Storwood & The Popplewells

In the mid 2000s I clearly remember a telephone call from my mother when she shared with pride and incredulity that a neighbour, Peter Popplewell, had introduced her as ‘local.’ It had only taken thirty years.

Hagg Bridge House, Storwood, York, was our home from the mid 1970’s onwards. My parents had returned to England from South Africa with one toddler and a second child in utero. The search for a house in which to raise a family, with enough land for a small holding, within commuting distance from York, and within a limited price band, was not a challenge for the faint of heart.

The exhaustive search led to an obscure B-road junction on the B1228, Hagg Lane & Narrow Lane, with a single neighbour opposite. Located in the East Riding of Yorkshire, equidistant between the villages of Sutton upon Derwent & Melbourne, Hagg Bridge is half a mile from the hamlet of Storwood which loosely encompassed Hagg Bridge House and our neighbour, Hagg Bridge Farm.

Our city-raised, urban dwelling, parents were going full ‘Good Life’. After all it was the 1970s. Despite being less than ten miles from our grandparents in York, it felt like we were living in the middle of nowhere.

Our family were the first in a new wave of arrivals to the village, occupying four of the nine total properties. Setting up home with a young family is never easy, let alone in a new neighbourhood, away from friends and family. What we did not realize, until this very year, was our family was not as far away as we thought. We were related to our neighbours, the Popplewell family, and share 4th Great Grandparents, John BAINBRIDGE (1789-1869) & Mary BAINBRIDGE (1786-1871).

The Popplewell family were the first of the previous wave of residents to settle in the village of Storwood. Originating from Appleton Roebuck, North Yorkshire, the Popplewell families started arriving in the 1930s. Eventually they occupied four farms in the village and became the largest farming family in the area.

Jane Ann and George Ernest Popplewell moved to Hagg Bridge Farm as partners in the Dairy Farm, with their son Donald, after retiring from his previous career as a butcher in York. Jane Popplewell, née Wrightson, was born in Tollerton, North Yorkshire, where our Bainbridge ancestors lived for generations. She grew up with her 2nd cousins, including our great grandfather John Henry BAINBRIDGE 1892-1940, also born and raised in Tollerton. If John Henry had not died so young, he may have made the family connection much sooner.

By the time of our family’s arrival, the now widowed matriarch, old Mrs Jane Popplewell, lived with her eldest son Donald Popplewell, dairy farmer, and daughter in law, Rose. Old Mrs Popplewell, our 2nd cousin 3x removed, would sit in the upper window of the house, watching the world go by, and watch us playing in our garden.

Across the field south of Hagg Bridge House was Storwood Grange where Jane & George’s second son Gerald Popplewell lived with his wife Elsie. They were the last Popplewells to arrive when the couple moved into Storwood Grange after their marriage in 1939. We knew ‘Auntie Elsie’ as a retired teacher who became our tutor to help us pass our school entrance exams. As children we spent a great deal of time with Elsie at her home or ours. It would not be uncommon to find Elsie and Grannie sipping one glass of dry sherry in the kitchen of Hagg Bridge House as my mother prepared the Sunday Roast.

Gerald and Donalds’s first cousins, Keith & Peter, lived on Postern Lane, the main street through Storwood. Named after his father, Maurice Keith Popplewell, lived in Orchard House on the site of the old Wesleyan Chapel. Keith raised our Christmas goose every year and I remember ‘helping’ swap out the engine of his 1970’s Range Rover.

Peter, Keith, and their three sisters, were raised in Storwood by parents Maurice & Janet Popplewell in White House Farm. Janet died tragically young, aged 49 years, leaving Maurice to raised the two youngest sons alone, Peter & Keith.

Peter educated our mother in the art of raising sheep, from tupping, lambing, and shearing, to slaughter and butchery. Peter’s wife, Freda, would let us collect chicken eggs from amongst the straw bales in the barn and reward us with boiled sweets. The Aga range was always hot and the kettle always close to the boil. Peter Asquith Popplewell, the eldest son, continued living at White House Farm until his own death in 2008. Peter would be the last Popplewell in Storwood.

By the turn of the 21st century the next wave arrived as another three families moved into three more properties as they came available. As I write this article, there are now twelve properties between Storwood & Hagg Bridge, but the population remains less than 30, just as it had been when the Popplewell family arrived in 1920s and 1930s.

Bainbridge Family Tree

Our family and the Popplewell family share 4th Great Grandparents John BAINBRIDGE (1789-1869) & Mary BAINBRIDGE (1786-1871) of Tollerton. Their daughter, Mary Ann, married Richard Wrightson and they settled in Tollerton. In the next generation, Samuel Wrightson, relocated to Groves Lane, York, as a Fruiterer, a career pursued by one of his sons, J W Wrightson, while the daughters entered domestic service.

Jane Annie Wrightson went into domestic service for the Crow Family of Penley Grove Street, who ran a butcher business in York. The Crow family also employed George Ernest Popplewell as shop assistant (and future journeyman butcher) at their Walmgate Butcher Shop. Jane and George married in The Groves Chapel and raised their family in The Groves neighbourhood on Huntington Road, York. The family relocated to Hagg Bridge Farm in the 1930s.

