Masongill

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Masongill is a small community on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales, North Yorkshire, England. The village lies near the border of Lancashire to the west, and the nearby hamlet of Ireby.

St. Mary's Church Ingleton contains a memorial to one Randall Hopley Sherlock (father of the vicar, TD Sherlock)hit by lightning at Ingleton station), and several locations in the area include the word Holme. Mary Doyle (mother of Arthur Conan Doyle) lived in Masongill, and Conan Doyle (creator of a character called Sherlock Holmes) was a frequent visitor. So some do wonder if the name of Sherlock Holmes came from Masongill.^[1]

Another person of interest in the history of Masongill is Dr. Bryan Charles Waller (1853-1932). Waller was Squire of Masongill from 1877 but prior to that he was Professor of Pathology at Edinburgh School of Medicine. He lodged with the Doyle family and quickly became a dominant factor in their lives. It was he who persuaded Conan Doyle to train as a doctor, and his mother to come and live in Masongill.

Doyle and Waller were big men with strong characters and their relationship deteriorated to such an extent that they came to blows. Also, Waller married in August 1896. Nevertheless, Mary Doyle remained as tenant of Masongill Cottage until 1917, when she moved South. She preferred the regular company of Waller to the irregular companionship of her son.