Monday, February 18, 2008

Auction Catalogue for Norcross Hill Farm

As if I haven't got enough to do without updating early to keep you lot quiet. And before anybody starts moaning about the lack of ancient history in this article, save your typing fingers until Sunday evening because I'll be updating again with something more substantially archaic.
Okay...another posting, another auction catalogue courtesy of Phil Barker, this time (as the title suggests) for Norcross Farm…or rather the late Norcross Farm because it no longer exists…well…part of it does…as a ruin…with a few knackered shippons round the back…from 1912.
Want to see the cover? (Probably not, but you’re going to see it anyway. If you want to enlarge for full impact then just click on the thumbnail below.)

And the interior details? (Don’t all crowd round at once!)

Well…we found the page quite interesting. Tennis court, stables, loose boxes (whatever they are…possibly a collection of cardboard containers that blew out of a nearby supermarket yard)…not bad for a yokel-dokel farm. We couldn’t help noticing the ‘usual outside offices’ amongst that lot as well. Presumably we’re talking about the outside lavvy here…the traditional office for Fylde farmers where most of their paperwork gets done.
And then there’s the map, which in this case we had a spot of bother scanning in (again) due to its awkward size and bulk, explaining why the right hand side of it is missing completely. (We’d had enough struggling after an hour and decided to leave it incomplete.)
Looks a bit different than the Lego-land civil service complex that occupies the site nowadays, doesn’t it?
There is one item of antiquarian interest here though…a designated footpath on the left hand side of the map (no longer in existence but, presumably, buried somewhere beneath the Spinney) that seems to defy the field boundaries and meander exactly where it chooses.
It was probably an ancient road in that case then, so if you live in the Spinney it might be worth digging up the communal yard at the back of your property to have a look.Anyhow…what more can we add? Well, not a lot really. But these things are always of historical interest to someone, which is why we put it up. Besides, we all like a bit of a snoop into other people’s houses, although I have to admit, we probably won’t be scanning any more in, in the immediate future.

12 comments:

JahTeh said...

Couldn't you have gone up in a hot air balloon and photographed the path underneath the spinney. And why not photo of what's there now? We can't actually run across and have a gig at the field now, not that I'd want to, bloody cold up your way. Loose boxes are for horses and fallen women.

Brian Hughes said...

Witchy,

You seriously don't want to see what's there now. The dreaded civil service unit at Norcross occupies the farmland. Flying a hot air balloon across the top of that would probably result in a government sponsored anti-terrorist missile ripping through the bottom of the basket. And nobody wants a missile up the basket, believe me.

Ann ODyne said...

and why did Mr. Bibby sell up his fine holdings?
Did he strike out for Port Phillip to make his fortune in The Colonies?

Ann ODyne said...

EIGHT bedrooms, and even the 'cottages' had 3 bedrooms.
all very substantial, and for 1912 Tennis was pretty cool.

Brian Hughes said...

Annie,

No idea why Mr. Bibby sold up or what happened to him afterwards. He probably just got a bit old for chasing sheep all morning, ploughing all afternoon and playing tennis all evening.

Incidentally, if you want to see a few photographs of the farm as it stands today (or very nearly doesn't stand, 'cos it's a bit of a mess) there's some pictures already posted over the forum.

http://fyldeantiquarian.freeforums.org/norcross-hill-farm-t66.html

(That link probably won't be highlighted. Links in comments boxes seldom work for me.) You might have to copy and paste it into your address bar. (Then again you might not...it's entirely up to you, of course.)

The farm's up for sale again at the moment. Somehow I doubt that Thornton Civic Society will be putting a bid in, though.

Ozfemme said...

what? no elephants?

JahTeh said...

There's a real nice load of bricks there for the yokels to cart off for building into walls for future antiquarians to puzzle over.

And I see up around Scarborough way, a youngster found a perfectly preserved dinosaur footprint on the beach. It had three toes. Have you been walking barefoot on the sand lately?

Brian Hughes said...

Bella,

There's a few pink elephants about, which'll be turning into fully fledged demons by the end of my second bottle.

Witchy,

Barefoot on the beach at Scarborough? It probably lost the other two toes on a broken cider bottle.

Ann ODyne said...

I saw a photo at the Fleetwood Gazette online thanks.
According to thepeerage.com/
the Bibby-Heskeths chaged their name to the Fleetwood-Heskeths ... and then later when Christine MacVie joined ...

Brian Hughes said...

Annie,

I haven't seen the photographs at Fleetwood Online (didn't even know it existed to be honest) but I'm sure that the ones at the Fylde and Wyre Antiquarian forum are far superior in every way.

As for Fleetwood Mac, they're just cashing in on the massive success of this website by occupying the first 500,000 positions on Google when you type the word Fleetwood in.

Ann ODyne said...

I clicked on the Auction Sheet and read the number of 'shippons' - WTF?
so I guugled it and
got a UK farm where they are digging up their river, finding encrusted urns and sending them for expert valuation and never seeing them again.
I just love blogs .. well it's 100 degrees F here and physically foolish to move from the chair really.

Brian Hughes said...

Annie,

Unfortunately the disappearing artefact routine is one that the Museum Services have a tendancy to repeat time and time again. That's why we either use Oxford Archaeology North for evaluation of small finds, or make sure that the pieces are catalogued and that we get a receipt for them before we hand them over. If they don't turn up again with their 'reckoning sheet' within a few weeks we go and pester the people in charge with a sharp, pointed stick until they give in and find them again.