Place:Coatham, North Riding of Yorkshire, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

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

Coatham is now a place in the borough of Redcar and Cleveland and the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, England and is now a district of Redcar. In the 2011 UK census the ward population was 5,326.

Coatham began as a market village in the 14th century to the smaller adjacent fishing port of Redcar but as their populations grew from the 1850s, the dividing space narrowed. Though Coatham is now only a mile-wide district in the town of Redcar, the need for definition was strong enough to warrant the western boundary being marked by a fence which ran the length of West Dyke Road and West Terrace. Coatham comprises the remaining coastal land north of the railway line from West Dyke Road to Warrenby in the west.

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

"COATHAM, two hamlets and a chapelry in Kirk-Leatham parish, [North Riding of] Yorkshire. The hamlets are East and West-Coatham; they lie at the mouth of the Tees, 1 mile N of Redcar [railway] station, and 6 N by W of Guisborough; they carry on a fishery, and are frequented for sea-bathing; and they have a post office under Redcar. Population: 371.

"The chapelry was constituted in 1860. Population: 727. Houses: 149. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of York. Value: £152. Patron: A. Newcomen, Esq. Turner's free school was rebuilt here in 1869, at a cost of £4,000; and is in the Gothic style, with a tower."

In 1899 Coatham was made a civil parish from land which had previously been part of Kirkleatham. There were 906 houses in the 1901 UK census. From 1899 until 1921 it was part of Redcar Urban District. In 1921 it gained another 1871 acres from Kirkleatham and was immediately absorbed into the civil parish of Redcar. (Source: A Vision of Britain through Time)

Research Tips

• Original historical documents relating to the North Riding of Yorkshire and North Yorkshire are held at the North Yorkshire County Record Office, Malpas Road, Northallerton, North Yorkshire DL7 8TB
• Family history societies covering the area include the Ryedale Family History Group, the Family History Section of the Yorkshire Archaeological Society (based in the City of York), and the Cleveland, North Yorkshire & South Durham Family History Society (for the Cleveland and Teesside area and the western part of North Yorkshire, commonly known as the "Yorkshire Downs"). A more complete list may be found under the Federation of Family History Societies.
• A History of the County of Yorkshire from British History Online (Victoria County Histories), published 1914 and 1923 (Volume 1: the western part of the North Riding including Richmond and Volume 2: the eastern part of the North Riding including Scarborough and Whitby). A History of the County of York: the City of York is also helpful for the many North Riding parishes that were absorbed into the city during the 19th and 20th centuries.

This is by far the most complete history of the parishes of the North Riding to be found online. The volumes are divided into sections by wapentake (early divisions of the county) and the parishes within each wapentake follow in alphabetical order. The links above open to the indexes covering all the wapentakes in the volume.

• GENUKI has a page on all three ridings of Yorkshire and pages for each of the ancient or ecclesiastical parishes in the county. Under each ancient parish there is a list of the settlements (townships and chapelries) within it and brief description of each. Many of these secondary settlements became civil parishes during the latter half of the 19th century.

These notes are 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, but 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. 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 North 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 which also include historical population and area statistics. Descriptions provided are usually based on a gazetteer of 1870-72.
• Map of the North Riding divisions in 1888 produced by UK Ordnance Survey and provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time
• Map of North Riding divisions in 1944 produced by UK Ordnance Survey and provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time
• Another provider of maps is the National Library of Scotland. In this index the Scottish provision precedes the English one, but the choice of maps for England is still quite vast.
• 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.
• Kirkleatham is the chapter of the Victoria County History dealing with Kirkleatham parish.