Place:Snaith and Cowick, West Riding of Yorkshire, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

source: Family History Library Catalog

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Snaith is now a town in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, approximately 6 miles (10 km) west of Goole on the A1041 road at its junction with the A645 road. It is 1 mile (1.6 km) to the north of the M62 motorway, just south of the River Aire.

The town of Snaith with the villages of East Cowick and West Cowick form the civil parish of Snaith and Cowick which had 3,579 inhabitants and 1,492 households in the 2011 UK census. This was an increase on 3,028 inhabitants and 1,228 households recorded in the 2001 UK census.

Snaith is the focal point of the local rural area. It has primary and secondary schools. The town exit and entry to the M62 is approximately 5 miles (8 km) away, giving access to Hull, Doncaster, Goole, Leeds and Castleford. It is approximately 20 miles (32 km) from York and 7 miles (11 km) from Selby. The parishes of Carlton (near Snaith) and Camblesforth are in between.

Snaith was part of the Goole Rural District in the West Riding of Yorkshire from 1894 to 1974, then became part of the Boothferry District of the short-lived county of Humberside until 1996. In 1996 Humberside was abolished and Snaith and the rest of the former Goole Rural District became part of the newly re-formed administrative county of East Riding of Yorkshire, England.

History

The civil parish of Snaith and Cowick was formed in 1866 and has been one unit ever since. They had previously been townships in the ancient parish of Snaith which was very large (over 30,000 acres in 1870). Snaith and Cowick are described independently in Wilson's Gazetteer of 1870-72 and these descriptions follow. The other townships listed in the ecclesiatical parish of Snaith have become separate parishes and are described elsewhere.

Snaith

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

"SNAITH, a small town, a township, a [registration] sub-district, and a parish, in [West Riding of] Yorkshire. The town stands on the river Aire and on the Goole railway, 7 miles W by S of Goole; is a seat of petty-sessions, and a polling place; underwent much recent improvement; and has a post-office under Selby, a [railway] station with telegraph, a later English church with a tower, a Wesleyan chapel built in 1863, a grammar-school with £30 a year from endowment, alms houses with £21, other charities, £240, a weekly market on Thursday, and cattle fairs on the last Thursday of April and 10 August.

"The township contains also Cowick hamlet, and comprises 6,455 acres. Real property: £10,873; of which £56 are in gasworks. Population: 1,763. Houses: 400. The manor belongs to Viscount Downe.

"The parish contains likewise Goole, Hook, and Armin townships in Goole [registration] district, Carlton township in Selby [registration] district, and Hensall, Heck, and Balne townships in Pontefract [registration] district; and is ecclesiastically cut into the sections of Snaith, Cowick, Goole, Armin, Carlton, Rawcliffe, Hook, Hensall-cum-Heck, and Pollington-cum-Balne. Acres: 32,435. Population in 1851: 11,365; in 1861: 12,772. Houses: 2,743. The head living is a vicarage in the diocese of York. Value: £500. Patron: Y. Yarburgh, Esq. The other livings are separately noticed."

Cowick

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

"COWICK, a township-chapelry in Snaith parish, [West Riding of] Yorkshire; on the Dutch river and the Goole canal, adjacent to the Goole railway, 1½ mile SE of Snaith. It includes the hamlet of East Cowick, which has a post office under Selby; also the hamlets of West Cowick, Greenland, and Newbridge. Acres: 5,725. Population: 849. Houses: 199. Cowick Hall is the seat of Viscount Downe. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of York. Value: £160. Patron: Viscount Downe. There are an Independent chapel, and charities £21."

Research Tips

• GENUKI on Snaith. GENUKI also has a Snaith supplementary page to cover a number of smaller places within the parish. It gives numerous references to local bodies providing genealogical assistance.
• The FamilySearch wiki on the ecclesiastical parish of Snaith provides a list of useful resources for the local area.
• A Vision of Britain through Time also provides links to three maps for the Goole Rural District, produced by the United Kingdom Ordnance Survey. These maps expand to a scale that will illustrate small villages and large farms or estates.

• Ordnance Survey West Riding 1888. The "Sanitary Districts (which preceded the rural districts) for the whole of the West Riding.
• Ordnance Survey West Riding South 1900. This map is not equivalent to maps for other parts of the country at this time period and does not show parish boundaries. However, Goole Rural District is clearly shown. It is at the extreme right of the map and much wider than it is long.
• Ordnance Survey West Riding 1944. The urban and rural districts of the whole of the West Riding after the revisions of 1935. This map does show the civil parish boundaries.

Remember that the entire rural district became part of Humberside 1974-1996, but on the abolition of Humberside, some parishes joined Lincolnshire while others joined the East Riding of Yorkshire. This fact is covered on a parish by parish basis.