Tweddell's Stokesley Trail: Garden House

GARDEN HOUSE (BIRTH PLACE OF GEORGE MARKHAM TWEDDELL)

IS THE FIRST STOP ON THE TWEDDELL TRAIL.

George Markham Tweddell was born in Garden House (between Great Ayton and Stokesley on the A173) in 1823. His maternal grandfather, John Tweddell, owned the house and both his children and grandchildren were born in this house, including George's mother, Elizabeth Tweddell (1800-1841). Paul Tweddell tells of the early life of George Markham Tweddell on the Tweddell History site here http://www.tweddellhistory.co.uk/chapter2.html

Garden House was 15-acre farm and as an early painting from 1870 shows, the cottage was built from red sandstone although now pebble-dashed. Paul and Phillip Tweddell, on the trail of their ancestors, visited the cottage in 1997 and were shown around by the owner, who recognised their surname from the deeds. They were told that the cottage was in poor condition when they bought it, just prior to World War 2, with the external walls in need of rendering etc. She told them that until 1957, when the rotting sash windows were replaced, the front bedroom window had two little poems etched on it, signed by John Tweddell and etched in excellently formed handwriting. She could only remember one of the poems -

"Here i stand by day and night

To keep out cold and let in light."

John Tweddell

Garden House in 1997 from Paul Tweddell's Photo

A173 Stokesley to Great Ayton road 1997

with the roof of Garden House showing.

George Markham Tweddell's father was "Royal Navy Lieutenant, George Markham, who had been born in 1797 in the Rectory, Stokesley. His father, another George Markham (1763-1822), was the Rector of Stokesley, whilst also holding the post of Dean of York, and his grandfather was Archbishop Markham (1719-1807), famed for saving the walls of York from demolition in the first decade of the nineteenth century with the help of the author Walter Scott. Lt Markham had lived an adventurous life in the Royal Navy, had been mentioned in dispatches during the late Napoleonic campaign on the Mediterranean coast of France and was wounded in the Siege of Algiers in 1816. Obviously, one must imagine that his dalliance with Elizabeth Tweddell (1800-1841) while on leave in Stokesley during summer 1822 resulted in George Tweddell's birth the next year and must have been a typical event in the pre-Victorian period. So too was the way the child was welcomed by this mother's yeoman family without social problems; George would be perceived as an extra worker in the family's various enterprises and brought the added advantages of 'noble blood' to add it to the Tweddell line." http://www.tweddellhistory.co.uk/chapter2.html

You can read more about the Markham side of his family on another part of this Tweddell Hub, here http://georgemarkhamtweddell.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/george-markham-tweddell-and-markham.html

His mother's side, the Tweddell's were prominent in the West end of Stokesley as we shall see and John Tweddell owned a shop on West Green where his daughter, Elizabeth worked and where later George himself would live in his youth. George had a half brother with whom he grew up with at Garden house, called Thomas. Not so much is known about Thomas and it seems there was some sibling rivalry between them.

The panoramic view of the Cleveland hills and on the other side, Roseberry topping must have inspired George, who, with great pride, wrote a great many poems about the area, its hills, its characters and its industry and Roseberry Topping was a place he loved to visit and write about. See his Cleveland poems here http://clevelandpoems.blogspot.co.uk/

From Paul Tweddell's Book Poor Lives but full of Honour.

More recent views of Garden House from Streetview.

The above painting, taken from the Tweddell history site by Paul Tweddell was painted by george's son - also called George Tweddell c 1872 of Garden House - Paul says "Artistic licence emphasises the hills and realigns the road by the farm.

The side of the house is now surrounded by high conifers but in George's time, you would have been able to see through to stokesley. The other side of the conifers is the flood diversion as seen in my own photos below.