Place:Skelton in Cleveland, North Riding of Yorkshire, England

The first real mention of Skelton in Cleveland concerned taxes collected and is found in the Domesday Book of 1086. Skelton Castle was built in the 12th century by the de Brus (Bruce) family.

The following description from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72 is provided by the website A Vision of Britain Through Time (University of Portmouth Department of Geography).

"SKELTON, a village, a township, and a parish, in Guisbrough [registration] district, [North Riding of] Yorkshire. The village stands 2 miles S by W of Saltburn [railway] station, and 3½ NE of Guisbrough; was once a market-town; and has a post-office under Redcar. The township comprises 3,830 acres. Real property: £5,235. Population in 1851: 826; in 1861: 1,034. Houses: 221. Population in 1868: above 2,500.

"The parish contains also two other townships, and comprises 10,440 acres. Population in 1851: 1,299; in 1861: 1,457. Houses: 310. The property is subdivided. The manor was given, by William the Conqueror, to Robert de Bruce. [Skelton] Castle was built, in the 12th century, by one of the Bruces; passed to the Fauconbergs, the Nevilles, and others; was the residence of John Hall Stevenson, the Eugenius" of Sterne's Tristram Shandy," and the author of Crazy Tales; retains few portions of its original masonry, yet is all very ancient; and belongs now to J. T. Wharton, Esq. Extensive ironstone mining is carried on. The living is a rectory in the diocese of York. Value: £300. Patron: the Archbishop of York; and till 1868 was united to Brotton. The church was rebuilt in 1755. There are two Methodist chapels, a national school, and charities £10."

Skelton in Cleveland was originally an ancient parish in Langbaurgh East Wapentake in the North Riding of Yorkshire. In 1866 the status of civil parish was introduced nationally and this was taken on by most ancient parishes and also by their subsidiary townships if they were of any size at all. In 1866 Skelton in Cleveland and its townships Moorsholm and Stanghow became civil parishes. By 1894 there was a merger with the neighbouring parish of Brotton to become an urban district which was named Skelton with Brotton.

There is a difference of opinion between the editors of A Vision of Britain through Time and those of the Victoria County History as to whether Brotton was a separate ancient parish or whether the ancient parish was always centred on Skelton in Cleveland. The Victoria County History gives separate subsidiary townships for Brotton and Stretton. The two civil parishes merged to become the Urban District of Stretton with Brotton in 1894.

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

The local council is now Redcar and Cleveland,unitary authority. It is situated at the foot of the Cleveland Hills and about 10 miles (16 km) east of Middlesbrough. Localities within Skelton are North Skelton, Skelton Green and New Skelton. The population of Skelton ward in the Redcar and Cleveland Unitary Authority was 6,396 in the 2001 UK census, increasing to 7,454 at the 2011 UK census. (Brotton is dealt with separately in WeRelate.)

Research Tips

• Skelton is the chapter of the Victoria County History dealing with Skelton in Cleveland.
• 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.