We bought Low Quebec some 12 years ago now. It’s a beautiful house in a beautiful setting – if you are doing the Coast to Coast there’s a good chance you’ll walk through our garden. We’ve spent those 12 years restoring the house. Bringing back it’s original internal finishing whilst adding a few contemporary touches.

The farm dates back to some time prior to 1669. The deeds for the house go back to 1669, noting the property details when it was first sold, so we think it may well be a little older than the deeds suggest. Carolyn has a summary of the people who have lived here over the years here – it makes for an interesting read.

Here’s some notes we found from a local historian with regard to the property, interesting because one of the questions we regularly get asked is “Where does the name come from”……….

LITTLEBECK / LOW QUE-BECK = LOW QUEBEC
Low Quebec is a rural area just outside Whitby that gave its name to the village of Littlebeck.

A farm called Low Quebec still exists. The name has no connection with the size of the beck (stream) running through the village, but is instead a corruption of Low Guebec, a name with French origins meaning ‘low area where the river narrows’. The French origins may have historical connections to French Catholic priests, including the famous French trained Nicholas Postgate, who frequented the area when Papism was banned in England. Another French connection relating to the smuggling of French priests into the district is retained in the name of Calais House on the Whitby to Middlesbrough moor road, named after an earlier farm house with the same name close by.
(LITTLE JOHN CLOSES)

First Series Maps of the British Isles (1805-1845)