Place:Birstwith, Yorkshire, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

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

Birstwith is a village and civil parish in the Harrogate district of North Yorkshire, England. It is part of the Nidderdale, and is situated on the River Nidd. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 756.

There is a large Mill/Rusk production plant in Birstwith run by the food manufacturing company Kerry Ingredients. There is still a mill race and sluice gates for the mill although it no longer turns a water wheel. Water came from the River Nidd which flows though the village. The mill race rejoins the river some way downstream. To provide a head of water for the mill there is a weir. About upsteam is a packhorse bridge.

The local pub is the Station Hotel which acts as a meeting place, and venue for organised charity events such as the Birstwith Coast 2 Coast Cycle Challenge.

The village had a railway station on the line running between Harrogate and Pateley Bridge. This was closed by Beeching in the 1960s. The goods yard became Birstwith Grange, one of the early housing developments for commuters as car travel became more popular. The railway line continued up the Nidd Valley and was used in the construction of the Scar House and Angram Scar reservoirs.

The village used to have a village school (up to age 11) and a Reading Room, both built and donated by the owner of the local Swarcliffe Hall in about 1880. In the mid-1970s Swarcliffe Hall was sold and the contents auctioned, the building becoming a private prep school. There is a waste water treatment works at the end of Birstwith Grange. Today Birstwith is served by a Church of England Primary School and a private school, Belmont Grosvenor, occupies Swarcliffe Hall.

Birstwith is a reasonably well serviced village and today it is home to an award winning village store and post office. There is an excellent medical group who have a presence in the village close to where the butcher used to have his shop (this is now sadly closed). There is an excellent cricket pitch, tennis courts and also a snooker room.

It is understood that there used to be coal mining in the area near the river towards Hampsthwaite, but this is not certain to be true.

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