(For photos see the website Gallery/people)
In St Nicholas’s churchyard at Husthwaite is a substantial burial area with a stone cross surrounded by iron railings where Joseph Naters Arnison (hereafter referred to as JNA) and two of his children are buried. The inscriptions read
In loving memory of Simpson Williams Arnison (Willie). Died Feb 11th 1894. Aged 3 years.
Also of Joseph Naters Arnison (Joe), father of the above. Died March 27th 1896. Aged 36 years.
Julia Maud Arnison. Born and died Feb 14th 1895.
At the end of 2009 Heather Tucker contacted the history society to try and find out more about JNA, her great grandfather, and his family, and why they were living at Beacon Banks for three years at the end of the 19th C. The reason why the family came to live there still remains subject to speculation but meantime more information about the background of this family has come to light via Heather’s second cousins Val Halladay and Gloria Blenner-Hassett in Canada.
The Arnison family from Newcastle upon Tyne
JNA’s family stemmed from Newcastle–upon-Tyne. The Arnisons would have been well known to many people there as doctors, brewers, glass makers and generally well educated and affluent people. The name Naters comes from Ralph Naters who was JNA's grandfather on his mother’s side. There is a newspaper article stating that Queen Victoria decreed that “Isabella Arnison was the reputed daughter of Ralph Naters”. In the census for 1851 Isabella Coulson (22) is given as a visitor to Sandyford House where Ralph Naters (65) and his son Charles Naters (18) lived with two companions and two servants. Isabella Coulson married Joseph Simpson Arnison in Newcastle on 27th January 1855, and later gave birth to JNA.
JNA’s father, Joseph Simpson Arnison was born in Westward, Cumbria in 1820. His parents were Thomas John (or John Thomas) Arnison and Nancy (Ann) Simpson. Thomas was born in Kirkoswald in 1786, whilst Ann was born in Caldbeck in 1782 where they married in 1806. They emigrated to Pictou, Nova Scotia, Canada where Thomas was part owner of the Eastern Stage Coach Company.
Both Ralph and his brother Nicholas had held the office of Sheriff of Newcastle in 1815 and 1819 respectively. Interestingly, later temporary residents at Beacon Banks in the early 1900s were the Crawhall family – in 1846 Joseph Crawhall was also a Sheriff of Newcastle and in 1849 he was the Mayor. Hence both families who occupied Beacon Banks whilst the Wailes family were elsewhere, must have moved in similar circles and may well have been known to each other.
Ralph Naters was a merchant and brewer at Sandyford, a district located in the east end of Newcastle. It is bordered by the city centre and the district of Jesmond. In the Bee Hive pub Sandhill, next to the Red House, also belonging to Ralph used to be a chimney piece which he donated to the council, and was first in the old mansion house and then stood proudly in the great hall of the castle. It has now been finally tracked down by Heather and her cousins to the Beamish Museum.
By the 1861 census, Joseph Simpson Arnison, a merchant (41) and his wife Isabella (33) had three daughters (Isabella, Anne Harris and Margaret Wilson all born in Newcastle on Tyne) and a baby son Joseph Naters Arnison (7 months old, born at 34 Milton Street Newcastle). A later son named Ralph Naters Arnison sadly died at the age of 18 months in 1867. In 1861 they apparently lived with Ralph Naters (76) at Sandyford House in Sandyford Lane. Sandyford House was the first of seven mansions to be built in Jesmond Dene, next to the brewery, described at the time as being very large and “one of the most respectable” breweries in the town. Only one of the mansions remain, sadly not Sandyford House.
Notices from the London Gazette show that Joseph Simpson Arnison together with William Henry Heppell and Thomas Garbutt were once glass manufacturers at the Newcastle Flint Glass Works, which was dissolved in 1874 when Garbutt retired. Heppell and Arnison continued in business until 1885 as W.H. Heppell and Co, glass manufacturers. Joseph Simpson also operated the Sandyford Brewery before selling it to Robert Deuchar, a brewer and property speculator, in 1887. Several years after buying the brewery, in 1892 Robert converted it into a bottling store, offices and a bonded warehouse. A stone door lintel reading ‘Office 1904 Robert Deuchar Ltd’ can still be seen above a Sandyford Road entrance.
[Information and photos of Sandyford and Sandyford Stone brewery can be found on http://newcastlephotos.blogspot.com/2008/11/sandyford.html and
www.jesmondoldcemetery.co.uk/deuchar_25.html]
The family believe that JNA was disinherited by his father for marrying Elizabeth, a bar maid, who was born in Haverfordwest Pembrokeshire. The family went to Texas! The family story says that their child Elizabeth was born in the back of a wagon on a wagon train. In 1892, his father (Joseph Simpson Arnison) died and they may have returned to Newcastle at that time and would have had to find somewhere suitable to live and where Joseph could use his farming skills. It is possible that the family had heard about Beacon Banks and the associated Lodge farm at Husthwaite being in need of a tenant around that time.
William Wailes, stained glass manufacturer, Newcastle
Also, living not far away was William Wailes (1808-1881), originally a grocer who dabbled in art. He decided to try his hand at stained glass manufacture in 1838, beginning with a kiln at the back of his shop. A hitherto undiscovered talent surfaced and his output increased steadily throughout the 1840s, and by the early 1850s he was employing 76 workers. Wailes was a businessman rather than a designer, but he employed artists of a high calibre. A lot has been recorded about his eventful life (eg “The Wonderful Windows of William Wailes” by Ronald Torbet 2003). Wailes’ daughter Margaret married Thomas Rankin Strang and by 1861 the families lived together in South Dene Tower, Gateshead. In 1859, the firm Wailes and Strang, stained glass workers, of Newcastle upon Tyne produced one of its finest works, the West Window of Gloucester Cathedral. After this, although styles in stained glass moved on, Wailes’ output remained stuck in the Gothic style. He died a wealthy man leaving his Gateshead home as a public park for the town. (see http://www.gateshead-history.com/low-fell.html After Wailes’ death. Strang, his son in law (1835-1899) took the firm on as a viable concern into the 1910s.
