Arams, Ruddle - (General)

by R Thorne , New Zealand, Saturday, January 07, 2006, 03:14 (6886 days ago) @ slowhands

This is most interesting to me, the John and Amelia Thorne family lived in the Ruddle area for 20 years before most of the next generation came to New Zealand from 1860. I have tried to find manorial? documents for Arams farm in the GLS Public Record Office during a UK trip five years ago but my search was constrained by time. I did find that John Thorne (a tanner) was at that period tenant/occupier at Arams and that the landlord was Walter Taylor whose Arams farm total holding was 39 acres 1 rood 33 perches.(1841 plan number IR 30/13/141). I was not bold enough then to arrive on a farm doorstep uninvited and ask what his likely connection with Arams farm might have been. I understand that the bark of trees in the forest was very suitable for the tanning process used then and indeed the 1891 map shows an "Underhill Tannery" between Ruddle and Newnham, whose current status is unknown to me.