Place:Easingwold, North Riding of Yorkshire, England

Watchers
NameEasingwold
Alt namesEasingwoldsource: from redirect
TypeAncient parish, Civil parish
Coordinates54.117°N 1.183°W
Located inNorth Riding of Yorkshire, England     ( - 1974)
Also located inNorth Yorkshire, England     (1974 - )
Yorkshire, England    
See alsoBulmer Wapentake, North Riding of Yorkshire, Englandearly county division in which it was located
Easingwold Rural, North Riding of Yorkshire, Englandrural district 1894- 1974
Hambleton District, North Yorkshire, Englandadministrative district in which it is now located
the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Easingwold (#11 on map) is now a civil parish and a market town in the Hambleton District of North Yorkshire, England. Until 1974 it was part of the North Riding of Yorkshire; it had a population of 4,233 at the 2001 UK census, increasing to 4,627 at the UK census of 2011. It is located about 12 miles (19 km) north of York, at the foot of the Howardian Hills. It is the focal point of public services and economic activity for numerous villages in the area.

The nearest larger settlements are York 11.8 miles (19.0 km) to the south; Boroughbridge 8.4 miles (13.5 km) to the west; Thirsk 9.8 miles (15.8 km) to the north-west and Malton 16 miles (26 km) to the east. The City of York is the only one of these places shown on the map. The rest were located in different rural districts.

Prior to the nationwide municipal reorganization of 1974, Easingwold was the principal town of Easingwold Rural District. Historically, it was an ancient and ecclesiastical parish in the Bulmer Wapentake.

History

The town is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Eisicewalt" in the Bulmer Wapentake. At the time of the Norman conquest (1066), the manor was owned by Earl Morcar, but subsequently passed to the King. In 1265 the manor was transferred to Edmund Plantagenet (aka Edmund Crouchback) by his father, Henry III. The manor was caught up in the dispute between the 2nd Earl of Lancaster and Edward I and the manor passed back to the Crown following the Battle of Boroughbridge in 1322. This resulted in the execution of the Earl at Pontefract. The manor was restored to the Earl's brother some six years later, but he left no male heir, so the lands passed to his son-in-law, John of Gaunt, in 1361. The lands were next granted to his son-in-law, Ralph de Neville. Following the War of the Roses, the lands were declared forfeit to the Crown until 1633, when they were granted to Thomas Belasyse and subsequently became the possession of the Wombwell family.

Image:Easingwold_complete.png

The market place was the site of an old toll booth. The base of the old market cross still exists next to what was the public hall. The public hall had replaced an old rows of 'shambles' where butchers sold their wares. The market place was also the site of a bullring used for baiting. Records show that markets have been held in the town since 1221, but were formalised under letters patent from Charles I.

Under the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 a Poor law union was established in Easingwold in 1837. The town had a workhouse built in 1756 on Oulston Road. In 1934 the workhouse was converted into a hospital for the mentally handicapped and known as Claypenny Colony until 1952 and then as Claypenny Hospital until the majority of the site was sold and redeveloped as residential accommodation towards the end of the 20th century.

In 1891 a privately owned railway branch line was opened from the town to the London-Edinburgh main line at Alne after many failed attempts to have the main line pass through or closer to the town. The line ran a passenger service until 1948 and a goods service until its final closure in 1957.

There are 51 Grade II listed buildings in Easingwold, including five mileposts and the telephone kiosk in Back Lane. The areas of Long Street; the Parish Church and Church Hill in Uppleby and the market place are all within the Easingwold Conservation Area.

GENUKI has an encyclopedia excerpt which is worth a read.

Research Tips

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.
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Easingwold. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.