Place:Beal, West Riding of Yorkshire, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

source: Family History Library Catalog

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

Beal is now a village and civil parish in the District of Selby in North Yorkshire, England. It is situated on the River Aire, 3.5 miles (6 km) northeast of Knottingley, 8 miles (13 km) southwest of Selby, and 21 miles (34 km) south of York. The parish includes the village of Kellingley, and borders the City of Wakefield in West Yorkshire. At the 2001 UK census it had a population of 720, increasing to 738 at the 2011 UK census.

The name "Beal" is of Old English origins and means "Nook of land in a river-bend". It is composed of the elements bēag ("river-bend") and halh ("nook of land"). The village was recorded as Begale in the Domesday Book of 1086 and as Beaghall in 19th century records.

Kellingley Colliery, the last operating deep coal mine in the United Kingdom, was located in the parish until its closure in December 2015.

The village of Beal was a township in the ancient parish of Kellington in the wapentake of Osgoldcross and liberty of Pontefract in the West Riding of Yorkshire. It became a separate parish in 1866, and was incorporated into Pontefract poor law union in 1869. In 1875, the area of the poor law union became a rural sanitary district, which in 1894 was superseded by Pontefract Rural District. The rural district was abolished in 1938, and Beal became part of Osgoldcross Rural District, which was itself abolished under local government reorganisation in 1974, with the eastern part (including Beal) incorporated into the District of Selby in the new county of North Yorkshire.

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