The area, Low Fell, where William Wailes and family lived is described in “History, Topography and Directory of Durham”, Whellan, London, 1894 – “It is a pleasant suburban village, picturesquely situated on the slope between Sheriff Hill and the Team Valley, about two miles south from Tyne Bridge. Here are places of worship belonging to the Church of England, Methodist New Connexion, and Wesleyan Methodists, and in the place and neighbourhood are several genteel residences. The new road to Durham passes through the village”.
It seems likely that Wailes, the stained glass manufacturer, was acquainted with or connected in some way with the glass works of Heppell and Joseph Simpson Arnison who were all operating around the same period. This possibly provides the link between the families and how JNA, son of Joseph Simpson came to live at Beacon Banks in Husthwaite.
Around the same time, other branches of the Wailes family also lived in the area of Newcastle where the Arnisons lived. In St Andrews cemetery there are memorials to members of the Wailes family who died in the 1870s who, during their lives, may well have been acquainted with Ralph Naters and son Joseph Simpson Arnison.
The Wailes family at Beacon Banks
The connection between the Newcastle Wailes families and the later Wailes families may be complex. Wailes is a relatively unusual surname. There were many of this name throughout Yorkshire and Northumberland, who are likely to have been related in some way.
The Wailes family came to Husthwaite before 1600. They once farmed at Lodge Farm and later built and lived at Beacon Banks from around 1850. Francis Wailes, “whose ancestors had long held possessions in the neighbourhood”, his wife Emily and son Frederick Hill Wailes were there in 1851, 1861 and 1881 (but not in 1871 when they were in London). Francis died in 1882, Frederick died in 1890 and by 1891 Emily was living there with a married daughter, two servants and a lodger. Emily died aged 86 at Beacon Banks on Nov 30th 1893. It seems likely that the house was then rented out to families known to the family. Hence JNA and his family appear to have taken up residence once the house was empty. It is a beautiful large house and they would have been particular about who lived there. In the early 1900s the Crawhall family from Newcastle lived there, but by the time of the 1911 census George Wailes (77, born Leeds), his wife Emma Jane and two daughters, a student and three staff were in residence.
The farm, Lodge Farm (now called The Old Lodge, a much extended and imposing house) was one of the first homes of the Wailes family when they came to the village. This farm was once connected to Beacon Banks by a footpath, clearly shown on old maps. Sheila Redfern, a previous occupant of Beacon Banks, considers that many of the photos taken of JNA when he lived appear to have been taken close to Lodge farm, with JNA appearing to lead the life of a gentleman farmer, eg photos show him playing cards in a yard with a maid serving drinks (see Gallery), going on family picnics and on horseback.
He and Elizabeth had five children with them when they came to Beacon Banks - Joseph Naters Arnison (Val and Gloria’s grandfather Joe, b 1884 Newcastle upon Tyne), Ralph Naters Arnison (b 1886 Newcastle), Charles Henry Arnison (Heather Tucker’s grandfather, b 1893 Newcastle), Elizabeth Arnison (Izzie, b 1889 USA) and Simpson William Arnison (Willie) died in 1894 aged three at Husthwaite and was probably also born in America. Sadly a baby daughter Julia Maud Arnison did not survive and died the day of her birth in 1895, whilst they were living at Beacon Banks.
JNA died at Park Lodge, The Valley, Scarborough on 27 March 1896 at the young age of 36. His occupation on the death certificate is given as farmer. The cause of death was Cerebral Hyperaemia and Cardiac Debility; Isabella Sharp, his sister of Jesmond Cottage in Newcastle was the informant.
Val, Heather’s cousin in America found Joseph Naters’ will, originally written in 1886 and at that time his address was 34, Hedley Street, Gosforth in the county of Northumberland. A decade later, a codicil is attached, dated June 24th 1896 with the address Old Manor House Husthwaite, Easingwold. It is thus possible that he lived there before he came to Beacon Banks. On his death, the gross value of his personal Estate was £8185. 8. 5, a huge amount in today’s terms (about £706,000 using the retail price index) showing him to have been very affluent. The Old Manor House next to St Nicholas’ Church was demolished in the late 19th C and the new Manor House built. The old building was an ancient hall, formally occupied by the Prebendary who was lord of the manor, and exercised jurisdiction there. Many legal documents were drawn up there.
Two years after the death of her husband, Elizabeth married William Eley, a brewers manager born in Derby, and lived at 21, Lansdown Parade, Cheltenham with her children (Joseph, Ralph, Elizabeth and Charles aged between 16 and 8) and a new baby Harriet Elizabeth Eley aged 1, to be followed later by another daughter – Maggie.
Joseph eventually emigrated to Canada after studying to become a dentist. Val and Gloria’s Grandpa Joe then married and settled at Vidora Sask. He retired to Maple Creek Sask, where until his death at the age of 91, was curator of the Old Timers Museum. Ralph married and was last known to be living in Worcestershire. Charles Henry joined the RFC and then the RAF and flew in WW1 when even though having a very short flying career became an ace and was awarded the MC. He married Heather's grandmother, but the marriage ended in divorce and he re-married and lived in Ramsey, Isle of Man. Elizabeth married and moved to Felixstowe where her husband owned a shop.
If anyone can give further information or correct what has been written about this family Heather and her family would be delighted to hear from you – please make contact through the website.
Angela Ovenston and Heather Tucker March 2011