Waite House Farm

Waite House Farm 1939

An Ancient Farmhouse With A Tragic End

Some properties are interesting for their age, the people who have lived there, and sometimes because of something that happened there. In the case of Waite House Farm it has something of all three.

The history of Waite House Farm, near Barnby Dun, goes back further than you might imagine. A history full of past buildings and inhabitants. However, the farm has also seen tragedy; tragedy that led to it being abandoned for many years and finally demolished.

In this article we look at the history of Waite House Farm, and some of the people who lived there before moving on to the tragic events which led to its downfall.

Note: The first part of this article was first published on the post - Lanes Around Arksey. 

Contents

• Locating Waite House Farm
• Early History
• Twentieth Century Occupants
• Arthur and Blanche Parkin-Coates
• Arthur W and Ida Parkin-Coates
• Dark Days at Waite House Farm
• Fire
• Court Hearing
• Subterfuge of a Friend
• Suicide
• The Trial
• Aftermath
• Newspaper Articles
• A Personal Note

Locating Waite House Farm

1938 map showing location of Waite House Farm

The Waite House Farm discussed in this article doesn't exist today, although there is a new farm in its place. The above map shows the location of the farm in relation to the surrounding area. 

Lying in a field off Marsh Lane and Fordstead Lane, Waite House Farm faced Thorpe Marsh Power Station to the north, Pilkington's glass works to the south and was nearer Barnby Dun than Arksey, but still within the parameters of this blog, which covers the area up to the Lift Bridge at Barnby Dun and the River Don Navigation boundary. 

Lying quite near to the river Don, the farm must have been at considerable risk of flooding, especially before that stretch of river was straightened, as can be seen on the map of 1854 below. 

Early History

1854 map of Waite House Farm

The first reference to a dwelling at this site comes in 1540 under the name Thwate House. In 1580 the name is recorded as Twaithouse.

'Thwaite' means a piece of land cut off from the adjoining land - an enclosure or clearing. It comes from the Old Norse thveit and the Old English thwitan. Therefore 'Thwaite House' literally means 'house in the clearing'.

As with all names of antiquity there have been many variations recorded over the centuries, the main being whether the 'Th' is present or not; in the case of this dwelling, the 'Th' is usually dropped and Thwaite becomes Waite. 

Although we can't be certain, it may be the case that the first people to live there named the property after themselves. There is a burial record in the Barnby Dun parish registers for a William Waytt in 1604 who resided at Twyat House. So it could be the case that William was descended from the original family to live there.

A closer view of the map image of Waite House in 1854

Although there has been a dwelling on the site for over 475 years, it hasn't always been the same property. Up until the 1990's the house which stood there was a large, red brick house with outbuildings, probably built in the mid 1800's; in fact the building on the 1854 map (above) looks like it could be the red brick property. It is impossible to know what previous buildings looked like but we can get a sense of past occupants from the Barnby Dun parish registers (which mention the house), the census, and electoral records. Early occupants from the parish registers are listed below, including the year of the record and how the property was referred to:

• Thomson - 1687 - 'Wate House'
• Auworth - 1719 - 'Wate House'
• Owin - 1724 - 'Wayte House'
• Scruton - 1734 - 'Wayte House'
• Wilkinson - 1765 - 'Waite House'
• Tomlinson - 1782 - 'Waithouse'
• Parkin - 1791 - 'Whate Hows Thorpe'
• Randy - 1805 - 'Wait House'
• Ellis - 1813 - 'Waitehouse'
• Stenton - 1881 - 'Waite House'
• Kitchen - 1894 - 'Waite House'

One interesting note from the Arksey parish registers is tagged on to the burial of 'John Wilkinson of Waite House in the parish of Barnby Dun'. He was buried on January 11th 1765 and the note goes as follows:

'Memorandum that Mary his widow paid one shilling to Sir Brian Cooke Bart of Wheatley as an acknowledgement of a trespass for his corpse coming over Grumble Hurst and part of Arksey Ings to New Bridge and from thence to Arksey the same being no highway.' 

