Some time ago I read with interest about the Wrathall's well in Utah and was intrigued to find that there is another one in Burton-in-Lonsdale. In a Special Report upon the Sanitary Condition of the Township of Burton-in-Lonsdale, prepared by the Medical Officer of Health for the Settle Rural Sanitary Diatrict, dated 1883, under a listing of the village water supplies I came across the following:

No.6 Wrathall's Pump, source - Deep well, depth - abt. 36 ft., subsoil - Sandy, Chlorides in grains per gallon - 4.7, Free Ammonia parts per million - 0.013, Albuminous Ammonia parts per million - 0.09, Nitrites - Traces, Nitrates - Traces, Result - S. ( results were graded, B - bad, S - suspicious and F - fairly good)

The description given later in the document is as follows:

Wrathall's Pump is situated in a small yard at the back of houses in the High Street, and the excess of Chlorides with traces of Nitrites and Nitrates in the water, point of probable percolation of filth from the surroundings of the well.

Not a particularly salubrious source of water but better than the one used close to the burial ground! The document gives an interesting insight into the conditions in the village at that time.

Another Burton snippet is that the first vicar of the church there was called Binyon and he was the father of Lawrence Binyon who wrote the words "Age shall not weary them nor the years condemn etc." which is read at all the war remembrance services in this country.

I had been to see Henry Bateson a couple of times in the last year, and he was most helpful in providing photographs of old Burton, particularly of the bridge my grandfather built across the river Greta. He gave me the report [above] on the sanitary condition of Burton. His father, Richard, was brother to David and Charles Bateson, who married my aunts Isabel and Nellie Wrathall, respectively. He was 72 and a very enthusiastic amateur historian both of the Bateson family and of Burton. The Bateson family owned potteries in Burton in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and his father made bowls and beakers for myself and my brother when we were children.

Here is the description of the pictures, which are copies that Henry Bateson gave me. Number 1 is of the bridge as built with the background of Ingleborough. The No. 1831 is the photographer's reference, not a date. Number 2 and Number 3 are of the bridge in its semi-collapsed state. The lady in Number 3 is the lady who collected the tolls with the toll house in the background. Number 4 is after the final collapse. Number 5 is a photo of a watercolour painted by a friend of my father, Frank Nelson Wrathall in 1972. Dad was not aware of the existence of the photos and asked his friend, a retired art master, to paint the scene with the bridge in as my father recalled it from memory. As you will see, he didn't get it quite right but it is still a nice picture to have.

One of my Bateson cousins is sure that somewhere in the family there is the bill for the construction of the bridge, but it has not come to light yet. I think it was built early in the 20th century and suffered its initial damage in the 1920s. According to Henry Bateson, this occurred because the mining for clay for the nearby pottery, shown on the left hand side of Numbers 1 and 4, let water into the coal seam in which one of the piers was founded. It was originally used for horse drawn traffic but continued in use as a foot bridge until its final demise around 1940. My older Bateson cousins can remember crossing the bridge in its semi-collapsed state.

Ingleborough is one of the "three peaks" in the Yorkshire Dales, the others being Whernside and Pen-y-Ghent. The former is an escarpment north north east of Ingleton and the latter is to the east of Horton-in-Ribblesdale. There is an endurance test to complete the ascent of the three peaks and the ground between in 24 hours on foot. A record is kept of all who complete the test, and many do, but I'm afraid I am not amongst them. The village of Ingleton can be seen in the photos and the watercolour appearing to be at the foot of Ingleborough but in fact at the foot of a lower hill in front of Ingleborough. It is a limestone area with an abundance of caves and potholes, the best known of these being White Scar Cavern ( William Wallbank Wrathall is a part time guide there), Gaping Gill, Alum Pot and Ingleborough Cave. According to a booklet by Arthur Raistrick, "Romans In Yorkshire", Venutius, the former husband of Cartimandua, the Queen if the Brigantes, "gathered the Brigantes in the western parts of Yorkshire and established his headquarters in the walled "town" on Ingleborough summit". In 74 AD he was defeated by the Romans at Stanwick Park, 5 miles north of Richmond, and retired to Ingleborough as his last stronghold. He was very anti-Roman and Cartimandua was pro-Roman which led to the marriage breakdown.

The lane leading to the bridge, on the left of the photos is Barnoldswick Lane, but this is known locally as Barn'a'wick Lane or Barn'i'wick, and to add to the confusion, the small town of Barnoldswick, which is south east of Skipton just over the Lancashire border, is known as Barlick and is even reported in the local newspaper as such. It isn't difficult to see how Grassington became Griston to the locals.

Henry Bateson gave me a photo of a house in Burton which my grandfather built. It was taken when the house was under construction in 1895/6. When I am next in Burton I will take photos of the house as it is now. The building of the house almost bankrupted grandfather as he encountered running sand when digging the foundations. As it happened, this was of use to me many years later when my workmen had to excavate in the road in front of the house. Being forewarned, we had the right equipment on site to deal with the problem. According to Henry, grandfather recouped his losses on the house from the profits from the bridge construction.

• back row: Nellie, Nanny Jane, Elsie
• next row: Isabel, Greta
• next row: William James, Alice, Frank Nelson (Derek's father)
• in front: William George and Elizabeth Alice (formerly Nelson)

1. Photo during construction; Right side and front, with church belfry
2. Right side and front 105 years later, with church belfry still in the background
3. Left side and front
4. Closeup of the plaque under the eaves, in front

I got myself a job as an enumerator for the 2001 census and spent part of April delivering forms to households, as phase 1 of the census. I liked the idea of being involved in a bit of history in the making. Phase two is trying to catch up on all the "no contacts" in phase one. The trickier part was after the census day, 29th April, when we began following up the non-returns. Fortunately, I didn't have any rough areas in my patch nor any language problems. A couple of householders were a bit off with me, but otherwise I have met some lovely people. The strangest was a man whose appearance immediately made me think of Count Dracula and who answered the door stroking his pet rat, but he was very courteous and accepted the form without demur. I have had to be careful with the few farms. There is no foot and mouth disease in this area, and we would all like to keep it that way, so I have followed the disinfectant routine where necessary. The poor farmers really are living on a knife edge at the moment.

My census duties were completed before the first week of June, when I was the Presiding Officer at one of the local polling stations for the Parliamentary and County elections. It was a long day; The polls opened at 7am and closed at 10pm.