Deep Waters

The story of the Harrisons in Skipton tracks the lineage of one Sarah Anne Harrison, who married a factory worker, Thomas Horner in 1862.

The Harrisons were a local yeoman farming family that had connections with the smithying Barker family who had been resident in Skipton since the fourteenth century, and the Petyt family of Crookrise who were also smallholders in the eighteenth century.

Through connections with the Heelis family of Skibeden and Halton the and the Cattersons of Skipton, who held lands surrounding the Red Lion Public House in Skipton, the Harrisons were ultimately connected to the Petyts of Storithes and Bolton Abbey.

The story of the Harrison family is one that is familiar throughout Yorkshire. Sixteenth century yeomen, smallholders and miners whose division of their property amongst large families inevitably meant that these properties became too small to support a family. The move to the industrial centres to find an alternative livelihood is echoed throughout England in the era that is called the Industrial Revolution.