he consented to sign an agreement at £288 on condition that I should report to the Commissioners his hope that they would accept of £280 as the rent, which is probably quite enough, considering how much is to be done to the land.

[marginal annotation: ‘The £8 to be returned at the end of the year’]



Plankey Mill with 60 Acres of poor land had to be let for £120. I thought this too high by £20 considering the reduction in the value of the land & also in the profit of grinding, most of which, in such situations, arising from moulter or a portion of Corn taken for grinding the rest is diminished in proportion to the fall in the price of grain.  The Tenant agreed to give £100 a year, but not till he had gone away and returned declaring that £85 was the full value.  A new Axle for the Water Wheel has been talked of as necessary for this Mill for some time, but as the old one still keeps going, it is only necessary to have one in readiness when it may be wanted.  And a tree in the Wood, close by, will answer the purpose, which I shall have prepared.