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Mid-1920s advertisement from the Swaledale Museum archive.
Lodge Percival (18601948) was the third son of James and Mary Ann Percival of Gunnerside Mill. Mary Anns father, James Peacock, had been the miller at Gunnerside
for several decades by the time of his death in the 1860s. Mary Ann herself was widowed in 1870 when James Percival died of typhoid fever. Local directories from the 1870s to the
1890s describe Mary Ann Percival as a grocer, miller, and farmer.
Gunnerside Mill is just about dead centre in this 1930 view, next to (naturally) the Gillif you care to consult Colin Days superb map
of Gunnerside ,
look for no. 54. Just left of centre are the pair of houses Ghyll View and Ghyll Edge (Colin Days nos 55 and 56), and to the left of them, further down, you can see the
substantial gable end of the Literary Institute (Colin Days no. 53). The chapel is at the far left, and the then school near the right of the frame.
Meanwhile the Percivals had also acquired Grinton Mill. The 1871 Census has Mary Ann Percivals brother-in-law Henry and her eldest son John as corn millers at Grinton; Kellys
1872 lists John Percival as proprietor of Grinton Mill. When John Percival left the Dale, he was replaced at Grinton Mill by his brother Thomas. It would seem Thomas Percival
emigrated to the United States in the early 1880s, whereupon he in turn was replaced at Grinton Mill by Mary Anns fourth and youngest son, James Percival (18621942), who seems to
have remained in charge of Grinton Mill until he was declared bankrupt in 1891. Grinton Mill was taken over next by the Hirds, of Arkengarthdale Corn Mill.
Grinton Mill may be seen dead centre of this circa 1910 view, with Harkerside rising behind it. Just right of centre is the rear of the Bridge Innwith no car park, as
yetand you wont need me to point out the church tower. The inset photograph, kindly loaned by Chris and Trish Procter, is an unusual shot of the then-derelict Grinton Mill
(ca 1950) from the top of Grinton Church towerit was on the South side of the lane which leads out of Grinton to Harkerside, behind the houses now called (unsurprisingly...)
Mill House and East Mill House, and was fed by a leat coming down off Cogden Moor. On
Colin Days equally superb map of Grinton ,
look for no. 27: the mill would have been just behind. Where the water went afterwards is hard to imagineto culvert it straight down into the Swale would
have entailed digging up the churchyard! Sounds unlikely. Any ideas, anybody? Sideways into Grinton Beck?
Thomas Percival, incidentally, was back in Grinton by the Summer of 1889, as landlord of the Bridge Inn, where he would remain until the mid-1890s. He afterwards relocated to Leeds, and
died there in 1933.
James Percival carried on living in Grinton until shortly before his death; He was a genial personality, and his familiar figure will be missed in the district, reported
The Darlington and Stockton Times on 29th August 1942 (p. 5, col. 7).
In this mid-1960s shot, kindly loaned by Lodge Percivals great-granddaughter Susan, Gunnerside Gill is in the centre, with the old mill to the left and Gunnarsghyll Hall
(Colin Days no. 41) to the right. The tin roof of the bus garage, built over
the mill yard, is conspicuously catching the sun; once again, in front may be seen Ghyll View and Ghyll Edge, with the Institute below them. The chapel is half-hidden by the tree at the
left, but its there if you look for it, and the burned-out shell of the old school is over towards the lower right of the frame (the new school, behind the chapel, would eventually be
built in 1968: for some 5½ years, lessons were held in the Institutewhich you wont need to be told, if you were among those who went to school there!).
One way or another, then, it was Lodge Percivalbrother no. 3who ended up as proprietor of Gunnerside Mill, and of the family farm and shop at Gunnerside. In 1884, Lodge
Percival married Elizabeth Margaret Heseltine, the daughter of a Gunnerside flour dealer, grocer, and carrier. Lodge and Elizabeth had nine children, of whom one (Hannah) died in
infancy. The eight who lived to grow up were:
Mary Ann (18851951)
William Heseltine [Willie] (18861945) m. Lizzie Rutter, 1916
Margaret [Maggie] (18881948)
Dorothy Jane (18911972) m. Albert Newman, 1921
James [Jim, Jammie] (18931951) m. Elsie Bearpark, 1923
Eleanor Grace [Nellie] (18961952) m. Ambrose Harker Thompson, 1930
Elizabeth [Betty] (18981983) m. James Watson Pike, 1924
John Lodge (19021971) m. Lena Tipping, 1952
Two very old photographs of the Percivals two-horse wagonette, kindly loaned by (on the left) Willie and Lizzie Percivals granddaughter Susan Restall (née Parker)
and (on the right) James and Betty Pikes daughter-in-law Joan Pike. On the left we see an extremely well-laden wagonette in front of Lodge Percivals shop, with a safety
bicycle and a substantial trunk among the luggage on the roof; its thought that may be Willie Percival driving, and the youngest brother John Lodge sitting up front with himin
which case, the year may be around 19071911ish. If you arent quite clear on where this shop was, again you may wish to try looking at Colin Days map
of Gunnersidethe former shop is now, very appropriately, called Lodge House, and is
no. 48 on that map. Meanwhile, on the right, on a different day and heading up-Daleostensibly at Rowleth Bottomsagain the vehicle is well laden and it
looks like possibly William at the reins.
