Place:Pocklington, East Riding of Yorkshire, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Pocklington is a small market town and civil parish situated at the foot of the Yorkshire Wolds in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, approximately 13 miles (21 km) east of the City of York.

The town's skyline is dominated by a 15th century church tower. The town’s architecture is a mixture of quaint old houses and modern buildings and the town has several unusual street names reflecting its history from the Iron Age onwards.

It is now considered to be a commuter town for York, Hull and Leeds, although there is some employment in light industrial and commercial spheres as well as agriculture.

Pocklington lies at the centre of the ecclesiastical Parish of Pocklington, which also encompasses the small hamlet of Kilnwick Percy as well as a scattering of outlying farms and houses. Historically, it was an ecclesiastical parish in the Harthill Wapentake.

After being an urban district from 1894 until 1935, Pocklington was then absorbed into Pocklington Rural District, the municipal government for the surrounding rural area.

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").

Brief History

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

Pocklington gets its name via the Old English "Poclintun" from the Anglian settlement of Pocel's (or Pocela's) people and the Old English word "tun" meaning farm or settlement, but though the town's name can only be traced back to around 650 AD, the inhabitation of Pocklington as a site is thought to extend back a further 1,000 years or more to the Bronze Age. Pocklington appears on the 14th-century Gough Map, the oldest route map in Great Britain.

In the Iron Age Pocklington was a major town of the Parisi tribe. In 2017, a Celtic warrior's grave, dated to about BC 320 to 174, was discovered at a housing development under construction. After archeologists had completed a very long excavation project, the site was found to include a bronze shield, remains of a chariot and the skeletons of ponies. The shield's boss bears a resemblance to the Wandsworth shield boss (circa BC 350 to 150), in the British Museum. One design element on the extremely well preserved Pocklington shield, a scalloped border, "is not comparable to any other Iron Age finds across Europe, adding to its valuable uniqueness", commented Paula Ware, managing director at MAP Archaeological Practice Ltd, in late 2019. Horses were rarely included in Iron Age burials, making the find particularly significant. "The discoveries are set to widen our understanding of the Arras (Middle Iron Age) culture and the dating of artefacts to secure contexts is exceptional," according to Paula Ware.

By the time of the Domesday Book in 1086, it was the second largest settlement in Yorkshire after York itself.

Pocklington developed through the Middle Ages while many similar places fell into dramatic decline. Pocklington owed much of its prosperity in the Middle Ages to the fact that it was a local centre for the trading of wool and lay on the main road to York, an important national centre for the export of wool to the continent. Wool was England's main export in the earlier Middle Ages.

Town heraldry

The town's coat of arms shield is based on that of the Dolman family, founders of Pocklington School. The arms were granted to the town council in 1980. The crown at the base of the shield is the emblem of the saints, and along with the gold cross, symbolises the town's historic connection with Paulinus of York and the Archbishop of York.^[1]

The town's motto is "Service with Freedom".

Research Tips

• Original historical documents relating to the East Riding of Yorkshire and Kingston upon Hull are held at the

East Riding of Yorkshire Archives Service collects, preserves and makes available to the public the historic records of the East Riding. The Archives Service holds over 10,000 linear feet of documents dating from the 12th century to the present day. These records contain information about every community in the East Riding and cover a wide range of subjects.

Hull City Archives hold a wealth of information, covering the rich and varied fortunes of the city. The collections include non-conformist churches, local families, municipal cemeteries and records of the courts. In addition they hold unique photographs many of which are now accessible online via their historical photographs database.

The Yorkshire Archaeological Society promotes the study of Yorkshire's historical past - agriculture, archaeology, architecture, history, industry, religion and the people of the historic county. This is a county-wide resource based in the City of York.

Brynmor Jones Library Archives and Manuscripts (Hull University) includes Family and estate papers, and Solicitors' archives. A specific interlink was not found, just the one for the Hull University Library

• A History of the County of Yorkshire from British History Online (Victoria County Histories) does not have complete coverage for the East Riding (the northern part is missing). East Riding volumes in existence are:

• Volume 1, the City of Kingston Upon Hull published 1969
• Volume 3, Ouse and Derwent Wapentake, and Part of Harthill Wapentake published 1976
• Volume 6, the Borough and Liberties of Beverley published 1989
• Volume 7, Holderness Wapentake, Middle and North Divisions published 2002

This is by far the most complete history of the parishes of the county to be found online. The chapters are ordered by the divisions of the county called wapentakes, but each chapter is linked to the volume's content page.

• GENUKI has a page on all three ridings of Yorkshire and pages for each of the ecclesiastical parishes in the county. Under each parish there is a list of the settlements within it and brief description of each. These are based on a gazetteer dated 1835 and there may have been a number of alterations to the parish setup since then. However, it is worthwhile information for the pre civil registration era. GENUKI provides references to other organizations who hold genealogical information for the local area. However, here is no guarantee that the website has been kept up to date.
• The FamilyTree Wiki has a series of pages similar to those provided by GENUKI which may have been prepared at a later date. The wiki has a link to English Jurisdictions 1851 which gives the registration district and wapentake for each parish, together with statistics from the 1851 census for the area.
• A Vision of Britain through Time, Yorkshire East Riding, section "Units and Statistics" leads to analyses of population and organization of the county from about 1800 through 1974. There are pages available for all civil parishes, municipal boroughs and other administrative divisions. Descriptions provided are usually based on a gazetteer of 1870-72.

A Vision of Britain through Time also provides

• Map of the East Riding divisions in 1900 produced by UK Ordnance Survey and provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time
• Map of East Riding divisions in 1944 produced by UK Ordnance Survey and provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time also provide two maps indicate the boundaries between parishes, etc.

For a more detailed view of a specific area try a map from this selection. The oldest series are very clear at the third magnification offered. Comparing the map details with the GENUKI details for the same area is well worthwhile.

• Yorkshire has a large number of family history and genealogical societies. A list of the societies will be found on the Yorkshire page.
• In March 2018 Ancestry announced that its file entitled "Yorkshire, England: Church of England Parish Records, 1538-1873" has been expanded to include another 94 parishes (across the three ridings) and expected it to be expanded further during the year. The entries are taken from previously printed parish registers.

Especially for Pocklington

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