Place:Healaugh (near Tadcaster), West Riding of Yorkshire, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Healaugh (near Tadcaster) has been since 1974 a village and civil parish in the Selby District of North Yorkshire, England. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 161 in 63 households. The population had increased to 249 at the 2011 census. The village is about three miles north northeast of Tadcaster.

The present civil parish is a joint parish with nearby Catterton. The parish covers an area of 3,378 acres of which the village occupies 2,666 acres. It lies 2.29 miles (3.69 km) west of Askham Richard, 1.62 miles (2.61 km) east of Wighill and 1.19 miles (1.92 km) north of Catterton. A short distance to the east of the village is Dam Dyke which flows via Catterton Beck and The Foss into the River Wharfe near Bolton Percy.

Despite its location west of the City of York, Healaugh was originally an ancient parish in Buckrose Wapentake in the East Riding of Yorkshire. Later it was transferred to Ainsty Wapentake which was already reponsible for its neighbouring parishes. In 1866 the status of civil parish was introduced and this was taken on by most ancient parishes and also by their subsidiary townships if they were of any size at all. In 1866 Healaugh, which had no townships, became a civil parish. In 1894 it became part of the Tadcaster Rural District of the West Riding.

In 1974 rural districts were abolished and the border between the East Riding of Yorkshire and the North Riding of Yorkshire was realigned. The North Riding changed its name to North Yorkshire. Since 1974 Healaugh has been in North Yorkshire, specifically within the Selby District.

History

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

The town of Kelso came into being as a direct result of the creation of Kelso Abbey in 1128. The town's name stems from the earliest settlement having stood on a chalky outcrop, and the town was known as Calkou (or perhaps Calchfynydd) in those early days, something that is remembered in the modern street name, "Chalkheugh Terrace".

Standing on the opposite bank of the River Tweed from the now-vanished royal burgh of Roxburgh, Kelso and its sister hamlet of Wester Kelso were linked to the burgh by a ferry at Wester Kelso. A small hamlet existed before the completion of the abbey in 1128 but the settlement started to flourish with the arrival of the monks. Many were skilled craftsmen, and they helped the local population as the village expanded.

Archaeological excavations in the 1980s discovered that the original medieval burgh of Wester Kelso was much farther west than previously believed and that it was abandoned in the 14th or 15th centuries, at the same time that the royal burgh of Roxburgh was deserted, likely the result of the English occupation of Roxburgh Castle. The other settlement of Easter Kelso, near the abbey, survived and expanded from the market area around the abbey northwards towards the Floors estate by the early 18th century. Thus ‘Easter’ Kelso, became Kelso.

The abbey controlled much of life in Kelso-area burgh of barony, called Holydean, until the Reformation in the 16th century. After that, the power and wealth of the abbey declined. The Kerr family of Cessford took over the barony and many of the abbey's properties around the town. By the 17th century, they virtually owned Kelso.

In Roxburgh Street is the outline of a horseshoe petrosomatoglyph where the horse of Charles Edward Stuart cast a shoe as he was riding it through the town on his way to Carlisle in 1745. He is also said to have planted a white rosebush in his host's garden, descendants of which are still said to flourish in the area.

For some period of time, the Kelso parish was able to levy a tax of 2 pence (2d) on every Scottish pint of ale, beer or porter sold within the town.^[1] The power to do this was extended for 21 years in 1802 under the Kelso Two Pennies Scots Act when the money was being used to replace a bridge across the River Tweed that had been destroyed by floods.

Kelso Town Hall was completed in 1816 and remodelled in 1908. The war memorial was erected in 1921 to a design by Sir Robert Lorimer.

A nineteenth century description

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

"HEALAUGH, a parish in the district of Tadcaster and W. R. Yorkshire; 3½ miles N by E of Tadcaster town and [railway] station. Post town, Tadcaster. Acres, 2,800. Real property, £4,431. Population: 228. Houses: 41. The manor, with Healaugh Hall, belongs to the Rev. E. H. Brooksbank. An ancient manor house, occupying the site of a previous edifice, called "the Hermitage in the Wood", was converted, in 1218, by Jordan de St. Maria, into a priory of black canons; was given, at the dissolution, to James Gage; passed to Sir Arthur Darey; became the residence of Sir Thomas Wharton; and is now a moated farm house. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of York. Value: £100. Patron: the Rev. E. H. Brooksbank. The church was partially rebuilt in 1860; consists of nave, N aisle, and chancel, with a tower; has a fine Norman door; contains an elegant tomb of Sir Thomas Wharton; and stands on an eminence."

Research Tips

• GENUKI on Healaugh.
• A Vision of Britain through Time on Healaugh.
• The FamilySearch wiki on the ecclesiastical parish of Healaugh provides a list of useful resources for the local area.
• 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.

• For a discussion of where to find Archive Offices in Yorkshire, see GENUKI.
• Yorkshire has a large number of family history and genealogical societies. A list of the societies will be found on the Yorkshire, England page.