Lodge Percivals wife Elizabeth died in 1915, and his mother Mary Ann the following year at the age of 84, just a few weeks before his eldest son, William Heseltine Percival,
married Lizzie Rutter of Shoregill Head. Willie and Lizzie kept a small grocery at Croft View, just across the road from the larger premises which Lodge Percival already had at the
foot of High Green. These two establishments were knownnot unnaturallyas the Little Shop and the Big Shop respectively.
Rescued from a bonfire in the 1960s by Gordon Anyan of Low Row, and kindly loaned by him, is this Christmas 1916 account from the Big Shop, in Lodge Percivals handwriting. Youll
notice it goes back to 24th April 1916, and isnt settled until 1st March 1917: that was perfectly usual, in those days. Notice also the £1100 credit in respect of 30lbs
of cheese (in new money, thats £1.50 for about 13½kgs!): again, it was customary for local farmersincluding evidently the Peacocks of Low Whitato supply their
home-produced cheese to grocers such as Lodge Percival by way of contra account. In among the feed cake and the hen corn, you can spot the ten-stone bags of flour every month or two, the
salt, sugar, soap, and washing soda, and also, on 10th October 1916, one pig, at the no doubt very reasonable price of £2100 (£2.50 in new money!).
1916 was also the year in which Lodges second son, James Percival, joined the Yorkshire Regiment to fight in the Great War. He was to see three years
military service abroad. The third and youngest son, John Lodge Percival, was still at school in Richmond then, but left school to come home and help keep the
family business going.
The Big Shop in the 1930sphotograph kindly loaned by Joan Pike.
The man may or may not be Lodge Percivals son-in-law James Pike; if you
recognize him, do get in touch! Meanwhile, notice the enamel signs
advertising Capstan Navy Cut and Willss Gold Flake cigarettes, and the
giant Heinz soup tin silhouette in the right-hand shop door window.
The middle ad. in the left-hand door window is for Puritan soap.
New detail, October 2021
On the County Record Office website, under ref.
NRCC/CL 9/1/1573,
you can see Lodge Percival in September 1916 appealed against Jamess call-up, deposing that James worked 1517 hours a day carting flour, grain, and provisions from
Richmond station to Gunnerside and onward into [Upper] Swaledale, returning with coal from Tan Hill colliery to Gunnerside and district. The premise of the appeal was that
without James there would be great difficulty in supplying farmers and householders.
This is an eye-opener on several counts! It gives a vivid idea of the nature of the business, and indeed of the length of a Dalesmans working day. It also highlights
the importance of Tan Hill coal, which was not terribly good coal but was of course nearer, and cheaper, than the station coal available from the railhead down at
Richmondand probably in greater demand, now, than in the years immediately prior to 1914, because the War had caused a national shortage of coal for domestic use (Tan Hill coal
would be in high demand again during the coal strikes of 1919 and 1926).
Seasonal compliments slip from the Little Shop:
E. Percival was Williams wife Lizzie, of course;
kindly loaned by their granddaughter Susan (née Parker) Restall.
By 1920, the Percivals of Gunnerside were already long established as local farmers, hay and livestock dealers, carters, carriers, and grocers; and, with James home again, all three of Lodge
Percivals sons were now active in the business (this is not to suggest their sisters were sitting idly by, I hasten to add!). The idea of augmenting their existing horse-drawn
Richmond run with a motor vehicle is said to have been Williams, and a Ford was duly purchased in or around May 1921. Family tradition has it that this vehicle could carry 14
passengers or a ton of meal. If so, it may have been what was then known as a convertible model like that purchased by John Robert Stubbs of
Arkengarthdale around the same time.
John Lodge Percival at the wheel of the Selden referred to belowphotograph kindly loaned by Susan Restall, his great-niece.
A second motor-bus, this time a substantial Selden with a roofed charabanc body seating 20 passengers, was acquired in the Summer of 1922 (see pic. above). This new motor transport
sideline presently took on an identity of its own, as William and James and John Lodge Percival began trading in the name of Percival Brothers. Many bus
enthusiastsand many former passengerswill recall the firm of Percival Brothers (Coaches), Ltd, which was established in June
1937 with its Registered Office in Richmond. But perhaps its worth noting that this widely remembered bus company had its beginnings in a time and place where horsepower
was still provided mainly by horses.
On the left, a young Jim Percival with horse and cart; on the right, in the early 1930s, Jims son Geoff (with hay rake) and Willies son Lodge (seated on the machine)often
referred to as Young Lodge to differentiate him from his grandfather, Old Lodge Percival. Photographs kindly loaned by Geoff Percivals son James.
