Marie Hartley (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.
Life 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. 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.
They wrote the "groundbreaking" Life and Traditions in the Yorkshire Dales (1968), and The Old Hand Knitters of the Dales (1951) which showed how important knitting is. These two are considered to be classics. 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 Works by or about Marie Hartley with Ella Pontefract and Joan Ingilby Title Date Publisher Swaledale by Ella Pontefract and Marie Hartley 1934 J.M. Dent & Sons Wensleydale by Ella Pontefract and MarieHartley. 1936 J.M. Dent & Sons The Charm of Yorkshire Churches by EllaPontefract, sketches by Marie Hartley. 1936 The Yorkshire Post Wharfedale by Ella Pontefract and MarieHartley. 1938 J.M.Dent & Sons Yorkshire Tour by Ella Pontefract and MarieHartley. 1939 J.M. Dent & Sons Yorkshire Cottage by Ella Pontefract andMarie Hartley. 1942 J.M. Dent & Sons Yorkshire Heritage, A Memoir to EllaPontefract, written and illustrated by MarieHartley. 1950 J.M. Dent & Sons The Old Hand Knitters of the Dales by MarieHartley and Joan Ingilby. 1951 The Dalesman Yorkshire Village by Marie Hartley and JoanIngilby. 1952 J.M. Dent & Sons The Yorkshire Dales by Marie Hartley andJoan Ingilby. 1956 J.M. Dent & Sons The Wonders of Yorkshire by Marie Hartleyand Joan Ingilby. 1959 J.M. Dent & Sons Yorkshire Portraits by Marie Hartley and JoanIngilby. 1961 J.M. Dent & Sons Getting to Know Yorkshire by Marie Hartleyand Joan Ingilby. 1963 J.M. Dent & Sons Life and Tradition in the Yorkshire Dales byMarie Hartley and Joan Ingilby. 1968 J.M. Dent & Sons Life in the Moorlands of North-EastYorkshire by Marie Hartley and Joan Ingilby. 1972 J.M. Dent & Sons Shell Guide to East and North Ridings byMarie Hartley and Joan Ingilby. 1974 Shell Publications Life and Tradition in West Yorkshire by MarieHartley and Joan Ingilby. 1976 J.M. Dent & Sons A Dales Heritage by Marie Hartley and JoanIngilby. 1982 The Dalesman The Origins of the Upper Dales Folk Museumby Marie Hartley and Joan Ingilby. 1984 Wensleydale Press Alexander Fothergill & and the RichmondTurnpike Road, edited by Marie Hartley andJoan Ingilby. 1985 North YorkshireCounty RecordOffice Dales Memories, by Marie Hartley and JoanIngilby. 1986 The Dalesman Yorkshire Album by Marie Hartley and JoanIngilby. 1988 J.M. Dent & Sons Yorkshire Dales Wood Engravings by MarieHartley. 1989 Smith Settle A Dales Album by Marie Hartley and JoanIngilby. 1991 J.M. Dent & Sons Yorkshire Dales Wood Engravings – A FurtherSelection. 1991 Smith Settle Forms and Colours, Marie Hartley. 1992 Smith Settle A Farm Account Book from Wensleydaleedited by Marie Hartley and Joan Ingilby. 1992 North YorkshireCounty RecordOffice Poems by Joan Ingilby, 1994 Smith Settle A Favoured Land, Yorkshire in Text andImage, the work of Marie Hartley, Joan Ingilbyand Ella Pontefract. 1994 Smith Settle Marie Hartley's Picture Book 1995 Quince Tree Press Fifty Years in the Dales by Marie Hartley andJoan Ingilby. 1995 Smith Settle Marie Hartley : Wood Engravings by MarieHartley. 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
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