BORIS JOHNSON could be making a land grab for some of Rishi Sunak’s property.

No, the Prime Minister isn’t knocking through from No 10 and taking over parts of the Chancellor’s No 11. Instead, new research for this column suggests that there is a corner of the Richmond constituency that really has Mr Johnson at its heart rather than the sitting MP.

Because we are led to believe that Mr Johnson’s great-great-great-great-grandparents were tenant farmers just outside Richmond, probably on land owned by the Aske estate.

Walter and Hannah Johnson were “bread-bakers” in Darlington in 1813, according to the parish registers of St Cuthbert’s Church when their son, Thomas, was baptised there on December 19.

This means the Prime Minister can claim that although he was not born in Darlington, he was bread there. When visiting Teesside last week with Mr Sunak to bask in the success of the Budget which brought 750 Treasury jobs to Darlington and created one of the first freeports near the mouth of the river, Mr Johnson appeared to enjoy this claim hugely.

The 1841 census suggests that Walter and Hannah had moved on from baking bread and were farming at Gingerfield near Richmond.

Low Gingerfield Farm: is this where Boris Johnsons great-great-great-great-grandparents farmed?

Low Gingerfield Farm: is this where Boris Johnson's great-great-great-great-grandparents farmed?

Today, there are two Gingerfields to the north-west of the town – the old racecourse could properly be said to be at Gingerfield.

High Gingerfield Lodge is the farm in the shadow of the derelict grandstand while Low Gingerfield Farm is a Georgian farmhouse on Whashton Road where Gill Ward runs a B&B and small wedding venue, and has recently branched out into takeaways. On old Ordnance Survey maps, it is referred to as simply “Gingerfield Farm”.

It is a controversial farm in that when the septennial beating of the Richmond boundaries took place – when the mayor of Richmond, and hundreds of townspeople, walk the borough’s boundaries in a custom dating back to 1576 – the lord of Aske Hall would always make a protest that Low Gingerfield was included in Richmond as it belonged to him and his manor.

Walter and Hannah Johnson only lived at Gingerfield for a decade or so because the 1851 census described them as “retired farmers” and they were living in Union Street, Darlington – that would be behind Boots off Northgate where an old chapel, which had stood since 1812, has recently been demolished.

The Union Street Congregational Chapel, behind Boots in Darlington, which was demolished earlier this year. It was the last survivor of the street in which the Prime Ministers great-great-great-great-grandparents lived. Picture courtesy of Peter Giroux

The Union Street Congregational Chapel, behind Boots in Darlington, which was demolished earlier this year. It was the last survivor of the street in which the Prime Minister's great-great-great-great-grandparents lived. Picture courtesy of Peter Giroux

Walter and Hannah died within four months of each other in 1855 – he was 81 and she 79 – and they were buried in Holy Trinity churchyard. Their headstone records that their children, Martha, who died in 1837 aged 25, and Walter, who died in 1842 aged 27, lie nearby.

The headstone of Boris Johnsons great-great-great-great-grandparents, Walter and Hannah Johnson, in Holy Trinity churchyard, Darlington

The headstone of Boris Johnson's great-great-great-great-grandparents, Walter and Hannah Johnson, in Holy Trinity churchyard, Darlington

Fortunately for the Brexiteers among us, their other child, Thomas, lived long enough to have children. He married Mary Raper in 1831 in Masham where she ran a draper’s shop. They had outlets in Ripon and East Witton. Thomas died in 1858, and Mary returned to Darlington to bring up her two-year-old daughter, Margaret, presumably near other Johnsons.

This Margaret changed British political history, in that her daughter, Winifred, fell for a Turkish journalist, Ali Kemal, whom she met on holiday in Switzerland. They married, but Winifred died while giving birth to their second son, Osman, in 1909 in London.

Margaret was present at the birth and became the children’s maternal figure. During the First World War, Ali returned to Turkey, where he was eventually beheaded, and Margaret decided to Anglicise the children’s names and switched them to her maiden name: Johnson.

She switched Osman’s name to Wilfrid Johnson, and he had a son Stanley who had a son Boris who still goes by a surname originally from Darlington and Gingerfield.

  • Why “Gingerfield”? The Aske estate reckons its name has something to do with it facing east. Can anyone explain? Email chris.lloyd@nne.co.uk