Sally gives an insight into a bygone farming history

Farming has played an important role in the history of Flaxby and its surrounding areas as these photographs kindly submitted by resident Sally Carr show.

One of the original farm buildings on
The Grange with the Gill family on a tractor. 

The images were given to her by Paul Gill, one of the sons of the Gill family, whose family farmed in the village from the 1950s to 1980s.

The family sold off land for some of the bungalows to be built on in the 1960s and sold Flaxby Grange Farm to Birch's builders for development in the 1980s. 

The Gills also owned what were originally two brick cottages opposite Flaxby Grange where farmworkers lived and which Paul's father later made into a home.

The family also owned the detached house up on the hill on Shortsill Lane next to the footpath. We're told that, when the farm was sold off to Birch's developers in the 1980's, the land was sold on condition that the Gills could return to lift the growing potatoes.

View looking from Flaxby Grange farmhouse
across the road and green. Approx early 1950s. 

When they returned to do so, one member of the family accidentally reversed into one of the brick pillars of the long barn that is now part of the home where the Straughan family lives.

If you have any anecdotes or old photographs, feel free to submit them. We're keen to document the village's history and would love to feature them.

One of the Gill boys on a pony in what
is now the shared driveway to The Grange
houses and Flaxby Grange. At the end of the fold
 yards on the left which were demolished
is what became our house (1 The Grange).
Although originally a carting shed, our barn
area was usually full of pigs. 

The Gill family at the front
 of Flaxby Grange farmhouse.
Note that the downstairs windows 
in this shot are still the original 
Georgian style windows
 and not the bays.

Waiting for the hunt to begin.

Mr Gill on his horse ready to go hunting. In the driveway
to Flaxby Grange that is now the communal driveway. 

Inside one of the calf sheds around 1970s – one of the 
original farm buildings on the Grange. This is now the area
of the homes of the Straughans and Proctors.

The local hunt meeting starting from Flaxby.
Photo taken around late 1970s/early 1980s.

Flaxby Grange farmhouse approx 1970s.
The Gills removed the Georgian downstairs
 windows and added bay windows. 

Grange Farm: around the 1970s.