• John BAINBRIDGE (1789-1869) & Mary BAINBRIDGE (1786-1871)
  • John Bainbridge (1816-1872)
  • Joseph Bainbridge (1818-1901)
  • Mary Ann Bainbridge (1820-1891) & Richard Wrightson (1832-1905)
    • Samuel Wrightson (1860-1934) & Sarah Jane Smith (1863-?)
      • Jane Annie Wrightson (1890-1987) & George E Popplewell (1884-1968)
        • Gerald Ewart Popplewell (1914-1981) & Elsie Mary Hall (1916-2003)
          • Fourth Cousin
          • Fourth Cousin
        • Donald Popplewell (1917-1993) & Rose Mary Reeve (1925-2005)
        • Ernest M Popplewell (1920-1945) & Margaret L Caffrey (1921-2000)
          • Malcolm Alexander Popplewell (1945-2019) & Jennifer Statters (1946-?)
            • Fourth Cousin 1x Removed
            • Fourth Cousin 1x Removed
        • John R Popplewell (1922-1922)
  • Charles William Bainbridge 1822-1895
  • Elizabeth Bainbridge 1824-1897
  • Jane Bainbridge 1825-1848
  • Henry BAINBRIDGE1831-1891 & Jane SCOTT 1828-1872
    • Charles BAINBRIDGE1861-1935 & Elizabeth Ann HEADLEY1863-1935
      • John Henry BAINBRIDGE1892-1940 & Adelaide EDGAR (1888-1975)
        • Charles Reginald BAINBRIDGE(1915-1994) & Winifred May THOMPSON (1920-1977)
          • Fourth Cousin
          • Fourth Cousin
          • Fourth Cousin
        • Kenneth Norman Bainbridge1920-2007
        • Ronald Geoffrey Bainbridge1924-2022
        • Donald Edgar Bainbridge 1926-1972
        • Doreen May Bainbridge 1928-2013

Popplewell Family Tree

The Popplewell residents of Storwood have been highlighted in green.

• George Popplewell (1855-1916) & Jane Welsh Phillips Carrick (1861-?)
  • Ann Popplewell (1882-1918)
  • George E Popplewell (1884-1968) & Jane Annie Wrightson (1890-?)
    • Gerald Ewart Popplewell (1914-1981) & Elsie Mary Hall (1916-2003)
      • Fourth Cousin
      • Fourth Cousin
    • Donald Popplewell (1917-1993) & Rose Mary Reeve (1925-2005)
    • Ernest M Popplewell (1920-1945) & Margaret L Caffrey (1921-2000)
      • Malcolm Alexander Popplewell (1945-2019) & Jennifer Statters (1946-?)
        • Fourth Cousin 1x Removed
        • Fourth Cousin 1x Removed
    • John R Popplewell (1922-1922)
  • Maurice Popplewell (1887-1971) & Janet Park (1889-1939)
    • Joan Annie Popplewell (1918-?)
    • Ruth Popplewell (1921-2005)
    • Kathleen Mary Popplewell (1923-1977)
    • Arnold Park Popplewell (1925-1929)
    • Asquith Peter Popplewell (1926-2008)
    • Maurice Keith Popplewell (1930-1997)
  • Mary Jane Popplewell (1890-1983)
  • Roland Ewart Popplewell (1893-1928)
  • Dorothy Margaret Popplewell (1895-1974)

References

• Storwood, East Riding of Yorkshire, Wikipedia
• GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Storwood, in East Riding of Yorkshire and East Riding | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time
• A P Baggs, G H R Kent, J D Purdy, ‘Thornton’, inA History of the County of York East Riding: Volume 3, Ouse and Derwent Wapentake, and Part of Harthill Wapentake, ed. K J Allison (London, 1976), British History Online
• A P Baggs, G H R Kent, J D Purdy, ‘Harthill Wapentake’, inA History of the County of York East Riding: Volume 3, Ouse and Derwent Wapentake, and Part of Harthill Wapentake, ed. K J Allison (London, 1976), British History Online
• Photographs of Hagg Bridge, Flickr.com
• Hagg Bridge Farm, OntheMarket.com
• Magna Carta baron, Robert de Ros, Manor House at Storwood, Pocklington History
• ‘Honey Pots’ Earthworks of Ros Manor-House, Storwood, Gatehouse
• Map of Storwood, East Riding of Yorkshire, c1900, maps.nls.uk
• 195 Bus from Pocklington to York stopping at Hagg Bridge, East Yorkshire Buses
• B1228 Hagg Bridge, Pocklington Canal, Wikipedia
• Hagg Bridge House, Storwood, RM English
• Hagg Bridge House, Storwood, Zoopla.co.uk
• Orchard House, Postern Lane, Storwood, York, Zoopla.co.uk
• PoW Camp 73 Storwood, Melbourne Autos, Repatriated Landscape
• 1840 -1909 Directory Entries, Storwood, Pocklington History
• A short history of the parish, East Cottingwith & Storwood Council, East Cottingwith Parish Council
• A short history of the parish, East Cottingwith & Storwood Council, East Cottingwith PC.Gov
• Ernest Malcolm Popplewell (1920-1945), Losses Database, International Bomber Command Centre
• Hagg Bridge, Grade II Listed Building, Historic England
• Storwood Grange, Grade II Listed Building, Historic England
• Moated site and water-management features south of White House, Storwood, Scheduled Monument, Historic England
• Otters at Hagg Bridge 1985 & 1994, The Naturalist, Wikimedia Commons
• Wrightson, Samuel, Fruitr, Groves Lane, Kelly’s Directory of N & E Ridings of Yorkshire, 1913. [Part 2: York & Hull]
• J W Wrightson, Fruiterer & Florist, Gillygate & Lord Mayor’s Walk, York, circa 1930s, York Press
• We Are The Groves, Storytelling Walk, wearethegroves.org
• Heritage Hunters: The Groves, York Museum Trust