Place:Great Timble, West Riding of Yorkshire, England

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia Great Timble (#13 on the map) is now a civil parish in the Harrogate District of North Yorkshire, England. It is situated on the slopes of the Washburn Valley, north of Otley and close to the Swinsty and Fewston reservoirs. According to the UK census of 2011 Great Timble had a population of 142. The village of Timble is the principal settlement in the civil parish of Great Timble. East of the village is the separate civil parish of Little Timble (#17), which includes Swinsty Hall, a Grade I listed building, and the western side of Swinsty Reservoir. Little Timble has only a small population, estimated at 10. The two parishes have different histories. Great Timble was a township in the ancient parish of Fewston (#12). Little Timble was a township in the large ancient parish of Otley (marked by name on map). Both became separate civil parishes in 1866. Prior to the nationwide municipal reorganization of 1974, Great Timble was part of Wharfedale Rural District in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. Historically, it was part of the Claro Wapentake. In 1988, the diaries of local man, John Dickinson, were published, providing considerable insight into the history of the village and the surrounding area. In the 17th century, the village was home to "The Witches of Timble", who were accused of witchcraft by local poet Edward Fairfax. They were tried but acquitted twice at York. (Ref: Timble Man - Diaries of a Dalesman, by John Dickinson, edited by Ronald Harker (published 1988)

Research tips

• GENUKI on Great Timble. GENUKI indexes only the ancient parishes. Townships that later became civil parishes are listed on a "supplementary page" following the page for the main parish. The articles only deal with events up until 1820. It is worth glancing through the other places listed on the supplementary page to see if it lists any other communities within Great Timble township.
• The FamilySearch wiki for Yorkshire (all three ridings) has articles on all parishes--not just ancient parishes.
• A Vision of Britain through Time on Great Timble.
• A Vision of Britain through Time 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. The location of individual settlements within the parishes is also shown. These maps all expand to a very large scale.

• Ordnance Survey West Riding 1888. The "Sanitary Districts (which preceded the rural districts) for the whole of the West Riding.
• Ordnance Survey West Riding North 1900 and Ordnance Survey West Riding South 1900. The rural and urban districts, not long after their introduction. NOTE: In 2022 the map of the southern section is not available through the Vision of Britain website. It is unknown if this omission is accidental or if the copy used by the university has been damaged in some way.
• Yorkshire West Riding South and Yorkshire West Riding North revised_1944. These two maps illustrate the urban and rural districts of the whole of the West Riding after the revisions of 1935.
• A further useful map on A Vision of Britain through Time is a boundary map dated 1917. This shows all the boundaries of villages, townships and parishes in the Holmfirth area.