Place:Acaster Malbis, West Riding of Yorkshire, England

Watchers
NameAcaster Malbis
Alt namesAcaster-Malbissource: Family History Library Catalog
Acastrasource: Domesday Book (1985) p 313
Acastresource: Domesday Book (1985) p 313
TypeParish
Coordinates53.9°N 1.101°W
Located inWest Riding of Yorkshire, England     (1894 - 1937)
Also located inNorth Yorkshire, England     (1974 - 1996)
Yorkshire, England    
See alsoAinsty Wapentake, Yorkshire, Englandwapentake in which it was situated.
Bishopthorpe Rural, West Riding of Yorkshire, Englandrural district of which it was part 1894-1937
York, Yorkshire, Englandcity into which it was absored 1937-1974
Selby District, North Yorkshire, Englandadministrative district in which it was located 1974-1996
City of York District, Yorkshire, Englandunitary authority into which it was absorbed in 1996
source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
source: Family History Library Catalog


Contents

Introduction--the Current Picture

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Acaster Malbis is a village and civil parish which, since 1996, has been located in the unitary authority of the City of York, England. It is located on the River Ouse, almost 5 miles south of York. Nearby are the villages of Copmanthorpe 2 miles to the northwest, Bishopthorpe 2 miles to the north and Appleton Roebuck 3.5 miles to the southwest. The parish covers an area of about 2,000 acres.

The Latin word for a camp is castra indicating that the Roman army may once have been based here. The village is mentioned in the Domesday Book as Acastre. The Malbis is derived from the Norman Malbysse or De Malebys family. Malbis was a Norman personal name that in French means "very swarthy".

There was a Royal Air Force station in the village during and immediately after the Second World War.

According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 578. There are two churches and an inn in the village. Prior to 1974 Acaster Malbis was located in the West Riding of Yorkshire in Ainsty Rural District. Between 1974 and 1996 the parish was part of the district of Selby. Acaster Malbis now lies in the Bishopthorpe Ward of the Unitary Authority of the City of York. Historically, an the ecclesiastical parish in the Ainsty Wapentake and the York Registration District.

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Early history

The land on which the village stands was named by the Romans as Val-Caester. In Latin, Val means "a wall" and Castrum means a "camp". When the Romans departed the land was acquired by an Anglo-Saxon called Aca.

The village is mentioned in the Domesday Book as Acastre in the wapentake of Ainsty and was recorded to belong to two men, Elsi and Robert.[1] Ownership passed to the Malbysse family during the reign of Richard I. The family held the lands for about 200 years. In 1190, Richard Malebysse was a leader involved in the massacre of the Jews at Cliffords Tower in York. Richard I dismissed the sheriff and constable of York and imposed severe penalties on the city and arrested many of those who had taken part. Richard Malbysse had been described by a Hebrew scribe eight years earlier as "the evil beast". As punishment, the King ordered his estates seized into the king's hand and two of his esquires were thrown into prison.

In 1314, John De Malbysse was appointed as a Sheriff of the County. His daughter married into the Fairfax family who then inherited the lands after the deaths of John De Malbysse and his son Walter. The Fairfax family held the estates until 1745 when it was sold to Lady Dawes and was eventually inherited by Lord Wenlock.

During the English Civil War, the city of York was under siege from Scottish and Parliamentarian Armies. They had settled around the city in a great arc, with Lord Thomas Fairfax's army to the east and the Scots to the south and west. A bridge of boats, similar to those constructed at Nether Poppleton, was constructed over the River Ouse at Acaster Malbis to allow communications between the two armies.

RAF Acaster Malbis

RAF Acaster Malbis, situated between the villages of Acaster Malbis and Acaster Selby, was commissioned in 1942. Originally it was a grass airfield used by the No 601 Squadron Auxiliary Air Force from 6 January 1942 until April of that year. They flew American Bell P39 Airacobra fighter planes. From 6 April 1942 until the beginning of 1943 No 15 Pilots Advanced Flying Unit was established here to train recently qualified pilots to convert to twin-engine aeroplanes using the Airspeed Oxford aircraft.

On 25 January 1943 the airfield was reconstructed into a full size 'Class A’ bomber station, with three concrete runways, steel hangars and new administration buildings. Initially the airfield was used as a relief landing ground for heavy bombers stationed at Rufforth and Marston Moor. From November 1944, No 4 Aircrew School took over for pilots, navigators, and air gunners to complete their ground training whilst waiting for a posting to a squadron. In 1945 there were between 200 and 300 RAF personnel living on the camp.

After the end of the war, RAF Acaster Malbis was home to No 91 MU (Maintenance Unit) who were responsible for the storage and disposal of vast amounts of ammunition. This function was not complete until well into the 1950s. RAF Acaster Malbis was decommissioned in 1963 and the land sold by public auction. It resumed operations as a private airfield in the mid-1970s until the mid-1980s. Large parts of the runways have since been dug up and the buildings have fallen into disuse with many being demolished, although one hangar and the control tower still remain.

GENUKI provides a description of the ecclesiastical parish of Acaster Malbis from a gazetteer from the 1820s. It was in the Ainsty. GENUKI also provides a quotation from Bulmer's History and Directory of North Yorkshire of 1890.

Research Tips

  • [1] on Acaster Malbis. The GENUKI page gives numerous references to local bodies providing genealogical assistance.
  • The FamilySearch wiki on the ecclesiastical parish of Acaster Malbis provides a list of useful resources for the local area.
  • A Vision of Britain through Time on Acaster Malbis.
  • A Vision of Britain through Time provides links to maps of the West Riding, produced by the United Kingdom Ordnance Survey, illustrating the boundaries between the civil parishes and the rural districts at various dates. The location of individual settlements within the parishes is also shown. These maps all expand to a very large scale.
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Acaster Malbis. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.