Place:Wharram Percy, East Riding of Yorkshire, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

Wharram Percy was originally an ancient parish in Buckrose Wapentake in the East Riding of Yorkshire. The parish was located southwest of the parish of Wharram le Street, north of Raisthorpe and Burdale, and east of Birdsall. It contained the deserted village from which it was named and which is described below.

In 1866 the status of civil parish was introduced 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 both Wharram Percy and its townships of Raisthorpe and Burdale, Thixendale and Towthorpe (near Driffield) became civil parishes. In 1894 they each became part of the Norton Rural District of the East Riding.

In 1935 the civil parishes of Wharram Percy, Raisthorpe and Burdale and Wharram le Street merged to form the civil parish of Wharram, still within the Norton Rural District.

In 1974 rural districts were abolished and the border between the East Riding of Yorkshire and the North Riding of Yorkshire was realigned. The North Riding changed its name to North Yorkshire. Since 1974 Wharram has been in North Yorkshire, specifically within the Ryedale District. It would appear that since the re-organization of 1974, the name of the parish has reverted from Wharram back to Wharram le Street. (source: Wikipedia)

The Deserted Village of Wharram Percy

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

Wharram Percy is a deserted medieval village and former civil parish near Malton, North Yorkshire, on the western edge of the chalk Wolds of North Yorkshire, England. It is about south of Wharram-le-Street and is signposted from the Beverley to Malton road (B1248). Wharram Percy was part of the East Riding of Yorkshire until the 1974 boundary changes. In 1931 the parish had a population of 40.

The earthworks of the village have been known for many years, and outlines of house platforms were drawn onto the first Ordnance Survey six-inch maps of Yorkshire published in 1854. The site was researched each summer by combined teams of archaeologists, historians and even botanists, from about 1950 to 1990 after it was singled out for study in 1948 by Professor Maurice Beresford of the University of Leeds.

Research Tips

• GENUKI on Wharram Percy.
• A Vision of Britain through Time on Wharram Percy..
• The FamilySearch wiki on the ecclesiastical parish of Wharram Percy provides a list of useful resources for the local area.
• A Vision of Britain through Time provides links to three maps of the East Riding, produced by the United Kingdom Ordnance Survey, illustrating the boundaries between the civil parishes and the rural districts at various dates. These maps all expand to a scale that will illustrate small villages and large farms or estates.

• Ordnance Survey 1888. The "Sanitary Districts (which preceded the rural districts).
• Ordnance Survey 1900 The rural districts, not long after their introduction.
• Ordnance Survey 1944. The rural districts after the revisions of 1935.

• For a discussion of where to find Archive Offices in Yorkshire, see GENUKI.
• Yorkshire has a large number of family history and genealogical societies. A list of the societies will be found on the Yorkshire, England page.