Procter's - Rear
The original building on this site was built in 1219. It was rebuilt in 1702 as recorded on the main door lintel, inscribed "M.M.1702".
"Procter's", later the Pannal Post Office, thus held claim as the oldest building in the area, as well as being one of Pannal's most picturesque, painted and photographed thatched cottages.
It is thought that William Procter of Rigton, a husbandman and tanner, who paid Queen Rent for the property in 1724, possibly owned the building at that time. Bryan Procter, son of William, born at Rigton, baptised at All Hallows Church, Bardsley, moved to Pannal with his wife Agnes and his widowed mother. Bryan and Agnes married on the 5th December 1763 at St. Robert's Church Pannal. Agnes died in 1816. It is almost certain that they lived at 'Procters', where Bryan became a yeoman farmer. Bryan and Agnes had four sons and five daughters.
It is likely that Bryan used the barn next door, that later was converted to a residence and known as Lydia's Cottage. Bryan became a considerable land-owner, as the 1778 map of Pannal shows.
Procter's were still living there at the end of the 18thC when Mary, daughter of Bryan and Agnes, scratched her name and the date 1793 on one of the window panes. Mary was baptised in November 1779, and later married William Bentley of Pannal Hall in 1802
Bryan Procter was Village Constable once, surveyor six times, Church Warden nine times, and a member of the Vestry for many years.
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Bryan became an ardent Methodist, holding house church meetings in his home. In 1778, efforts were made to establish a 'preaching house', and Bryan became a founding member of the Methodist Chapel in Hillfoot Ln. Pannal. It is said that he provided hospitality for John Wesley when he was travelling in the area preaching, probably around 1787.
Son William and wife Elizabeth (nee Hebden) were both also concerned with methodism in Pannal. When Agnes died in 1816, the house became a licensed 'Meeting House'. James, a nephew of Bryan, was a signatory, living in his uncle's house. In 1827, both Bryan and his daughter-in-law Elizabeth, died. James continued to live there with his second wife, daughter Esther and grandchildren, till his death in 1851.
At some time, possibly on Bryan Procter's death, the property became part of the Pannal Hall estate.
The fate of the house is unknown between 1851 and 1865, when John Wilks (a tailor by trade) , wife Hannah (nee Thorpe) and daughters Sarah Ann and Lydia became resident (Sarah married this author's g.grandfather in 1881; Lydia married George Ward in 1884, was widowed less then 6 years later, settled with her 3 young daughters in Lydia Cottage, publishing post-cards that form the basis of this site and a book). Whilst at Procter's, six more children were born, John (19/5/1868), Laura (9/5/1870), George Herbert (6/10/1973), David Thorpe (1/2/1876), and twins Margaret and Mary Alice (6/9/1879). Descendants of the Wilks continued to live there until it was condemned and demolished c.1926.
In a book by R. Ward and W.A.Sedgewick, "Postal History Of Harrogate, Knaresborough and Ripon", it is noted that a steel single ring handstamp for letters was issued for Pannal on 16th February 1885. John Wilks of "Procter's" obtained the job of Post Master. Pannal formerly included part of Harrogate, a small town of no importance in the postal listings until about 1780 when Harrogate was made a sub-office of Wetherby.
John Wilks remained Post Master till his death in 1897. His daughter Margaret (now married to Stephen Cobb) then took on the job. Around 1900, Margaret's brother, David Wilks returned from service in India to help her, travelling from Starbeck. Later Postmen were Henry Brooks and John Dobbs up until its closure c.1926.
The post-man's chores included clearing of the post-box at Pannal station at 6pm. The mail was then transported by handcart back to the post-office. This mail along with that posted through the mail slot in the front wall of the post office, was then franked, placed in a sack, bound with string and sealed with sealing wax and duly franked with a seal. The bag of mail was then carted back to the station to be placed in the 6:20pm train.
A telephone was also located in the post office, and any telegrams sent to Pannal residents were taken down and delivered by anyone available, and occassionally compensated by a 3d delivery charge.
