Marie Hartley MBE (29 September 1905 – 10 May 2006) was writer or co-writer and illustrator of some 40 books on the social history of the Yorkshire Dales.

Marie Hartley
Ella Pontefract and Marie Hartley
Born(1905-09-29)29 September 1905
Died10 May 2006(2006-05-10) (aged 100)
NationalityBritish
OccupationAuthor
Known forWriter, illustrator, painter and historian

Life

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Hartley was born into a prosperous family of wool merchants at Morley, near Leeds. She attended Leeds College of Art and then the Slade School in London, where she specialised in wood engraving. On her return to Yorkshire she settled in the market town of Wetherby. During the 1930s and 1940s she set up in partnership with a local writer, Ella Pontefract, illustrating books on the Dales and Yorkshire. The two women published six books on Yorkshire life and customs before Pontefract died in 1945.[1] Subsequently, Marie Hartley was joined by Joan Ingilby. Marie Hartley spent 75 years gathering material which related to disappearing rural traditions of Yorkshire. The women travelled across the county collecting stories, written material and artefacts, all of which they brought back to the 17th-century cottage they shared at Askrigg in Wensleydale. In the early 1970s they donated their collection to the former North Riding of Yorkshire County Council. In 1979 this gift formed the basis of the collection now housed in the Dales Countryside Museum at Hawes.[2]

They wrote the "groundbreaking" Life and Traditions in the Yorkshire Dales (1968),[3] and The Old Hand Knitters of the Dales (1951) which showed how important knitting is.[4] These two are considered to be classics.[5] The archive of their documents and photographs remains in the care of the Yorkshire Archaeological Society, whose Silver Medal they won in 1993. Both were appointed MBE in 1997, and in 1999 received honorary degrees from the Open University. Ingilby died in 2000 aged 89.

Works

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Works by or about Marie Hartley with Ella Pontefract and Joan Ingilby[6]

Title Date Publisher
Swaledale by Ella Pontefract and Marie Hartley 1934  J.M. Dent & Sons 
Wensleydale by Ella Pontefract and Marie
Hartley.
1936  J.M. Dent & Sons 
The Charm of Yorkshire Churches by Ella
Pontefract, sketches by Marie Hartley.
1936  The Yorkshire Post 
Wharfedale by Ella Pontefract and Marie
Hartley.
1938  J.M.Dent & Sons 
Yorkshire Tour by Ella Pontefract and Marie
Hartley.
1939  J.M. Dent & Sons 
Yorkshire Cottage by Ella Pontefract and
Marie Hartley.
1942  J.M. Dent & Sons 
Yorkshire Heritage, A Memoir to Ella
Pontefract, written and illustrated by Marie
Hartley.
1950  J.M. Dent & Sons 
The Old Hand Knitters of the Dales by Marie
Hartley and Joan Ingilby.
1951  The Dalesman 
Yorkshire Village by Marie Hartley and Joan
Ingilby.
1952  J.M. Dent & Sons 
The Yorkshire Dales by Marie Hartley and
Joan Ingilby.
1956  J.M. Dent & Sons 
The Wonders of Yorkshire by Marie Hartley
and Joan Ingilby.
1959  J.M. Dent & Sons 
Yorkshire Portraits by Marie Hartley and Joan
Ingilby.
1961  J.M. Dent & Sons 
Getting to Know Yorkshire by Marie Hartley
and Joan Ingilby.
1963  J.M. Dent & Sons 
Life and Tradition in the Yorkshire Dales by
Marie Hartley and Joan Ingilby.
1968  J.M. Dent & Sons 
Life in the Moorlands of North-East
Yorkshire
by Marie Hartley and Joan Ingilby.
1972  J.M. Dent & Sons 
Shell Guide to East and North Ridings by
Marie Hartley and Joan Ingilby.
1974  Shell Publications 
Life and Tradition in West Yorkshire by Marie
Hartley and Joan Ingilby.
1976  J.M. Dent & Sons 
A Dales Heritage by Marie Hartley and Joan
Ingilby.
1982  The Dalesman 
The Origins of the Upper Dales Folk Museum
by Marie Hartley and Joan Ingilby.
1984  Wensleydale Press 
Alexander Fothergill & and the Richmond
Turnpike Road
, edited by Marie Hartley and
Joan Ingilby.
1985  North Yorkshire
County Record
Office 
Dales Memories, by Marie Hartley and Joan
Ingilby.
1986  The Dalesman 
Yorkshire Album by Marie Hartley and Joan
Ingilby.
1988  J.M. Dent & Sons 
Yorkshire Dales Wood Engravings by Marie
Hartley.
1989  Smith Settle 
A Dales Album by Marie Hartley and Joan
Ingilby.
1991  J.M. Dent & Sons 
Yorkshire Dales Wood Engravings – A Further
Selection.
1991  Smith Settle 
Forms and Colours, Marie Hartley. 1992  Smith Settle 
A Farm Account Book from Wensleydale
edited by Marie Hartley and Joan Ingilby.
1992  North Yorkshire
County Record
Office 
Poems by Joan Ingilby, 1994  Smith Settle 
A Favoured Land, Yorkshire in Text and
Image, the work of Marie Hartley, Joan Ingilby
and Ella Pontefract.
1994  Smith Settle 
Marie Hartley's Picture Book 1995  Quince Tree Press 
Fifty Years in the Dales by Marie Hartley and
Joan Ingilby.
1995  Smith Settle 
Marie Hartley : Wood Engravings by Marie
Hartley.
1996  Smith Settle 
Making a Backcan 1997/8  Smith Settle 
The Harvest of a Quiet Eye: A Tribute to Marie Hartley MBE 2006  The Friends of the Dales Countryside Museum 

References

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  1. ^ Wainwright, Martin (17 May 2006). "Obituary: Marie Hartley | Books | The Guardian". The Guardian. London: GMG. ISSN 0261-3077. OCLC 60623878. Retrieved 23 July 2011.
  2. ^ "The Dales :: Marie Hartley MBE". thedales.org.uk. 2011. Retrieved 23 July 2011.
  3. ^ "What life really used to be like in Yorkshire Dales". www.yorkshirepost.co.uk. 17 March 2018. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
  4. ^ "Old Hand Knitters Of The Dales | The Shed®". Retrieved 11 November 2022.
  5. ^ Matthew, H. C. G.; Harrison, B.; Goldman, L., eds. (23 September 2004). "The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. ref:odnb/97179. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/97179. Retrieved 11 November 2022. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  6. ^ "Amazon.co.uk: Marie Hartley: Books". amazon.co.uk. 2011. Retrieved 23 July 2011.