My Great Grandfather William Gomersall, was born and grew up in Otterburn-in-Craven, where at the age of 24 he inherited Hill House Farm and lived the life of a gentleman farmer. These pages therefore are about him, his wife, brother, sister, and their descendents.

His forebears lived in the village of Little Gomersal in the parish of Birstall, as far back as the 16th Century and beyond. Later they lived in Birstall itself where for more than a century they were farmers and dyers.