Place:Clifton (near York), North Riding of Yorkshire, England

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Clifton from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72: "CLIFTON, a township in St. Olave-Mary-Gate parish, [North Riding of] Yorkshire; on the river Ouse and the York and Newcastle railway, 1¼ mile NW of York. Real property: £9,081. Population: 2,659. Houses: 407. The York work-house and the pauper lunatic asylum for the East and North Ridings [of Yorkshire], are here. "A chapelry of Clifton was constituted in 1867. Population: 1,700. The living is a [perpetual] curacy. Value: £150. Patrons: Trustees." Clifton was a township of two City of York ancient or ecclesiastical parishes: St. Olave Marygate and St. Michael le Belfry. It was made a civil parish in 1866 and in 1894 was split into two sections: Clifton Within and Clifton Without. Clifton Within was within the boundaries of the County Borough of York and Clifton Without, the more rural part of the earlier parish, was to the north in Flaxton Rural District until 1974 and from 1974 until 1996 in the Ryedale District of North Yorkshire. Wikipedia has articles on both Clifton and Clifton Without as they exist today. Clifton Without remained outside the boundaries of the unitary authority of the City of York until 1996, while Clifton Within has been a parish within the City since the late 19th century.

Clifton Without

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Clifton Without (#3 on map) is now a suburb and civil parish in the unitary authority of the City of York, North Yorkshire, England. It consists of those parts of Clifton that lie outside, i.e. "Without", the (pre-1996) city boundaries and Clifton Moor. It lies on the A19 major road about two miles northwest of central York. According to the 2011 UK census it had a population of 5,246.

Before 1996 it formed part of the Ryedale District. The Parish is bounded by the River Ouse to the west and the B3163 road and River Foss in the east; to the north the parish meets the parish of Rawcliffe. Until the formation of the York Unitary Authority in 1996, Clifton Without's southern boundary was with the City of York. The parish contains a diverse mix of industrial and retail areas.

On 27 May 1933 an air circus visited York and flew from Rawcliffe meadow, now the site of Clifton Moor Retail Park. It demonstrated the viability of the area for a commercial airfield for York. In 1934 York Corporation compulsory purchased parts of Clifton Without and Rawcilffe and on, 4 July 1936 York Municipal Aerodrome opened. Before the outbreak of the Second World War, the airfield was managed by Yorkshire Air Services and Country Club Ltd, who ran a flying club and an air taxi service, but no scheduled flights. On 1 September 1939 the airfield was requisitioned by the government for military use and was renamed RAF Clifton. It was host to a flight of Whitley Bombers. The airfield also contained a large civilian staffed repair facility for the Halifax bomber. The repair centre was closed in 1948, and the airfield returned to its former role as a flying club which closed in 1950. The airfield is now covered by the Clifton Moor Retail Park.

The parish was historically part of the North Riding of Yorkshire until 1974. It was then a part of the Ryedale District in North Yorkshire from 1974 until 1996. Since 1996 it has been part of the City of York unitary authority.

Clifton, York

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Clifton is a suburb about 1.5 miles from the city centre of York in the unitary authority of the City of York, in the north of England. The A19 major road, passes north out of York through Clifton. In the UK census of 2011, the population of Clifton was 13,548.

During Roman times there was a road through Clifton that approached the Roman fortress from the northwest and headed towards the river crossing. There was a second road that also left the northwest gate and may eventually have joined the other. The evidence from early timber buildings from the museum gardens and early burials from Bootham and Clifton suggest the roads existed from the 1st century. Sporadic 2nd century Roman occupation material and fragments of streets indicate that by that time expansion may have begun in Clifton. This development was not sustained and evidence indicates that from the 3rd century onwards the area beyond St. Mary's was given over to cemeteries.

There are records showing that a windmill existed from the late 14th to the early 19th centuries in Burton Stone Lane and was known as "Clifton" or "Lady Windmill". Ownership was recorded between 1374 and 1413 as belonging to John de Roucliff. Other owners recorded were Sir William Ingleby, in the mid 15th century, and Sir William Robinson in the early 18th century. The last record of the mill still being operational was in 1852, but there is no trace of the building now.

Employment can be found within the ward at the Nestle Foods Factory on Haxby Road, and the York District Hospital on Wigginton Road. Clifton was also the home of the North Riding Lunatic Asylum which joined the National Health Service as Clifton Hospital in 1948 but closed in 1994.

Research Tips

• 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.