In the first half of the Twentieth Century, the firm of Lodge Percival & Sons could have served you practically from cradle to grave (it wasnt unheard-of for them to deliver a coffin
to the home of the deceased, for local joiner Percy Calvert). Provisions, tobacco, and groceries could be bought at the Big Shop in Gunnerside, where it was also possible to order coal,
hay, and farm supplies. Parcels and goods could be brought up from other retailers and tradesmen in Richmond, or collected from Richmond railway station, as could larger consignments,
from bedsteads to building materials. Rabbits, cheese, butter, and eggs were routinely taken down to Richmondinitially by Lodge Percivals wagonette, and later by his
sons motor-busesto be sold at the market or consigned to the L.N.E.R. at the station (for much of the 1920s, Percivals also ran a through bus to Darlington on Mondays).
Market Day in Richmond, Spring/Summer 1927Swaledale Museum archive. The old Toll Booth (between Trinity Church and the Town Hall) looms behind the Percivals then-new
Leyland PY 6845, their Selden, and what may well be their Ford charabanc PY 1962 (new in the Summer of 1924), lined up side by side facing the High Row. To the left of the
frame, on the Leylands offside, is an open-sided wagonetteyou can just descry someone sitting at the back, on one of the longitudinal seatswhich may or may not also
belong to Percivals. He has the now all-too-familiar posture of some dude on the London Underground hunched intently over his iPad or tablet, hasnt
he? But, unless he is a Time Lord, its unlikely thats what hes actually doing.
Some Gunnerside tradesmen relied on Percivals to convey their tools and materials to jobs outside the village, and indeed to lead sand from the bed of the River Swale
for use in construction. From around 1930, the Percivals also generated electricity for lighting houses in Gunnerside, using a Lister 5 h.p. engine housed at the
old mill; the same engine was also used for grinding animal mealand was notoriously past its best by the time the National Grid reached Gunnerside, at the beginning of the 1950s.
Left-hand photograph, kindly loaned by Margaret Woodward: George Milner (Margarets father) on the left, and Young Lodge on the right, delivering by motor-lorry in the mid-1930s;
this particular wagon is thought to be VN 53, converted from a 1929 Thornycroft bus, and ultimately taken off the road at the end of 1939. Right-hand photograph, kindly loaned by
Joan Pike: the bus is the 1932 Leyland Tiger, VN 3779, outside the Big Shopin fact, just about between the Big Shop and the Little Shop on the other side of the
roadbut note the substantial roof rack (with something or other in it, right at the back), and the various packages deposited by the entrance: like the horse-drawn wagonette before
them, Percivals motor-buses carried goods as well as passengers. From left to right, here are Old Lodge, his son Williams elder daughter Mary with her aunt Maggiesecond
of Lodges five daughtersjust behind her, then Betty Newman (Dorothys daughter) with her uncle John Lodge just behind her, his brother Jim (in bus conductors
rig), their sister Dorothy Newman née Percival, and finally (if youre still with us!) Willie Percivals wife Lizzie née Rutter.
On paper, ownership of Gunnerside Mill passed from Lodge Percival to the newer firm, Percival Brothers, in February 1938, but Old Lodge was still often to be seen behind the counter
of the Big Shop for some time after that. By this stage, the Percivals had at least half a dozen motor-buses on the road, as well as a hire car and one or two motor-lorries; they
had established a bus garage at Barnard Castle in 1934 and taken over Albert Mortons bus depôt in Richmond around 1936; and they were shortly to buy the
Reeth Motor Service bus operation from Tim Scratcherd with whom the Swaledale service had been run jointly since the end of the 1920s. For those who
may be interested, we have compiled a Fleet List of Percivals buses from 1921 to 1971.
From what Ive managed to gather so far, it must have been in the early 1940s that the Little Shop passed from Lizzie Percival to her sister and brother-in-law, Jenny and Jack
Aldersonthis is one of the details I have yet to pin down, but if you know more than me, please get in touch!
Old Lodge outside his shop in 1934, with granddaughter Betty Newman (later Betty Taylor).
Note advertising for Bovril, Chivers jellies, Zebo, Oxo, Kensitas cigarettes, and that years Reeth Show.
Photograph kindly loaned by Joan Pike.
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By way of a postscript, heres a conundrum for anyone with Swaledale family linksafter all, copies of the photograph below must surely have gone to each of the persons pictured,
wouldnt you say? At the front of the cart, grinning broadly, is believed to be Willie Percival, in which casegiven he was born in 1886perhaps we can say the year must
be in the region of 19101920. However, who are the passengers, and who is the gent at the rear, and where exactly are we? Are those ladies in the cart actually ladies at
all? It wouldnt be a ladylike mode of travel, in those days, would it? And theres an air of hilarity about their poses. Are they actually men in drag?
Do you happen to recognize this location? Does there happen to be a copy of this same photograph in YOUR
family album? If you can shed any light, please get in touch!
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