Place:Blacktoft, East Riding of Yorkshire, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Blacktoft is a village and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is situated on the north bank of the River Ouse, not far from where it flows into the River Trent and becomes the Humber. It is approximately 6 miles (10 km) east of Goole town centre. According to the 2011 UK census the parish had a population of 322, an increase of one on the 2001 UK census figure.

Historically, Blacktoft was an ecclesiastical parish in the wapentake of Howdenshire. From 1894 until 1974, Blacktoft was located in Howden Rural District. In 1935 it absorbed the whole of Faxfleet and Yokefleet parishes and parts of Bellasize and Scalby (near Howden) parishes.

Until 1974 it remained in Howden Rural District. In 1974 the rural district was abolished along with the historic county of the East Riding of Yorkshire.

Humberside 1974-1996

In 1974 most of what had been the East Riding of Yorkshire was joined with the northern part of Lincolnshire to became a new English county named Humberside. The urban and rural districts of the former counties were abolished and Humberside was divided into non-metropolitan districts. The new organization did not meet with the pleasure of the local citizenry and Humberside was wound up in 1996. The area north of the River Humber was separated into two "unitary authorities"—Kingston upon Hull covering the former City of Hull and its closest environs, and the less urban section to the west and to the north which, once again, named itself the East Riding of Yorkshire.

The phrase "Yorkshire and the Humber" serves no purpose in WeRelate. It refers to one of a series of basically economic regions established in 1994 and abolished for most purposes in 2011. See the Wikipedia article entited "Regions of England").

Research Tips

• GENUKI on Blacktoft. The GENUKI page gives numerous references to local bodies providing genealogical assistance.
• The FamilySearch wiki on the ecclesiastical parish of Blacktoft provides a list of useful resources for the local area.
• Howdenshire History provides histories of towns and villages in the area provided by a local family historian. The stories of some families who emigrated to Ontario, Canada, are included.
• A Vision of Britain through Time on Blacktoft.
• A Vision of Britain through Time provides links to three maps of the East Riding, produced by the United Kingdom Ordnance Survey, illustrating the boundaries between the civil parishes and the rural districts at various dates. These maps all expand to a scale that will illustrate small villages and large farms or estates.

• Ordnance Survey 1888. The "Sanitary Districts (which preceded the rural districts).
• Ordnance Survey 1900 The rural districts, not long after their introduction.
• Ordnance Survey 1944. The rural districts after the revisions of 1935.

• An inspection of the area around the town of Howden on the Ordnance Survey map of 1900 brings up a number places indicated by letters and the phrase "Det.". An index for the letters can be found on the right of the map. At this point Howden appears not to be one entity, but a group of separate parts. The same could be said for its townships. The reason for these separate blocks probably reflects the need to have a river frontage by various land owners over cenutries past. In 1935 many of the parishes were consolidated into fewer larger ones. Depression may have brought about many sales of large estates during the first third of the twentieth century. This, in turn, would have enabled the alteration in parish boundaries.