The Tolly's

The following is based on a profile in the book "The Emmerdale Family Album" (by Michael Heatly and Published by Boxtree Paperback - 30 June, 1995 ):-

THE TOLLYS

Thc Tollys were long-established Emmerdale tenant farmers, the union of the notoriously cantankerous Enoch and his long-suffering wife Grace having been blessed with two daughters, Naomi and Hannah. Their relatively uneventful life ebbed and flowed with the seasons, but was cruelly turned upside down in 1981 when Enoch lost his life in a freak tractor accident. Grace was understandably distraught at this turn of events, but help was at hand in the unlikely yet undoubtedly kind-hearted form of Home Farm gamekeeper Seth Armstrong.

Enoch Tolly peruses the Good Book. His accidental death in 1981 found his wife in desperate straits.

It was he who persuaded her to employ Daniel Hawkins, who had until recently been a fellow employee of NY Estates, to make up the numbers -an arrangement that suited both parties admirably. Unfortunately, even with outside assistance, Grace and her daughters proved unequal to the struggle of keeping the smallholding going in the face of unfavourable economic conditions, and the family was finally forced to sell up in the following year.
The farm's head lease, previously held by the Verney family, had passed to NY Estates when Home Farm was sold. Alan Turner, whom NY Estates appointed as manager in residence at Home Farm, took possession and attempted to use the Tolley farmhouse to persuade Matt Skilbeck to leave Emmerdale Farm and join him. Matt declined: Daniel Hawkins, however, swallowed his pride and returned to the NY payroll.

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