As well as Bank House, the Duffield Charity also owned properties in Sherburn, which were rented out, and Mattram Hall Farm on the Cawood to Sherburn road. In Cawood there was arable land of around 26 acres in seven "closes" as well as the School House. Some of the premises were copyhold of the Lord of Lotherton Hall, Major Gascoigne - I wonder if his family gave their name to Gascoigne Wood? The charity report states that they paid poor rates, cemetery rates and a Selby Dam rate for the property in Cawood.

This is an old photograph of Market Place and Sherburn Street.	This is the description of the school house at the end of the 19th century: "The buildings consist of a house in Market Place separated by one house from the Selby Road, containing on the Ground Floor a schoolroom, 14 by 15 feet, the matron's sitting room, the girls' sewing room and a kitchen; on the first floor three bedrooms for the girls, a spare bedroom for cases of sickness, and the matron's bedroom; and a capacious attic of one room. Separate from the house, and in a very small brick-paved yard, are a washhouse, coal-hole, and other offices. A flight of a few steps leads from the yard to a plank bridge across Bishopdyke leading to a patch of grass a few yards square, which is unfenced from the neighbouring property."
The house separating the school house from the Selby road was knocked down in 1897 to widen what is now Thorpe Lane; because there was an adjoining property and the open dyke at the back, there was a passageway through the house from Market Place to the back yard to allow access to the rear. The chimney breast is supported by a wide brick arch as it has to negotiate an angle of 45° to then follow the line of the outside wall to the roof. Evidence of the "other offices" was unearthed when we dug up the garden and found a brick floor about 2 feet below the present upper garden level, with a channel to allow water to drain into the dyke.	The tall chimneys right of centre with smoke belong to Bank House - a dyke going through the garden was "all mod cons".
High Street	The schoolmistress received money from the trustees for each girl to lodge and feed her; bedding and furniture was provided by the trustees. The girls wore a simple uniform of a dark blue serge dress and a white cap and kerchief. They were instructed along similar lines to the Public School elementary standards, including freehand drawing and singing by ear; reading, writing, arithmetic, cooking, sewing, washing and all branches of a housemaid's work. The schoolmistress would provide a servant at her own expense, usually one of the girls who had just left. One of the original trustees was Bacon Morritt, he has a memorial in Selby Abbey. The Duffield Charity still continues, and currently provides funding for local apprentices, etc.

	Trevor the butcher caught on camera on the pavement outside as I try to get all of Bank House into one picture - but the roof was too high! You can just see near the back of the house where the next door house used to be before the road was put through one hundred years ago. Cawood Castle just visible behind the sycamore tree at the back.
This is part of the attic - the "hung" ceiling where the original stairs used to come up, and the curved spars along the low wall at the side. Back to home page