This old house on the North side of Newmarket Street can be traced back for two centuries...
25 Newmarket Street in 1979
Painted by Verona Cole
During 25 Newmarket Street's transformation into its current format we took plenty of photographs of our progress.
Visit our gallery for some before and after shots of this old house.
In 1762 the Manor Call Books show that Thomas Hartley succeeded Jacob Robinson as the occupier, and in 1770 Thomas Hartley, a plasterer, mortgaged to John Alcock, his dwelling house and a garden in Back Lane. The Window Tax Assessment of 1771 shows Thomas Hartley as occupying the first substantial house on the North side of Newmarket Street counting in the easterly direction from Caroline Square.
In 1775 Thomas Hartley conveyed to Samuel Atkinson, a carrier, the lately erected dwelling house in his occupation, with a barn and stable in Back Lane, and the Call Books show that Mary Atkinson succeeded Samuel Atkinson between 1800 and 1810.
From 1813 until his death in 1829 the occupier was John Preston, the solicitor, his widow Jane continued in occupation after his death, and was still there at the time of the 1851 Census, but by 1852 she had moved to 11 High Street.
The Leeds Intelligences in 1814 advises the dissolution, on the 17th March, of the partnership between John Preston and Mr Alcock.
"In the profession of Attorneys Solicitors and Conveyancers…, and from after that date the said John Preston will carry on business on his own Account at his office situate nearly opposite the Devonshire Hotel in the Newmarket Street in Skipton."
In 1841 his son Thomas Preston, also a solicitor, lived here; he is mentioned in William Gomersall's "Hunting in Craven" (1889);
"Mr Tom Preston of Skipton, Solicitor, was much happier behind a brace of pointers, or up in the saddle, than he was when among his cases, briefs or parchments."
By 1854 the Church Rate gives Edward Robinson as the owner occupier, and the 1861 Census Return shows him as aged 34, a cotton spinning employing 122 hands and Wholesale Grocers employing 6 hands, living here with his wife and 5 children, a governess, cook, housemaid and nurse. He died in 1868, and there is a stained glass window in the Parish Church in memory of Edward and his brother Thomas Robinson. Margaret, the widow of Edward Robinson, continued to live here until 1892 and her son Robert Arthur Robinson, an architect, lived here until 1920, when the property was sold to Mr C.K. Butchart, the dentist, whose son Dr. J.E.K. Butchart occupied it as a dental surgery until he retired in 1973 (Dr Butchart died in 1994).
The house was then occupied by Mr D.W.S Pollard & Son, Dr J.R.D Pollard who carried on the profession of dental surgeons until recent years.
