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Wednesday 9th October Heard from Mr Fenwick informing me that he had seen Mr Leadbitter, but that he could not prevail upon him, on account of the delay that had occurred, to allow the transfer of Wark to the Duke, to take place on the 12th of May last as intended and as I urged him if possible to effect, because the Hospital would derive greater benefit from the interest of the purchase money than from the rentals during the interval. Mr Leadbitter proposes the 23rd Nov as the time of transfer & I have forwarded Mr Fenwick’s Letter to Mr Bicknell for his instructions on the subject. Had the matter been committed to the management of a Solicitor on the spot, it is not improbable that it might have been brought to an earlier conclusion. Alston Roads Went to Hexham to attend a meeting of the Committee of the Alston Road Trustees, for the purpose of examining the Accounts of the Clerk, Surveyor & Treasurer, to be submitted to the general meeting on the 11th. Allerwash This done & the day being favorable, I proceeded some miles farther to examine the farm of Allerwash of which I have formed a very favourable opinion & should much like to see it in the hands of a respectable man & skilful manager. Having been taken great advantage of towards the end of the lease & then let again for only one year from last May, the present condition of the land is unsatisfactory and discouraging to an entering tenant, yet the Soil being of good quality & the situation and climate favorable, an improved mode of management would soon restore its fertility. [Annotated in margin in pencil: ‘Town farm at <….> £510 instead of £639’] The Occupier has exceed[ed] his quantity of Corn by 20 Acres in his present Crop, and has made arrangements for a still greater excess in the next, of which however, he will be disappointed and on all the land that it is pretended to have sown with Clover and grass seeds for the hay and pasture of the following year, scarcely a particle is visible; which must be an immense disadvantage to the ensuing tenant, leading him to the necessity of cropping the land again out of its proper course & to a derangement of the system for years. The introduction of a better and stricter covenant as to the sowing of Grasses in the last year of the term would be very beneficial. I again examined the state of the Mill & housing at Allerwash which is generally in a very crazy condition - one house indeed having been abandoned by its occupier as dangerous. The supply of Water is so scanty that the mill stands and goes alternately for about an hour at a time, & altogether the situation is so little calculated for doing business, that were it not that a considerable expenditure has taken place on the machinery & reservoir, I should have been inclined to recommend its abandonment altogether, upon the principle that like other Milks on the property it will not defray the cost of its support & leave any fair interest for the original outlay. The Machinery & reservoir each want a little repair - the houses a great deal - and seeing it impossible for the Tenant, who has little capital, to go on with any prospect of success, I have advised him to quit at May Day. If let separately from the Farm, a few more acres of land should be annexed to the Mill, but surrounded as the Mill is by the farm, there is bad agreement between the Miller & the Farmer on account of trespass, for which reason, if a respectable tenant would offer for both, he might use the Mill himself or sublet it to a Miller who would be under his control, as he saw best. At any rate in the advertizement for letting there could be no harm in offering them together or separately and then the Comm[issioners] could exercise their choice. Weirs at Fourstones Mr Hunt met me at Allerwash & we hastened to inspect before dark some Weirs on the Tyne in the Estate of Fourstones, which being injudiciously placed, have created a current against the bank so as to undermine a Wall & threaten considerable damage. Instead of restoring them, I consider that they should be reduced in height & one of them altered in its direction, which Mr Hunt must see to have done. The cost will not exceed two or three Pounds, as I expect the tenant will supply Carts.
