Lives in Cricket No 34 - Frank Mitchell

129 Appendix Two Birdsall Rectory House and Birdsall Manor There is strong evidence that Rectory House Birdsall was also known as Birdsall Manor. When in May 1883 Frank Mitchell entered St Peter’s School York, his father was named as ‘T.Mitchell Esq., of Birdsall Manor Malton’.  There has been no formal rectory at Birdsall for more than a century, the parish being very small and scattered but Kelly’s Directory for 1913 refers to ‘the ancient Rectorial or Birdsall Manor’. The current name of that property is Birdsall Manor Farm. To add to any confusion another property Birdsall Grange was once the home of a twentieth century clergyman, but Birdsall Grange was never known as The Rectory or Rectory House. The 1881 census lists Rectory House next to the entries for The Kennels which remain close to the property still named today as Birdsall Manor Farm. For centuries the Lords Middleton have been the primary land owners in Birdsall and the Middleton Estates continue to this day. Birdsall House, a splendid property at the heart of the present community, remains a family home of the Middletons. Though the buildings named The Kennels remain, the local hunt which once met four days a week and with 50 pairs of hounds has long gone. View towards Birdsall Manor Farm, Frank Mitchell’s boyhood home.