Place:Kirkburn and Battleburn, East Riding of Yorkshire, England

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

"KIRKBURN, a village, a township, and a parish in Driffield district, [East Riding of] Yorkshire. The village stands on an eminence, in the vale of a brook, at the foot of the Wolds, 2 miles S of Garton [railway] station, and 4 SW by W of Great Driffield; and has a post office under Driffield. The township contains also the hamlet of Battleburn, and bears the name of Kirkburn-with-Battleburn. Acres: 1,369. Real property: £1,582. Population: 158. Houses: 31.

"The parish contains also the townships of Southburn, Eastburn, and Tibthorpe. Acres: 6,002. Real property: £7,651. Population: 581. Houses: 107. The property is subdivided. The manor belongs to Sir T. Sykes, Bart. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of York. Value: £120. Patron: the Rev. R. Allen. The church is Norman; has a W tower; was restored in 1856; and contains a carved screen, and a very ancient font. There are three Wesleyan chapels, a Primitive Methodist chapel, and national schools. A school house, for 130 children, was erected in 1861; and is in the Tudor style, with bell turret."

The same gazetteer has this description of Battleburn:

"BATTLEBURN, a hamlet in Kirkburn parish, [East Riding of] Yorkshire; 3¼. miles SW of Great Driffield."

Historically, Kirkburn was a township in the wapentake of Harthill and included the hamlet of Battleburn and the townships of Eastburn (near Driffield), Southburn and Tibthorpe. The ancient parish was made a civil parish in 1866 with the name Kirkburn and Battleburn, but Eastburn, Southburn and Tibthorpe were created as separate civil parishes. From 1894 until 1935, Kirkburn and Battleburn was a civil parish within Driffield Rural District. In 1935 it merged with Eastburn and the widened civil parish was named Kirkburn. The whole area remained within Driffield Rural District until 1974.

Humberside 1974-1996

In 1974 most of what had been the East Riding of Yorkshire was joined with the northern part of Lincolnshire to became a new English county named Humberside. The urban and rural districts of the former counties were abolished and Humberside was divided into non-metropolitan districts. The new organization did not meet with the pleasure of the local citizenry and Humberside was wound up in 1996. The area north of the River Humber was separated into two "unitary authorities"—Kingston upon Hull covering the former City of Hull and its closest environs, and the less urban section to the west and to the north which, once again, named itself the East Riding of Yorkshire.

The phrase "Yorkshire and the Humber" serves no purpose in WeRelate. It refers to one of a series of basically economic regions established in 1994 and abolished for most purposes in 2011. See the Wikipedia article entited "Regions of England").

Research Tips

• GENUKI on Kirkburn and Battleburn. The GENUKI page gives numerous references to local bodies providing genealogical assistance.
• The FamilySearch wiki on the ecclesiastical parish of Kirkburn provides a list of useful resources for the local area.
• A Vision of Britain through Time on Kirkburn.
• A Vision of Britain through Time provides links to three maps of the East Riding, produced by the United Kingdom Ordnance Survey, illustrating the boundaries between the civil parishes and the rural districts at various dates. These maps all expand to a scale that will illustrate small villages and large farms or estates.

• Ordnance Survey 1888. The "Sanitary Districts (which preceded the rural districts).
• Ordnance Survey 1900 The rural districts, not long after their introduction.
• Ordnance Survey 1944. The rural districts after the revisions of 1935.