Place:Aston cum Aughton, West Riding of Yorkshire, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Aston with Aughton from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"ASTON-WITH-AUGHTON, a township and a parish in Rotherham [registration] district, [West Riding of] Yorkshire. The township lies near the river Rother, 2 miles SSW of Beighton [railway] station, and 5 E of Rotherham; and has a post office, of the name of Aston, under Rotherham. Real property: £7,105, of which £2,002 are in mines. Population: 995. Houses: 195.

"The parish includes also part of the township of Ulley. Acres: 2,915. Real property, with the rest of Ulley: £8,569. Population: 1,032. Houses: 203. The property is sub-divided. The manor belonged formerly to the D'Arcys, and belongs now to the Duke of Leeds. [Aston] Hall is the seat of T. Tillotson, Esq. The living is a rectory in the diocese of York. Value: £760. Patron: the Duke of Leeds. The church is ancient, and contains a monument to Lord D'Arcy and his three wives, a splendid screen, and a Norman font. There are Methodist chapels, national schools, and charities £37. The Rev. William Mason, the editor of Gray's poems and the author of "Isis" and other poems of his own, was rector."

Aston with Aughton was originally an ancient parish in Strafforth and Tickhill Wapentake in the West Riding of Yorkshire. In 1866 the status of civil parish was introduced and this was taken on by most ancient parishes and also by their subsidiary townships if they were of any size at all. In 1866 both Aston with Aughton (all one ancient parish) and its township of Ulley became civil parishes. In 1894 they each became part of the Rotherham Rural District of the West Riding. Since 1974 it has been in Southt Yorkshire, specifically within the Rotherham Metropolitan Borough. According to the UK census of 2001 it had a population of almost 14,000.

History

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

The parish has always consisted of the villages of Aston and Aughton, along with the smaller Swallownest. To the west the parish borders the unparished area of Sheffield Metropolitan Borough. Buildings of interest include the Aston Manor house, the original West family house in Aughton, the historically significant Aston Reading Room, several early farm cottages boasting magnificent period features and a beautiful 12th-century church.

The villages of Aston and Aughton were recorded in the Domesday Book as "Estone" and "Hactone", and were at that time already well established, with a total combined value of £1 sterling. Swallownest is a much later settlement existing as a separate entity since the 1740s. Nathaniel Swallow, a farmer after whom the village is presumably named, was an early resident. Swallow's house, still intact - although in desperate need of repair, was left standing until 2006, when the land was bought by developers and transformed into a small housing estate.

The parish has twice expanded rapidly. The coal mines brought an influx of workers during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The recent new housing estates have, once again, increased the population. Links to Rotherham and Sheffield are good.

Research Tips

• Rotherham Archives and Local Studies Service includes all places in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham.

Address: Clifton Park Museum, Clifton Lane, Rotherham, South Yorkshire S65 2AA

Telephone: +44(0)1709 336632

Email: archives@rotherham.gov.uk

• British History Online (Victoria County Histories) do not cover the West Riding of Yorkshire
• GENUKI has a page on all three ridings of Yorkshire and pages for each of the ecclesiastical parishes in the county. Under each parish there is a list of the settlements within it and brief description of each. The list is based on a gazetteer dated 1835 and there may have been a number of alterations to the parish setup since then. However, it is worthwhile information for the pre civil registration era. GENUKI provides references to other organizations who hold genealogical information for the local area. There is no guarantee that the website has been kept up to date and the submitter is very firm about his copyright. This should not stop anyone from reading the material.
• The FamilyTree Wiki has a series of pages similar to those provided by GENUKI which may have been prepared at a later date from more recent data. The wiki has a link to English Jurisdictions 1851 which gives the registration district and wapentake for each parish, together with statistics from the 1851 census for the area.
• A Vision of Britain through Time, Yorkshire West Riding, section "Units and Statistics" leads to analyses of population and organization of the county from about 1800 through 1974. There are pages available for all civil parishes, municipal boroughs and other administrative divisions. Descriptions provided are usually based on a gazetteer of 1870-72.

• Map of the West Riding divisions in 1888 produced by UK Ordnance Survey and provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time
• Map of West Riding divisions in 1917 produced by UK Ordnance Survey and provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time. In other counties, the map for 1900 has been used, but it is not coming up in Vision of Britain's list.
• Map of West Riding divisions in 1944 produced by UK Ordnance Survey and provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time

• The above three maps indicate the boundaries between parishes, etc., but for a more detailed view of a specific area try a map from this selection. The oldest series are very clear at the third magnification offered. Comparing the map details with the GENUKI details for the same area is well worthwhile.
• Yorkshire has a large number of family history and genealogical societies. A list of the societies will be found on the Yorkshire, England page.
• In March 2018 Ancestry announced that its file entitled "Yorkshire, England: Church of England Parish Records, 1538-1873" has been expanded to include another 94 parishes (across the three ridings) and expected it to be expanded further during the year. The entries are taken from previously printed parish registers.