Kirkby Malzeard & Laverton

Love Lane

The current situation of the path makes it too dangerous to use.

Originally known as Lover’s Walk, this unique sunken path runs from the eastern corner of the churchyard through to the Ripon road, and comes out just above the dairy.

Love Lane, 1890
Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland
The exact date of it’s creation is unknown, but what is known is that Josiah Crompton of Azerley Grange used to drive to St Andrew’s Church, where the family had their own private pew, and he would take his coach up the drive of Mowbray House, park up and enter the churchyard through a private door. When entering the churchyard, he would directly pass the Crompton family vault where he would pass his respects to his ancestors.
The Lycett family were living in Mowbray House at that time, and disliked Mr Crompton coming up the drive and through their garden. The idea of a sunken path was therefore created, and the Crompton family agreed that this would be a satisfactory alternative access route to the churchyard to not only the Crompton family, but also tenants and employees on the Azerley estate. Whilst Robert E. Crompton used the path, up to World War 1, his covered gig with the groom would be sent to the Queens Head yard after dropping him off at the entrance to the path, and wait until the service had finished.
This was around 1860, and the path had stone walls, stone flagged floor, as well as a covered stretch where the Mowbray House driveway makes its way to the house.
The passageway was regularly used until World War 1, and during World War 2 the covered part of Love Lane was used as the Kirkby air raid shelter. Electricity was provided, as well as at least one toilet, a tinned food store and a quantity of sandbags. Luckily the usefulness of the lane as an air raid shelter was never tested!

Love Lane, 1979
The matter of ownership periodically comes up, and it’s unclear who, if anyone actually owns the path, and therefore takes on responsibility of maintaining it. In 1979, Ronnie Robson did a little research and found that Rev. R. Winlo, to the best of his knowledge, did not think the church owned it. Bill Taylor, manager at the Dairy, told Ronnie that the path was not on their deeds, nor was it on the 1922 conveyance when the estate passed from the Cathcarts to the Moores.
In response to Ronnie Robsons’ article in the Ripon Gazette,. Lt. Col. R.E. Crompton replied in a following edition regarding the ownership. He states that he kept it in repair, cleaned it out and hung a new gate at the Ripon Road end in about 1960, but by 1965 the lane had ‘gone completely out of use, full of rubbish and needed considerable repairs as the wall was damaged by tree roots. At that time some claim was being made to it as a public Right of Way (i.e. casual use by unauthorised persons for 10 years or so).’
He states that he wrote to the Parish Council informing them that he no longer required the pathway, and were happy to pass it over to the care of the Parish Council.
Moving onto 2017, ownership was again queried at a Parish Council meeting:
a) Love Lane, Kirkby Malzeard – The owners of both adjoining properties Wensleydale Dairy and Mowbray Hall, have indicated that they do not own this footpath, and St Andrews Church have also confirmed that it is not in their ownership. The Church closed off the gate at their end some years ago as it is not a designated public footpath. The Parish Council therefore propose to chain up the gate at the Ripon Road end in order to prevent access, as the path is badly overgrown with a build-up of litter present. This work will be carried out shortly.
This was recorded in a later meeting in 2017 with:
(a) Love Lane – Cllr. Hurford has contacted the Dairy about the ownership of the lane and the issue of the rubbish that has been collecting on the verges of the road outside the dairy. The Dairy felt that the perimeter wall was their boundary and that the Lane was not their responsibility. They did agree to monitor the litter problem, although it was acknowledged that some of this had been blown down from the village in recent high winds. Cllr Jackson stated that in the past the Dairy and the owner of Mowbray Hall had agreed to keep their own sides maintained but as this was not happening it was decided to ask the parish caretakers for a quote to clean up the Lane. Further enquiries will be made to try and establish the ownership.
The current state of the path actually isn’t too bad, with the exception of a large Victorian style street lamp which has almost fallen into the path from the Mowbray House side, and creates a real danger to anyone using the path, so I would strongly recommend against walking up or down the path.
The gate at both ends are in a poor condition, and have been locked, as mentioned in the Parish Council notes, but as they don’t own the path, I wouldn’t have thought that was allowed.