Place:Bewerley, West Riding of Yorkshire, England

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia Since 1974 Bewerley (#1 on the left side of map) is now a civil parish and a village in the Harrogate District of North Yorkshire, England, about twelve miles west of Ripon. The parish includes the urban area of Pateley Bridge west of the River Nidd (known as Bridgehouse Gate), and the village of Greenhow Hill, as well as Bewerley village. According to the 2001 UK census the parish had a population of 730, decreasing at the 2011 UK census to 717. After the Conquest in 1066 the estates passed to the Mowbray family and in 1175 Roger de Mowbray sold the Bewerley estate to Fountains Abbey, which established a grange at Bewerley. After the Dissolution in the 1530s the ownership of Bewerley was fragmented. In 1674 the manor of Bewerley, together with some land, was acquired by the Yorke family, which held it until 1924. end of Wikipedia contribution

Historically, Bewerley was a township in the ecclesiastical parish of Ripon in the Lower division of the Claro Wapentake. From 1894 until 1937, Bewerley was located in Pateley Bridge Rural District and from 1937 until 1974 in Ripon and Pateley Bridge Rural District. In 1974 the area covered by the rural district in the West Riding became part of the Harrogate District of North Yorkshire.

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

"BEWERLEY, a township in Ripon parish, [West Riding of] Yorkshire; on the river Nidd, adjacent to Pateley-Bridge, 11 miles NW of Ripley. It includes part of the village of Greenhow Hill. Acres: 5,872. Real property: £4,973; of which £1,051 are in mines. Population: 1,297. Houses: 288. The inhabitants are chiefly employed in lead mines. Bewerley House is the seat of the Yorkes."

Research Tips

• GENUKI on Bewerley. The GENUKI page gives numerous references to local bodies providing genealogical assistance.
• The FamilySearch wiki on the ecclesiastical parish of Ripon provides a list of useful resources for the local area.
• A Vision of Britain through Time on Bewerley.
• A Vision of Britain through Time also 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. Those listed here provide data for the part of the West Riding that transferred to North Yorkshire in 1974 plus the northern parts of Leeds and Bradford. These maps all blow up to a scale that will illustrate small villages and large farms or estates.

• Ordnance Survey West Riding 1888. The "Sanitary Districts (which preceded the rural districts) for the whole of the West Riding.
• Ordnance Survey Northern part of the West Riding 1900 The rural and urban districts, not long after their introduction. (rural districts of Sedbergh, Settle, Skipton, Pateley Bridge, Ripon, Knaresborough, Great Ouseburn, Clitheroe, Wharfedale, Wetherby, York, Bishopthorpe, Keighley, the northern part of Bradford, the northern part of Leeds, the northern part of Hunslet Urban District, the northern part of Tadcaster Rural District, the northern part of Selby Rural District). [Note: this map appears to be no longer available on the Vision of Britain website. This is unfortunate because the equivalent map from 1931-44 was redrawn after the 1938 reorganization of the rural districts in the northern part of the West Riding.]
• Ordnance Survey Northern part of the West Riding 1944. The urban and rural districts of the northern part of the West Riding (mostly Settle, Skipton, Ripon and Pateley Bridge, and Nidderdale, with sections of Wharfedale and Wetherby) after the revisions of 1938.