From this note it appears that in order for John Wilkinson's body to be transported to Arksey church for his burial, his widow had to pay to cross Sir Bryan Cooke's land as there was no through road to Arksey from Barnby Dun at that time and the only way to get to Arksey was to follow the back lanes. 

Twentieth Century Occupants

Waite House Farm in 1935

Picking up the thread of past occupants of Waite House, and by 1900 the red brick house would certainly have been in existence. The next owner was Arthur Firth who owned the property between 1901 and 1911. The next record is from 1913 and this introduces the Parkin-Coates family to Waite House.

Arthur and Blanche Parkin-Coates

Arthur Parkin-Coates was born in Thorpe in Balne, near Barnby Dun in 1878; he married Blanche Pearson in 1907. They had two children while still in Thorpe in Balne, Arthur William in 1908 and Kenneth in 1910. According to the 1911 census Kenneth suffered from paralysis from the age of 2 months (he was 9 months by the time of the census).

1911 census of Arthur Parkin-Coates

By 1913 the family had moved to Waite House and another child, Flora, was born in 1916.

Arthur died in 1953 but Blanche and Kenneth continued to live at Waite House into the early 1960's. Kenneth died in 1962 at the age of 51 and Blanche died in 1969, but by that time she was living elsewhere.

The other son Arthur William we come to next.

Arthur W and Ida Parkin-Coates

Arthur William Parkin-Coates, who was born in 1908, was brought up for the most part at Waite House Farm. In 1937 he married Ida Dodson (born 1905) and they moved to White House Farm off Bramwith Lane in Barnby Dun, where Arthur was a farmer. 

Arthur and Ida had three children, Alan Samuel in 1938, Rosamund Edna in 1940 and another son in 1944.

Thorpe Marsh Power Station, a familiar landmark on the horizon from Waite House Farm

Sometime in the early 1960's Waite House became vacant, possibly following the death of Arthur's brother Kenneth in 1962. As the house was still owned by the Parkin-Coateses Arthur decided to let one of his farm workers and his family live there.

At that time the house had no electricity, inside toilet or hot water supply. The toilet facilities were very basic and consisted of an outhouse with a pit underneath, over which was a 'seat' made of a wooden board with a hole in the centre. 

Pilkington's Glass works in 1935, Waite House Farm can just be seen on the upper right of this aerial view. Image from britainfromabove.org

Paraffin Tilley lamps were used for light, and food was kept fresh in a walk-in larder or cold store off the kitchen. The larder had a stone shelf for curing bacon, which hung from hooks above. Handmade butter was kept on slabs and the larder felt cold even on the hottest of days.

In 1965/66 Arthur had electricity and a bathroom installed in Waite House, this was in preparation for his son Alan to move into, and this brings us to the events of 1966 to 1968 and the end of Waite House.

Dark Days at Waite House Farm

Arthur Parkin-Coates's son Alan married Patricia Earnshaw of Almholme in early 1966, and they had two daughters by the end of 1967.

Waite House farm, which had been occupied for the previous few years by Archibald Robb, his wife, son George and two daughters was vacated as Mr Robb senior, who worked part-time for Arthur Parkin-Coates, was moving to Bentley to take up a job at the colliery. George Robb worked full time for Parkin Coates on his farm in Barnby Dun. The two families were good friends and the Robbs often made fun of Arthur's prolific swearing, making tape recordings of his conversations to play back and embarrass him with later.

Fire  

Shortly after the Robbs moved out of Waite House in 1966 Arthur Parkin-Coates asked Archibald and George Robb to clear the grounds and burn a rotting straw stack, ready for when Alan and his wife moved in. 

Following this Parkin-Coates then made an insurance claim against the fired stack, in which he claimed he didn't know the cause of the fire. He was awarded around £275, however, the insurance company then decided to investigate the claim which led to the Robbs being accused of arson.

Court Hearing

At a hearing at Doncaster Magistrates Court in March 1967 Parkin-Coates and his son Alan gave evidence against the Robbs, with Arthur repeatedly claiming he did not give permission for the fire to be set. The claim was repeated in another hearing at the West Riding Quarter Sessions (the equivalent of a Crown Court today) the following month.

