Ffarquhar

**Ffarquhar** is a village and the top station of the Ffarquhar Branch Line. The engine and carriage sheds are located here, as well as a line leading to Ffarquhar Quarry.

## History

The oldest part of the village stands astride the Arlesburgh/Ulfstead Road. In the troubled times of the Regency (1263-1404) a fort stood here as an outpost for Ulfstead Castle. Following the Island's acceptance of Henry IV as Overlord in 1404, the fort fell into disuse, and little remains except the hillock on which it once stood. It is still called "The Fort". Some of the older houses in the village are built from its masonry.

St Finan's church, which mainly dates from the thirteenth century, has a circular tower of a much earlier date and was massively built. It cannot be entered except by a ladder from inside the church, and seems to have been intended as a peel or tower of refuge.

With its importance as an outpost gone, Ffarquhar led a peacefully rural existence for the next few centuries. A scattered community of hill farmers grew barley and oats, but the emphasis was, and still is largely on cattle and sheep. The Sodor Black Poll is a hardy dual purpose breed producing good mutton and also quality fleeces which, formerly spun and woven at home, are now worked up into fine cloth at the Ulfstead Woollen Mills. In former days farmers only kept enough cows to supply their own and local needs, but with the coming of the railway, larger herds have become profitable, the milk being despatched twice daily to St. Pedroc's Dairy at Elsbridge.

Mechanisation had been slow to take hold, but it was nevertheless here to stay. A visitor to Thomas Cousins' workshop saw implements of incredible antiquity in for repair standing, as it were, side by side with the latest from Massey-Ferguson or Fordson. Thomas Cousins began as the village Blacksmith; now under his son and grandson the firm are agricultural engineers to a wide district. It is their boast that they can supply and repair any implement needed on any farm. They will even undertake to devise "one off" implements needed for awkward or peculiar situations.

It is impossible to be in Ffarquhar or anywhere else in West Sodor without being reminded of "Felgood's Famous Ffarquhar Ales". It was in the 1850's that Josiah Felgood set up his first brewery, much of which still oremains. It is now in the hands of his great grandson Jermyn. Visitors are welcomed, and though Felgood's have breweries elsewhere, any Real Ale expert can always tell a Ffarquhar Brew from that of anywhere else. The Hackenbeck water, they say, makes all the difference. The Ales can be tried at the brewery or The Three Beetles at Hackenbeck, or better still at The Toby in Ffarquhar itself. The Toby was originally "The Toby Jug", but the landlord was so delighted when Toby came and put an officious police constable in his place, that he had Toby's picture painted on his signboard, instead of the jug. This young policeman perhaps hoped to gain promotion and a reputation for zeal by enforcing laws which were out of date and which had been quietly forgotten. He drove Ffarquhar innkeepers nearly crazy with obscure points in the Licensing Laws, and scored a success against Thomas, but when one Sunday morning he prowled outside the Church taking the numbers of the cars he saw there, he found too late that he had "booked" not only the Vicar, but John Croarie, the Chairman of the local Bench of Magistrates, as well as his own Sergeant. He was speedily transferred elsewhere amid general rejoicing.

It was John Croarie's father, Jabez, principal landowner in Ffarquhar who, feeling the pinch after the First World War, floated the Ffarquhar Quarry Company to mine the stone under his land on Anopha Fell and in furtherance of this, persuaded the North Western Railway to extend from Elsbridge to Ffarquhar. From 1921, the village has increased in population from 350 to 2405. The Quarry Co. employs some 400 people wither underground or at the cutting and curing sheds.

Ffarquhar is railhead for the district. There had been talk of a further extension to Ulfstead, but there were difficulties, and following an agreement with Sodor Roadways the idea was dropped.

When Thomas first got his branch line, Glynn was situated in an abandoned siding next to the station. He was later moved to another siding in a forest and forgotten about. During the third season, a new tramway was constructed to connect the line up to the quarry.

Since the thirteenth season, a balloon loop has been located west of the station, allowing trains to turn around for return trips to Knapford without the engine needing to uncouple and use a turntable.

## Trivia

* Ffarquhar is Percy's favourite station.