Place:Great Ribston with Walshford, West Riding of Yorkshire, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

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

"RIBSTON (Great), a township, conjoint with Walshford, in Hunsingore parish, [West Riding of] Yorkshire; on the river Nidd, 3½ miles S E of Knaresborough. Acres: 1,780. Real property: £2,501. Population: 180. Houses: 35. The manor belonged to Turbar the Dane; passed to the Percys and others; and, with R. Hall, belongs now to J. Dent, Esq. An ancient church or chapel is attached to the hall, and contains monuments of the Goodricks. A preceptory of Knights Templars was founded hereby Robert Lord Ross, and was given to the Brandons. The famous apple called the Ribston pippin, was brought hither from France, and takes its name from having been grown here."

Under Walshford A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following from the same source:

"Walshford, hamlet, Hunsingore par[ish], E[ast] div[ision] West-Riding Yorkshire, on river Nidd, 3 miles NE. of Wetherby; the Nidd is here crossed by Walshford Bridge. See Ribstone, Great, with Walshford."

Historically, Great Ribston with Walshford was in the ecclesiastical parish of Hunsingore in the Upper division of the Claro Wapentake. From 1894 until 1938, Great Ribston with Walshford was located in Great Ouseburn Rural District and from 1938 until 1974 in Nidderdale Rural District. In 1974 the area became part of the Harrogate District of North Yorkshire. The civil parish of Great Ribston with Walshford had an estimated population of 70 in 2015 according to the West Yorkshire Council.

The page, Great Ouseburn Rural District, has an outline map of all the civil parishes in the district.

Research Tips

• GENUKI on Great Ribston with Walshford. The GENUKI page gives numerous references to local bodies providing genealogical assistance.
• The FamilySearch wiki on the ecclesiastical parish of Hunsingore provides a list of useful resources for the local area.
• A Vision of Britain through Time on Great Ribston with Walshford.
• A Vision of Britain through Time also provides links to maps of the West Riding, produced by the United Kingdom Ordnance Survey, illustrating the boundaries between the civil parishes and the rural districts at various dates. Those listed here provide data for the part of the West Riding that transferred to North Yorkshire in 1974 plus the northern parts of Leeds and Bradford. These maps all blow up 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 Northern part of the West Riding 1900 The rural and urban districts, not long after their introduction. (rural districts of Sedbergh, Settle, Skipton, Pateley Bridge, Ripon, Knaresborough, Great Ouseburn, Clitheroe, Wharfedale, Wetherby, York, Bishopthorpe, Keighley, the northern part of Bradford, the northern part of Leeds, the northern part of Hunslet Urban District, the northern part of Tadcaster Rural District, the northern part of Selby Rural District). [Note: this map appears to be no longer available on the Vision of Britain website. This is unfortunate because the equivalent map from 1931-44 was redrawn after the 1938 reorganization of the rural districts in the northern part of the West Riding.]
• Ordnance Survey Northern part of the West Riding 1944. The urban and rural districts of the northern part of the West Riding (mostly Settle, Skipton, Ripon and Pateley Bridge, and Nidderdale, with sections of Wharfedale and Wetherby) after the revisions of 1938.