The outcome of the court case was that Archibald Robb was found guilty of arson and imprisoned for six months, while his son George was acquitted.

Subterfuge of a Friend

Following the court case a good friend of the Robbs, Mrs Mary O'Brien, who was convinced that Archibald was innocent, concocted a plan to trap Parkin-Coates.

She took a reel of tape to Doncaster Cattle Market where she confronted Mr Parkin-Coates. She told him the tape held the proof that he and his son had given permission for the straw stack to be burned down. In light of all the previous occasions his conversations had been recorded, Parkin-Coates believed Mrs O'Brien and paid her £50 for the tape, of which nothing of importance was on it.

Mrs O'Brien then took her story and the money to the police, who discovered Parkin-Coates trying to destroy the tape by burning it in a country lane on his way home. He was arrested.

Mrs O'Brien also went to the Robbs' solicitors, and as a result of her actions a re-trial was ordered.

Suicide

Archibald Robb was released from prison having served three months of his sentence. Arthur and Alan Parkin-Coates however, were charged with fraud and perjury.

On the 23rd of July 1968, the night before the trial, Alan Parkin-Coates, who was 29, took a 12 bore shot gun into one of the outbuildings of Waite House Farm and committed suicide.

The Trial

The trial of Arthur Parkin-Coates was inevitably delayed following the tragic events at the farm, but did take place that October. 

At the trial Arthur William Parkin-Coates pleaded guilty to committing perjury at both hearings in March and April of 1967. He also pleaded guilty to obtaining just over £275 from the Royal Insurance Group by false pretences. 

He was sentenced on October the 18th to a total of eighteen months in prison. The Judge, Mr Justice Shaw told Mr Parkin-Coates:

"Providence has punished you more than I can. The death of your son by his own hand was the result of your machinations and evil doing.

It is only that which makes it possible for me to pass a sentence which is far too light by itself."

Aftermath 

Following Archibald Robb's release from prison, the family moved back to their native Scotland. Mr Robb had been deeply affected by his time in prison and never spoke about this dark period of his life again, he is now deceased.

Arthur William Parkin-Coates continued to live in Doncaster after he had served his term; he died in 1972 at the age of 63, Ida, his widow died in 1998.

As for Waite House Farm, it was abandoned shortly after Alan Parkin-Coates took his life, his widow and two young daughters moving on elsewhere. 

The house became derelict over time although the outbuildings continued to be used for farm storage. It was eventually demolished in the 1990's.

Google Earth image of the new farm at the Waite House Farm site in 2017

Today, a new farm stands in the footprint of Waite House Farm. Gone are the cooling towers of Thorpe Marsh from in front, and the hum of the glass factory behind. A new farm with a new outlook and a happier future one hopes.

Newspaper Articles

The following two newspaper articles from the 19th of October 1968 summarise the Parkin-Coates case, transcriptions are underneath.

 

Daily Mirror Saturday 19th October 1968

Perjury by a Father Drove His Son to Suicide

'A farmer's guilty secret made his son commit suicide and put an innocent man in jail.

And it took a woman's cunning to reveal the truth, a court heard yesterday.

The farmer, 60 year old Arthur Parkin-Coates of Barnby Dun, Doncaster, Yorks., was jailed for a total of eighteen months at Leeds Assizes.

He admitted committing perjury and obtaining £271 17s. 6d. from an insurance company by false pretences.

Mr. Harry Ognall, prosecuting, said that Parkin-Coates had allowed two of his farm workers - Archibald Robb and his son George - to burn down a rotting stack of straw and clover.

Then he put in an insurance claim, saying that he did not know the cause of the fire. In due course he was paid. 

But further inquiries were made, and the two Robbs were accused of arson.

Parkin-Coates and his son Alan gave evidence against them in court. The farmer repeatedly swore that he had not given permission for the fire, said Mr. Ognall.

Archibald Robb was jailed for six months. His son was acquitted.

But a friend of the Robbs, Mrs. Mary O'Brien was convinced that Mr. Robb was innocent. And she worked out a plan to trap Parkin-Coates - with the help of a reel of recording tape.

