A substantial family tree encompassing many of the Cumbrian Wannops has been compiled, although not embracing all branches. The tree was originally compiled by the late Arthur Wannop - who farmed in the Isle of Wight - and was translated to a computer record by Glyn Ross of Canada, whose mother was a Wannop. The tree was subsequently considerably revised and extended by Urlan Wannop from original sources at the Cumberland County Records Office.
Since at least the 1600’s, the Wannops in England have been concentrated in Cumberland, to which they seem to have moved from Northumberland. The locality of Wainhope near Kielder in North Tynedale is almost certainly the origin of the family name. Settlement around Kielder dates back 2,500 years to the Iron Age, continuing through the Roman period to post-medieval times.
Although no documentary evidence confirms their arrival from Northumberland, some Wannops were certainly settled in Cumberland by 1580. The migration over a distance of around 30 miles was probably of an entire family group of Wannop farmers, occuring over a short period of time.
Although the name has spread far abroad, Cumberland has been the Wannop heartland since the 16th. century. The family are relatively fewer amongst the population of England, however. Electoral registers in 1998 recorded 167 Wannops of voting age (over 18) in Britain, whereas the 1881 Census showed 139 Wannops aged 18 or over. Although both records have their limitations, other names have clearly grown relatively more in England.
Farming was still the principal occupation of Wannops in Cumberland in 1881, when 37 of 71 males of above school age farmed or worked on farms. Three Wannop widows also farmed, and at least six daughters of the name worked on farms. Other Wannops depended upon agriculture as blacksmiths, sawyers or manure agents. Altogether, 23 Cumbrian farms were run by Wannops in 1881, reducing to three by 2006. Of course, the Wannop line continues in other farms inherited through female lines, where marriage has changed farmers’ names.
From at least 1580, Wannop families were consolidating in Cumberland between Wetheral and Brampton, where between 1600 and 1900 they occupied at least 40 farms at one time or another, or about a third of all farms in that area. Moreover, whereas the average size of Cumberland farms in 1851 was 110 acres, the average Wannop farm of 1881 was half as large again.
There are several credible explanations for the short-distance migration of the Wannops from the Northumbrian to the Cumbrian Border country. Although the upper reaches of North Tynedale may have lacked permanent settlement until the 1500’s, summer sheilings lay on the broad upland pasture. Below the modern forestry village of Kielder and the locality of Wainhope from which the name seems certainly to derive, however, there is archaeological evidence of medieval houses and a farm, as well as signs of earlier Iron Age and Roman settlement.
Medieval records show an ‘Emma of Waynhoppe’ having been beheaded at Wark in 1279, and the ‘Thoma. Waynhop’ whom the Durham Rolls record as selling beasts to the monks in 1420 is likely to also have come from the locality. North Tynedale was an important droving corridor. Black cattle were prevalent in largely pastoral farming on land which was high and relatively poor. In 2007, sheep were still being sold at market from grazings at Wainhope, although much land had been given over to forestry,
The hardships of farming life in the vicinity of Wainhope would have been reason enough to move to better land in Cumberland, but there was also the background of warfare on the Borders. Raiding was still common in Cumberland at first evidence of Wannops there in the late 16th. century, but the family was not amongst the prominent reiver names of Redesdale and the Northumbrian borders. It may be that the family stood apart from the reiving culture, although what Emma’s thieving in 1279 involved is unknown. The John Wannop who was a bailiff as Lord Howard restored his Naworth estate in the early 1600’s was presumably of better reputation, or at least trusted to satisfy the Lord’s interests. The considerable authority and patronage of a bailiff would have been to the advantage of John Wannop’s kinsmen as the Borders settled to peace, when farming offered an increasingly secure and prosperous life. The Wannops were frequently yeomen, reflecting their standing and the relatively secure and prosperous roles they gained in the 18th. and 19th. centuries.
While Wannops in Britain remain concentrated in Cumberland, farming is no longer their prime livelihood in the 21st. century. Since the mid 1800’s, Wannops have moved to towns and cities and new occupations as have other traditional farming families throughout Britain.
