Place:Hawes, North Riding of Yorkshire, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

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

Hawes is a small market town and civil parish in Upper Wensleydale in the Richmondshire district of North Yorkshire, England, that was granted its market charter in 1699. Historically in the North Riding of Yorkshire, Hawes is located at the head of Wensleydale in the Yorkshire Dales; the River Ure runs to the north of the town and is regarded as one of the honeypot tourist attractions of the Yorkshire Dales National Park. It is known as the home to the Yorkshire Wensleydale Cheese.

The population in 2011 was 887; the estimated population in 2016 was 893. The parish of Hawes also includes the neighbouring hamlet of Gayle. The population of the full parish was 1,137 in 2011^[1] and was estimated at 1,138 in 2016. Hawes is west of the county town of Northallerton. The Wensleydale Creamery is a major producer of Yorkshire Wensleydale cheese.

Described by Reader's Digest as The Village That Refused to Die, Hawes has a very active non-profit community group that seeks funding and uses the money to re-open keep community amenities that were closing.

Prior to the nationwide municipal reorganization of 1974, Hawes was in the Aysgarth Rural District of the North Riding of Yorkshire from 1894. Historically it was in the ecclesiastical parish of Aysgarth in the wapentake of Hang West.

Research Tips

• GENUKI on Hawes. The GENUKI page gives numerous references to local bodies providing genealogical assistance.
• A Vision of Britain through Time on Hawes.
• The FamilySearch wiki on the ecclesiastical parish of Aysgarth provides a list of useful resources for the local area.