This stone built thatched house stood on the west side of Main St. with a containing wall on the edge of the street. It was a three bay house with its only entrance at the rear (west side) into the northern most bay. The door way which had stone jams and lintel, led into a stone-flagged room which served as Post Office and wash room, and contained the access staircase to the upper storey. The Post Office counter was against the front wall, at the other end of the room from the door. A small window looked out onto main St, and a Letter Box, let into the outside wall, spilled the letters into a container behind the postal counter. Beside the posting box was a stone set pot which was covered over during business hours, but at other times was used for boiling water and washing. On the north side wall was a fireplace which was lit in the winter and mainly used for drying clothes. The stairs in the north-west corner, turned halfway up to a landing to reach an open bedroom above. the window beside the stairs was large enough to give light to both the downstairs and upstairs rooms. This window comprised four unequal sized casements further divided into 69 small panes.
A stone wall divided the Post Office area from the next room on the ground floor, the 'house' or family room. The wall was thick enough to have housed an inglenook fireplace with a long, heavy mantle beam. But in the early 20thC it had housed a large Victorian range. The second ground floor room was approached by way of a short arched passage, which was in length, the width of the dividing wall. No door separated the rooms, only a heavy curtain. This second room, as the name implies, was used for all purposes. It had a double casement window on the western side and a pantry at the opposite end. Just inside the entrance was a three seater settle, which effectively prevented those sitting on it from being subject to draughts from the door.
Along the wall opposite the fireplace and the range, stood an organ near the window, and the grandfather clock. A tall chest of drawers was against the frontside wall, and an entrance to an unlit coal hole.
The furnishings of this room consisted of a rough oblong table with a linoleum top, a sizeable round pedestal table around which the family ate, a large windsor chair with arms, a square stool and some wooden chairs. Under the window was a long table on which John Wilks and later David, performed any tailoring needed by the family.
All the cooking was done on the black-lead stove with its baking oven and trivets for pots and kettle. It was fed with wood and could be closed up to heat the oven, or opened to supply heat for the trivets and the room. All preparations for the meals were done in this room, except that in fair weather, the vegetables were prepared on the slop-stones against the wall of the backyard garden.
The third room on the ground floor, approached from the 'house', was the palour, which until her death, was Mrs. Wilks' bedroom, when she was unable to mount the stairs to her bedroom above the palour. It was formerly a sitting room with upholstered hair-filled chairs, a round table with three feet, and a huge chest of drawers against the eastern wall, which was the wall of the coal hole. A small window over-looking the garden, gave light to this room, which was mainly used for sitting and playing board games. It had a low door down one step.
Upstairs were three bedrooms, all accessible from the one aforementioned staircase, and all inter-communicating, although divided by the stone walls. The first bedroom was lit by the stairs window, the second was light by a dormer window let into the thatch, and the third room was lit by a small window let in the wall at a lower elevation. The windows of the second and third bedrooms opened on a sliding principle, to the south. All the window architraves and lintels were of solid pieces of stone.
Although the upstairs floors were wooden, those downstairs were of stone and covered with prick rugs. All lighting in the house was by paraffin lamp until Mrs. Hannah Wilks died, when, shortly before the house was demolished, gas lighting and a gas stove were introduced to the ground floor.
Coal was delivered to the backyard in a yearly two ton delivery, which was then carted through the house to the coal hole, which was lit by candle.
The area at the rear of the house was divided into two, a paved yard at the north end separated by a stone wall from the garden at the south end. Along the north side of this wall stood the slop-stones, where washing, vegetable preparation and china crushing (for feeding the hens) took place. A rabbit hutch or two and a bicycle shed stood against this wall, and in the yard which it enclosed lived the hens, who were housed in a hut near the beck. A pig sty at the end of the yard housed a Tamworth pig.
A large garden, divided from the yard by the stone wall, stretched to the beck and in season produced a profusion of fruit and vegetables, for there were apple trees, blackcurrants, raspberries, gooseberries and loganberries which grew over the outside lavatory, as well as the vegetables grown in the well manured plot. In the lean-to lavatory, with its two-seater frame, which was removed periodically to empty the contents of the pit, were stored the potatoes and the paraffin for lighting the lamps in the house. The cess pit contents was mixed with other wastes and dug into the garden. Later, another lavatory was built a few yards distant from the previous one, abutting on to the house. There was also a small aviary in the garden.
A row of sundry shaped vessels were put out on wet days to catch rain off the thatch which was then stored in enormous zinc tubs and baths, and used for all washing purposes. Drinking water was carried from a tap across the Main St., a communal drinking water source from a spring.
Pannal Post-Office
Procter's garden