Place:Fockerby, West Riding of Yorkshire, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

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

Fockerby is now a village in North Lincolnshire, England. It is situated approximately 8 miles (13 km) southeast from Goole and 1 mile (1.6 km) west from the River Trent.

Fockerby is part of the Isle of Axholme and close to the border with the East Riding of Yorkshire. The village is in the civil parish of Garthorpe and Fockerby, and is contiguous with the village of Garthorpe to the northeast, with which it forms one community joined by a section of road which crosses the previous course of the River Don.

Garthorpe and Fockerby were also in different counties, Garthorpe being in the Parts of Lindsey, Lincolnshire and Fockerby in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The two villages were joined with the creation of the administrative county of Humberside in 1974 and were in the Boothferry District. Since 1996 they are in North Lincolnshire.

In 1872 Fockerby was in Yorkshire, divided from Garthorpe by the "Old Don".

By 1881 the village was a township in the parish of Adlingfleet in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and "on the west bank of the old Don River, which is now filled in and under cultivation". Lords of the manor and principal landowners were the Master and fellows of St Catharine's College, Cambridge. Chief crops grown were flax, potatoes, wheat and beans on an area of 910 acres (3.7 km2). Occupations at the time included a land surveyor, a tailor, a miller, and three farmers, one of whom was a landowner who lived at the Hall and employed a farm bailiff. Fockerby population in 1871 was 88.

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 Fockerby. GENUKI includes Eastoft under Adlingfleet because Adlingfleet was its ancient parish. It gives numerous references to local bodies providing genealogical assistance.
• The FamilySearch wiki also includes Fockerby under Adlingfleet.
• A Vision of Britain through Time on Fockerby.
• A Vision of Britain through Time also provides links to three maps for the Goole Rural District, produced by the United Kingdom Ordnance Survey. These maps expand to a scale that will illustrate small villages and large farms or estates.

• Ordnance Survey West Riding 1888. The "Sanitary Districts (which preceded the rural districts) for the whole of the West Riding.
• Ordnance Survey West Riding South 1900. This map is not equivalent to maps for other parts of the country at this time period and does not show parish boundaries. However, Goole Rural District is clearly shown. It is at the extreme right of the map and much wider than it is long.
• Ordnance Survey West Riding 1944. The urban and rural districts of the whole of the West Riding after the revisions of 1935. This map does show the civil parish boundaries.

Remember that the entire rural district became part of Humberside 1974-1996, but on the abolition of Humberside, some parishes joined Lincolnshire while others joined the East Riding of Yorkshire. This fact is covered on a parish by parish basis.