Journal entry – John Grey – 19 Mar 1834

Wednesday 19th March



Rode to Haydon Bridge and met Mr Hunt who had been looking after draining and fencing in several farms to the North of the Tyne, & then proceeded to examine the state of the buildings & fences on the farms of Deanraw, Vauce, Lough and Harsondale to decide upon what may be necessary to be done to put them in such condition  at the commencement of the Leases, as to make it reasonable to require the tenants to maintain & leave them so at the end.



The buildings upon all of those farms are in good order, except the Lough, & here something must be done.  A Cow House & Cattle Shed which though bad, I hoped might have stood for another season, have given way in the Storms of the Winter, the timber of the roof having broken under the load of old thatch, & their longer occupation become dangerous.  The farm house, Barn and Stable require very little repairs. The fences too, in general require little, except at Harsondale, where there are a great many stone walls that have been built without Lime & much too high to stand in that stormy situation. These are in a state so ruinous, that the only thing that can be done with them, with some few exceptions, is to rebuild them in a better form & of less height. This is a farm which it always provokes me to visit. The land is poor, the situation & climate bad, yet a farm house & Offices have been made upon it, out of all proper to its value, and expensive fences erected, but in so insufficient a manner, as to require almost entire renewal.  I found on examining them today a young thorn hedge, planted two years ago, but which had not made the least progress, & from the manner in which it had been set, could never possibly become a Hedge.  I therefore sent for a man who is planting a Hedge in another farm, to direct him to take out the quicks and plant them over again, so as to give them a chance of succeeding, giving Mr Hunt charges that the person who could put such work off his Hand should never on any account be employed again.   I then came to Stublick to enquire into a dispute between the Colliery Lessees and some party occupying a part of the Land now Leased to them.  It turned out that some Workmen at Langley Mills having held land under Mr Mulcaster, were allowed by Mr Hoopers desire to hold it for another year, rather than be turned out so near to the May Day.  This the Colliery Lessees agreed to, but in anticipation of leaving at May next, they set up a claim to away going Crop, & actually borrowed Ploughs & broke up all the tillage land in spite of every remonstrance from the Lessees.  If they had even had the right to a Crop, they could have none to it upon the land that should have been fallow, having grown Corn last year.  I told them however that they should not sow a foot of it & directed the managing Partner at the Colliery in what way he ought to proceed to get it into a proper rotation. He will thus have the benefit of their ploughing day.  Reached Corbridge late in the evening after a very long ride.