Robins

14 February 2014

Back garden

For a short while the other morning we had the unusual sight of three robins feeding together on the spilt sunflower hearts. This didn't last for long; soon one of them (presumably one half of the resident pair) chased off the intruder.

Siskins now visit the pond which has long been a watering hole for blackbirds, sparrows and goldfinches.

Deeds

We've been looking through the deeds of my mum's house, a Victorian villa. In 1868 Richard Baines, worsted and yarn spinner, bought the plot of land from the Burdekin family and subsequently built two houses there.

On 30 August 1815, when the open fields of Horbury were enclosed, the plot known as 'Spinkwell Smeeth' in the West Field, which was also known as the Jenkin, was alloted to George Burdekin, a farmer of Horbury.

Jenkin literally means 'Little John' so perhaps there's a connection with the Wakefield Robin Hood!

We complain about the last green spaces in Horbury disappearing today but it's hard to imagine that at that time there was nothing but open fields around the town. There were probably very few hedges in the great South, North and West Fields and very few buildings between Horbury and Ossett to the west.

The small detail of the gate in south-east corner of the plot, as included on a map drawn on the Indenture of 28 August 1868, conjures up a long lost rural scene for me.

In effect during the last thousand years the plot has been in the ownership of;

1. the Manor of Wakefield
2. the Burdekin family
3. the Baines family
4. our family, the Bells