This barn has always intrigued me. So big it’s almost out of context. Above Bilsdale Hall. The pines beyond are the last remnants of Weighill’s Plantation probably named after John Weighill who, in the 1901 census was living in Bilsdale Hall, aged 61. And in the distance is Garfit Gap, the col between Hasty Bank and Cold Moor.
Battersby has no village green. This is the nearest there is to a centre. A wooden door serves as a notice board and there is a post box with the initials “ER” which the farmer assures me stands not for Elizabeth but Edward. The barn is shown on the 1842 Ordnance Survey map and the top floor served as a granary, again according to the farmer.
Referred to as Badresbi in the Domesday Book, Battersby’s sole claim to fame is that the prolific 20c historian and novelist John Fairfax-Blakeborough once lived there at the Old Hall. If it were in a city there would be a blue plaque.
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