I am one of many people trying to find the forebears of the BALMER family of ornamental plasterers and builders which spread from Huntingdon to London, Canada and America. One clue which I feel may be very significant is that John BALMER, bapt 17 Jan 1803 at Huntingdon All Saints, married Mary Stevenson, bapt 9 May 1798 at Lythe. John's parents were John BALMER and Elizabeth, birthplaces and place of marriage not yet found. Lythe could be significant, as there were several BALMER families in North Yorkshire. Pondering the question of how a presumably agricultural family could be transformed into a world class plastering family, it struck me that the answer may lie in Castle Howard. Being so far from a major city, workers must have been drawn in from miles around and would have had plenty of time to learn and hone their skills, in some cases over three generations. Now the questions. Are there any records of the workers (I notice that Castle Howard only deals with professionals)? Do Malton parish registers show a great increase in the population in the 1700s and is there any way of accessing them which does not involve travel? On a practical level, people couldn't very well walk 25 miles home every night. Is there evidence of a temporary township for the hundreds who must have worked there? With apologies if this subject has been raised before, Jim Balmer