Place:Egton, North Riding of Yorkshire, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

source: Family History Library Catalog

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

Egton is a village and civil parish now in the Scarborough District of North Yorkshire, England, about 5 miles (8.0 km) west of Whitby, and located within the North York Moors National Park. A village within the parish, named Egton Bridge, is home to Egton railway station. The village was included in the Survey of English Dialects, published in various forms between 1962 and 1996. Unlike the other sites discussed, a full book was written on the local dialect by Hans Tidholm. Being a very isolated village, its ways of speech were very unusual in Britain.

According to the 2011 UK census, Egton parish had a population of 448 in a very large area, and a reduction on the 2001 UK census figure of 459. In Wilson's Gazetteer, quoted below, the acreage of the parish is given at 15,146 acres. There are no reference to its area being reduced.

Egton is an important local centre for family history. Prior to 1880, many important Birth, Marriage and Death records were administered from Egton parish. The church in Egton holds detailed transcriptions of parish records. (In most places all copies of the records are to be found only in the county archives.) The cemetery is half a mile west, at the old church site. After 1870 many parishioners were buried at nearby Aislaby (near Whitby).

end of Wikipedia contribution

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

"EGTON, a village, a parochial township, and a sub-district in Whitby district, [North Riding of] Yorkshire. The village stands near the river Esk, adjacent to the Cleveland and Whitby branches of the Northeastern railway, 7½ miles WSW of Whitby; has a post office under York and a [railway] station; was once a market-town; and has still fairs on the Tuesday before 14 Feb., the Tuesday before 13 May, 4 Sept., and the Tuesday before 22 Nov.

"The parochial township is in Lythe parish; and contains the hamlets of Egton Bridge, Lumberhill, and Newbegin. Acres: 15,146. Real property: £6,831. Population: 1,115. Houses: 202. The property is divided among a few. The vale of the Esk shows very beautiful scenery; other spots also are interesting; but much of the rest of the surface is moor. Grosmont priory, on a site near Grosmont bridge and Grosmont [railway] station, was founded about the year 1200, but has nearly disappeared. Ironstone, of a character interesting to geologists, is worked at Grosmont. Traces of an ancient British village occur on the edge of the moors, at Egton Grange. The living is a [perpetual] curacy in the diocese of York. Value: £300. Patron: the Archbishop of York. The church is ancient but good; consists of nave, south aisle, and chancel; and has circular arches along the division between the nave and the aisle, but a pointed arch between the nave and the chancel. There are chapels for Independents and Roman Catholics; the R. Catholic one stands at Egton-Bridge, was built in 1867, and contains 650 sittings."

From 1894 until 1974, Egton was part of the Whitby Rural District. Since the nationwide municipal reorganization of 1974 it has been in the administration district named Scarborough Borough. Historically, it was a chapelry in the ecclesiastical parish of Lythe in the Langbaurgh East Wapentake.

Research Tips

• For a map of the parishes in the local area, see this page.
• 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.
• The chapter of the Victoria County History dealing with Lythe parish.