Proved

One day at Doncaster cattle market, Mrs. O'Brien went up to Parkin-Coates and took the reel of tape out of her handbag.

And she told the farmer that a recording on the tape proved beyond doubt that he and his son had given permission for the stack to be burned down. 

Parkin-Coates paid her £50 for the tape, which he took into a country lane and burned. In fact, nothing of importance was recorded on it.

Mrs. O'Brien went to the Robbs' solicitor. As a result a re-trial was ordered. Mr Robb was set free after three months in jail - and the Parkin-Coateses were charged.

On the day they were to appear in court Alan Parkin-Coates committed suicide leaving a widow and two young daughters.

Mr. Michael Walker, defending, claimed that Archibald Robb had blackmailed Parkin-Coates about the claim.

After reading a document, the Judge, Mr. Justice Shaw, said: "It gives some support to what you have been saying."

Light

Sentencing Parkin-Coates, the Judge told him: "Providence has punished you more than I can. The death of your son by his own hand was the result of your machinations and evil doing.

It is only that which makes it possible for me to pass a sentence which is far too light by itself."

The Guardian Saturday 19th October 1968

Lies 'Imprisoned Innocent Man'

'An innocent man served three months of a six month prison sentence because of perjury by his employer, said Mr Harry Ognall, prosecuting at Leeds Assizes yesterday. He was freed after a friend led the employer into a trap. The employer's son, who was alleged to have been involved in his father's plot, killed himself.

Arthur William Parkin-Coates (60), a farmer, of White House Farm, Barnby Dun, Doncaster, pleaded guilty to committing perjury at Doncaster West Riding magistrates' court on March 30, 1967, and guilty to perjury at the West Riding Quarter Sessions on April 20, 1967. He received two concurrent sentences of 15 months' imprisonment.

He also pleaded guilty to obtaining £276 17s 6d from the Royal Insurance Group by false pretences, for which he received a consecutive sentence of three months' imprisonment, making 18 months in all.

Mr Ognall said Parkin-Coates was the owner of Wait House Farm. Archibald Robb was employed on a part-time basis and his son George on a full-time basis, the two Robbs fired a rotting stack at Wait House Farm with the assent of Parkin-Coates. Parkin-Coates submitted an insurance claim for the stack and later received the money. He told the insurance company that he did not know the cause of the fire.

The two Robbs appeared at West Riding magistrates' court on a charge of arson. Parkin-Coates said on oath that at no time had he given them permission to fire the stack.

At the West riding Quarter Sessions Parkin-Coates and his son gave evidence. Parkin-Coates maintained he had not given the Robbs permission to fire the stack. Archibald Robb was found guilty and sentenced to imprisonment and George Robb was found not guilty. Mrs Mary O'Brien, a friend of the Robb family told Parkin-Coates that she had a tape recording of his instructions to Robb and showed him a spool of tape which contained nothing of value. Parkin-Coates gave her £50 and then he destroyed the tape. Mrs O'Brien told the Robbs' solicitor.

Later the Court of Criminal Appeal ordered a new trial, in which no evidence was offered against Robb.

Mr Michael Walker, defending, claimed that Archibald Robb blackmailed Parkin-Coates about the claim.

Mr Justice Shaw told Parkin-Coates: "The death of your son was the result of your machinations and evil doings."

__________

 

A Personal Note

Sometimes it can be hard to tell a story if there is a chance it could cause distress to living relatives of those involved in the story. It is certainly not my intention to upset anyone by bringing this 50 year story out into the open again. I have purposely not named anyone from the Parkin-Coates family who may be around today.

Although I already knew a little of what happened, the bulk of this story came from the daughter of Archibald Robb (who I thank most sincerely) who contacted me after seeing my earlier post about Waite House on the article Lanes Around Arksey. She also sent me one of the newspaper articles. 

I found the other newspaper article online at Newspapers.com, while genealogical, census and electoral register records were found at Ancestry.co.uk. As this information is already in the public domain I feel justified in posting it here.

Some events in history are tragic and filled with shame. But the actions of one man should not taint the lives of his descendants, but neither should they be hidden.

Alison Vainlo 2020