Place:Stokesley, North Riding of Yorkshire, England

Watchers
NameStokesley
Alt namesBattersbysource: hamlet in parish
Great Dromanbysource: hamlet in parish
Little Dromanbysource: hamlet in parish
TypeAncient parish, Civil parish
Coordinates54.467°N 1.183°W
Located inNorth Riding of Yorkshire, England     ( - 1974)
Also located inYorkshire, England    
North Yorkshire, England     (1974 - )
See alsoLangbaurgh West Wapentake, North Riding of Yorkshire, Englandwapentake in which it was located
Stokesley Rural, North Riding of Yorkshire, Englandrural district of which it was a part 1894-1974
Hambleton District, North Yorkshire, Englandadministrative district in which Stokesley has been located since 1974
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

Stokesley is a small market town and civil parish in the Hambleton District of North Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the North Riding of Yorkshire, it lies on the River Leven. Stokesley is located about two miles south of the boundary of the borough of Middlesbrough and ten miles south of Middlesbrough town centre. The towns of Guisborough and Northallerton are also close by, and Stokesley can be considered to be in the middle of a farming area. Local attractions for visitors include nearby Great Ayton, as well as Captain Cook's monument and Roseberry Topping, both of which lie within the North York Moors National Park.

From 1894 until the municipal reorganization of 1974, Stokesley was located in Stokesley Rural District. It was also an ecclesiastical parish in the wapentake of Langbaurgh West. It was in the Stokesley Registration District.

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Stokesley.


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

"STOKESLEY, a small town, a township, a parish, a [registration] sub-district, and a [registration] district, in [North Riding of] Yorkshire. The town stands on the river Leven, near the North Yorkshire and Cleveland railway, amid pleasant environs, 9 miles SE by S of Stockton-upon-Tees; consists chiefly of one spacious street; is a seat of petty sessions and a polling place; and has a post-office‡ under Northallerton, a [railway] station with telegraph, two banking offices, two chief inns, a town hall of 1853, a church rebuilt in 1777, three dissenting chapels, a Roman Catholic chapel, a Church institute, an endowed school with £139 a year, a workhouse, a weekly market on Saturday, and fairs on the Saturdays before 14 Feb., Palm-Sunday, Trinity-Sunday, and 19 Oct.
"The township comprises 1,744 acres. Real property: £8,393; of which £50 are in gasworks. Population: 1,993. Houses: 465.
"The parish contains also Great Busby, Little Busby, Newby, and Easby townships. Acres: 6,239. Population: 2,401. Houses: 547. The living is a rectory in the diocese of York. Value: £1,206. Patron: the archbishop of York."

As well as Great Busby, Little Busby, Newby, and Easby (near Stokesley) townships which have all developed into civil parishes and have their own pages within WeRelate, Stokesley parish also included the hamlets of Battersby, Great Dromanby and Little Dromanby which are redirected here.

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.
  • The chapter of the Victoria County History, published 1923, dealing with Stokesley parish.
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Stokesley, North Yorkshire. 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.