Sir Tatton Sykes, 4th Baronet

For some years he was an articled clerk to Atkinson & Farrar, attorneys in Lincoln's Inn Fields; and then was employed for a period in a banking-house in Kingston upon Hull.

[1] In 1803 Sykes began sheep farming and breeding by purchasing ten pure Bakewells from Mr. William Sanday's flock at Holme Pierrepoint.

His colours were orange and purple, and the last time he wore them on a winning horse of his own was in 1829, when on All Heart and No Peel he won the Welham Cup at Malton.

His stud numbered two hundred horses and mares: he bred Grey Momus, The Lawyer, St. Giles, Gaspard, Elcho, Dalby, and Lecturer.

[1] On the death of his elder brother on 16 February 1823, Sykes succeeded him as the fourth baronet, and took up his residence at Sledmere House, near Malton.

By applying bones as manure he improved the value of the Wold estates belonging to his family, feeding sheep and growing corn where it had been impossible before.

[1] For 40 years Sykes was a master of foxhounds, hunting the country from Spurn Point to Coxwold, and paying all the kennel expenses.

[1] Between 1856 and 1913, 18 rural churches were built, rebuilt or restored in East and North Yorkshire, chiefly in the Wolds, by Sykes, and later his son, the fifth baronet.