TWO EXPLORERS IN OUR COUNTRY DISTRICTS From the Yorkshire Herald, Saturday March 11 1939
When Pronunciation Makes All the Difference. Darby and Don at Brawby and Great Barugh, LXXXVI
Yorkshire village names can be very puzzling. Don and I naturally have become very accustomed to them, but we stumbled this week and made a countryman look at us with that wonderment which makes a townsman feel rather foolish. it was that little village, Great Barugh.
Now Don and I pronounce it "Baroo" like many others, no doubt. We stopped a rustic on the roadside and enquired the whereabouts of the said "Great Baroo". "Great Baroo?" said the countryman with a grin. Tha'll mean 'Barf' I guess." "Oh," said I. "Yes," sez ’ee. "Barf, as in laugh," and we all "larfed".
ON THE AIR
The oldest woman in the village is Mrs Hoggarth who last Christmas made a name for herself in one of the series of "Slices from Life". In fearless fashion and showing not a morsel of fear for the rather terrifying microphone, she told her life story in a more realistic way than I can print it here.
It was a great event in her life and she still glories in the memory of it. Her many friends, too, were delighted with the way she acquitted herself over the air. It is not improbable that, in the future, she will be finding her way to the Leeds studio again to let the world know how a typical old countrywoman has lived and worked hard and brought up a family of nine children.
Aged 78, she was born at Marton [sic, possibly Malton] and has lived at Barugh for 50 years. She went into service when she was only 11 and has done her share of cooking, baking, dairying and root-pulling. She and her 77-year-old husband can look back to a life that has had its hardships and compensations. Mr Hoggarth was a well-known mole catcher for many years, and also a roadman in the district.
This old couple have 35 grandchildren and seven great grandchildren.
Mrs Hoggarth does not think a great deal about the young girl of today, and if she said as much to them over the air as she did to me it probably made them sit up. To show her disapproval of modern habits, she first criticises her own grand-daughters who, however, take it all in good sport.
She will say, for instance, "Tut tut, you young lasses, the way you dress surprises me." And their reply, as modern as the other is quaint: "By gum, grannie, I'll pull them ears if tha' talks about our dresses so." Grannie replies: "Well ain't it right noo? Tha's only two garments and tha's dressed! And to me she added: Some of ’em were rather nipped with I towed ’em straight. They knewed I was right."
DEATH OF MR DANVERS HOGGARTH, OCTOGENARIAN OF GREAT BARUGH
Mr Danvers Hoggarth, whose death has occurred at Great Barugh at the age of 84, was one of the best known figures in the district. Fairly tall and of slender build with a fine grey patriarchal beard, he could be seen working in his garden, mole-catching in the field, or collecting firewood washed down by the little beck that flows beneath the bridge a few yards from his cottage door.
Born at Newholme, near Whitby, Mr Hoggarth had lived in a period of remarkable change, especially in the lives of those, like himself, who earned their livelihood on the land. Starting off with "meat and clothes for work" as a boy on a farm and later bringing up a family of nine as a married farm worker, Mr Hoggarth lived to see others engaged in agriculture enjoy what was by former standards advantages such as he and his contemporaries would never have though possible. The world food problems and shortages of today he though were in some ways reminiscent of those all too widely felt in most country districts over 50 years ago.
On one of the many occasions I have enjoyed a chat with Mr Hoggarth, he told me of a lad who had worked on the same farm as himself when he was a young man. The master, who had been dissatisfied with the lad's efforts, had told that lad he was not worth his "meat". To which the boy had replied, "nut worth mi meeat? Treakle an’ breead, treakle an’ breead, that's me meeat!"
Mr and Mrs Hoggarth, who have spent all their married life at Great Barugh, celebrated their diamond wedding in 1943. Members of their family are engaged in farming.
Mrs (Tamar) Hoggarth had similar experiences to her husband of work on the farms, having herself worked on the farms and in the fields from the age of 11 and continuing for many years after her marriage. Her parents, who were farm workers, too, left Yorkshire for Canada when she was a girl.
Mrs Hoggart [sic] never saw them again but she and her husband had the pleasure of meeting one of the younger generation who paid them a visit while over here from Canada as a member of the Forces during the war. (WB: this visitor was possibly Fletcher Hanson Bradburn, who lived in Tillsonburg, Ontario, and was organist at Avondale United Church. Somehow, there are links with the Canadian Crawford family)
Mrs Hoggarth, who on two occasions broadcast some of her impression on her life and work from the Leeds Studios of the BBC, a few years ago, delighted many listeners in Yorkshire and other parts of the country.
...AND HIS FUNERAL
The funeral took place at Kirbymisperton of Mr Danvers Hoggarth, who died in his 85th year. His widow, who broadcast a few years ago, is still able to do her own work. The chief mourners were: Mrs Tamar Hoggarth (widow), Mr H Fletcher, Mr and Mrs H Ward, Mr and Mrs J Hoggarth (Welham), Mr and Mrs John Fairweather, Mr and Mrs John Spanton, Mr and Mrs W Jefferson, Mrs A Hudson (Leeds), Mr F Humpleby, Mrs Humpleby, daughter, was unable to attend. Grandchildren present were Mr and Mrs R Smith, Miss K Ward, Miss E Spanton, Mr D Ward, Mr S Spanton, Mr J Spanton, Miss M Fairweather, H and L Humpleby, H Hoggarth with Mr and Mrs W Hoggarth, cousin (Pickering), Mr A Seager, Mr Ruston, Mr Ellis and Mr B Seager were bearers. Other mourners included: Miss K Mallory, Mrs Seager, Mrs Dickson, Mrs Houlston, Misses V and G Colby, Mr K Brisby, Mr and Mrs Jameson (Butterwick), Mrs A King, Mr E Holtby, Mr J Shipley and others. Archdeacon Hope officiated at the service.
WB: one of the mourners was Mr K BRISBY who was probably a distant cousin and related to the BRISBY family for whom Danvers worked in 1881. Glynne FLETCHER of Australia says that the "Mr H Fletcher" is Herbert FLETCHER who was the first child of Tamar, born before she married Danvers. Herbert is the grandfather of Glynne.
