Cornforth Moor House Farm

@ 1841 Census, Benjamin Greenshield was farmer at Cornforth Moor. Was this Cornforth Moor farm or Cornforth Moor House farm? (Or both?)

@ 1851 Census, Robert Story (aged 33) was farmer of 18 acres, employing 1 labourer, and Thomas Hardy (aged 45) was farmer of 72 acres, employing 2 labourers, both at Cornforth Moor. I guess that the first was Cornforth Moor House farm and the second was Cornforth Moor farm.

@ 1861 & 1871 Censuses, no separate farmer for Cornforth Moor House farm identified.

@ 1881 Census, John Christopher was farmer of 16 acres at Cornforth Moor – presumed to be Cornforth Moor House farm.

@ 1891 Census, George Winwood (aged 64, born in Suffolk) was farmer at “Cornforth Moor” (one of a number of addresses given just as “Cornforth Moor”, while Robert Robinson was farmer at Cornforth Moor Farm. So presumably GW was at Cornforth Moor House farm.

(In 1881, GW was a coal miner, living at Hamsteels, Lanchester, with wife Susannah and 7 children. Only his wife and two children were with him @ 1891. @ 1901, George Winwood was living at Heugh Hall, with his daughter Emma and her husband, Ralph Heckler.)

@ 1901 Census, Charles [Wood] Clark was Farmer (own account) & Coke Man at Colliery at Cornforth Moor – i.e. Cornforth Moor House farm.

@ 1911 Census, Elizabeth Wood Clark, widow, was Farmer at Cornforth Moor House farm (with seven unmarried children).

@ 1939 Register, James A. Dixon was Farmer (Dairy) at Cornforth Moor House.

Bell Bros. bought “Cornforth Moor Farm” in 1917 for £1,000. Did the Bell Bros. only buy Cornforth Moor HOUSE Farm (from Mrs. Shearer)? Don Swainston (20/10/05) believes both were owned by the Colliery. Perhaps Cornforth Moor House Farm was separated off from Cornforth Moor Farm after it was bought by the colliery owners? (Note price paid in 1917 – only £1,000 – might suggest a small farm.) However George Winwood may have separately farmed Cornforth Moor Farm (q.v.) in 1891.

Thomas Fawell’s address @1918 El.Reg. was given as “Lambs Close”. He may be the Mr. Fawell who farmed Cornforth Moor House Farm prior to 1926, when Jim Dixon took it over.

CMHFm was only 16 acres when Jimmy Dixon took over, in 1926. When Crowtrees Farm was split (in 1930s) land north of the Tursdale road was added to CMHFm, making 32 acres. (Land north of the road was added to Peat Edge.) Other fields were added later, including, c. 1980, those between sewage works and Tursdale pit heaps, next to the railway. (These had belonged to Oxleys, were sold to the colliery when flooded from burst pit heap slurry pond, sold to Randy Stevenson (Tursdale House Fm) and then to Alec Dixon.)

Mr Dixon may also have bought land east of the Motorway from Jack Scott (Cornforth Moor Farm), or subsequently, via a third party.