Place:Guisborough, North Riding of Yorkshire, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

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

Guisborough is a market town and civil parish in the northeast of England. Since 1996 it has been part of the unitary authority of Redcar and Cleveland. The town is in the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire. The civil parish of Guisborough now includes the outlying villages of Hutton Lowcross, Pinchinthorpe, Tocketts, Upleatham, part of Commondale (shared with Danby), Barnaby and Dunsdale.

Prior to the nationwide municipal reorganization of 1974, Guisborough was an urban district in the North Riding of Yorkshire, England. In 1932 the Guisborough Rural District, which contained a number of civil parishes surrounding Guisborough town, was abolished and the area absorbed into the urban district. Historically, it was an ecclesiastical parish in the Langbaurgh East Wapentake.

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Roman

Some archaeologists date the town to the Roman occupation, when it may have been a military fortification. The discoveries of a few Roman artefacts such as the elaborate ceremonial Guisborough Helmet, support this but proof is still lacking.

The Guisborough Helmet is a Roman cavalry helmet found near the town in 1864. Its original protective cheek-pieces have not survived but the attachment holes can be seen in front of the helmet's ear guards. It is lavishly decorated with engraved and embossed figures indicating that it was probably used for display or cavalry tournaments, although possibly for battle as well. It was unearthed in what appears to be a carefully arranged deposition in a bed of gravel, distant from any known Roman sites. After its recovery during roadworks it was donated to the British Museum for restoration and display.

Medieval

Gighesbore is recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086 as a place within Langbaurgh Wapentake or hundred.

The ruined Gisborough Priory dates from the 12th century.

Victorian era

The town shared in the prosperity of the Industrial Revolution by being close to the ironstone mines of the North York Moors. One of the area's ironfounders, Sir Joseph Whitwell Pease, chose as his country seat the Gothic revival Hutton Hall designed by Alfred Waterhouse, at Hutton Lowcross, near Guisborough.

Gisborough Hall, a Victorian mansion, owned by the Chaloner family, was built in a Jacobean revival style in 1856. It is a Grade II listed building, but has undergone conversion into a hotel.

Recent history

station was on the Middlesbrough–Guisborough branch of the North Eastern Railway; it closed in 1964. Extensive residential development occurred in the 1960s and 1970s, linked to the expansion of the chemical industry at Wilton and the steel industry at Redcar.

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 Guisborough parish.