Littleburn, Thoralby, Yorkshire

Rhiannon Parker-Nicholls

The house was built in the late eighteenth – early nineteenth century, with earlier origins, for Morris Robinson, 3rd Baron Rokeby, who died at the house on the 19th of April, aged seventy-one.

The five-bay house is built of coursed rubble with a stone slate roof, standing two storeys high with an additional attic. The house frontage boasts nine eight-pane casement windows with ashlar architraves.

The front garden is partially enclosed by a stone wall. On the outer Eastern wall, is a mounting block made of the same rubble as the wall. To the east of the main house is another two storey building, looking to be more recent than the main house. This presumably contained the stables and servant quarters.

While living at the house, Morris Robinson published a five-act play entitled ‘John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough’, printed by Mr Fall in the nearby town of Leyburn. In his will, he left his personal possessions and payments totalling several hundred pounds to his housekeeper, Mary Peacock, and other property to Lawson Dunn and his family. No member of the Robinson family is mentioned. (He had an illegitimate son, W K Robinson, who died at Boroughbridge, Yorkshire, in 1811 at the age of 19.) Lawson’s daughter Elizabeth Dunn erected a window in Morris’s memory in St Andrew’s Church, Aysgarth.

After Morris’s death, Littleburn and his other properties were passed to his brother, Matthew Montagu in accordance with the entail down the male line of the Robinson family.

The house was granted Grade II listed status by Historic England on 25 March 1969.

Following Westfield Lane, just before you reach Littleburn from the direction village of Thoralby is Littleburn Bridge. The bridge was built in 1814, for the 3rd Lord Rokeby, Morris Robinson, the favoured nephew of Elizabeth Montagu.

Constructed of rubble, the bridge is formed of a single, segmental arch with an ashlar parapet. The bridge is supported with square, ashlar pedestals with panelled sides and pyramidal tops. On the inside of the downstream parapet is a stone inscription ‘AD 1814’ and on the inside of the upstream parapet, an ashlar sandstone plaque boasting a Latin inscription, beginning with ‘Sola in Deo Salus,’ the Robinson’s family motto, ‘Salvation in God alone.’

Sola in Deo Salus
Pons Egerianus incolarum viciniorum sumptu, flumini prave parvo parumper periculosissimo super adstructus paci saluti sub Deo Wellingtonio sacer.
Accipe dux belli, quem pax petit, arbiter audax
Pontigerus fluctus exilientis aquae
Fontigenas fluctus capiat mare divitis undae
Inque triumphali splendeat arcus ovans.

(English translation by kind permission of Professor Richard Maber) Salvation in God alone
The Egerian bridge, built at the expense of the neighbouring inhabitants, over the stream that may appear small but quickly becomes very dangerous, is dedicated to Wellington who, under God’s protection, has brought about the security of peace.
Accept this, commander in war, and bold arbiter sought by peace,
The stream of leaping water that bears this bridge;
May the stream, born from a spring, reach the sea with its rich waters;
Speak, let the rainbow shine, rejoicing in triumph.

The bridge was granted Grade II listed status by Historic England on 6 April 1988.

Please note that all dates and location information are provisional, initially taken from the library and archive catalogues. As our section editors continue to work through the material we will update our database and the changes will be reflected across the edition.

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