Flaxby History meeting: 22 Oct 2013
Introduction:
Welcome.
We have been interested in the history of Flaxby village for some years, but only recently decided to find out more and research it properly. We had read as much as we could find locally, including the book “Goldsborough, Flaxby & Coneythorpe”, the booklet produced for the Millenium, and the History of Harrogate & Knaresborough edited by Jennings, but were regretably too late to speak to Mary Morland who died a couple of years ago. She was the oldest inhabitant of the village and had lived here all her life. We read a number of other books in the library , consulted various maps , and spoke to other Flaxby residents including Sheelagh who had been given a copy of an old document relating to Flaxby Free School. This document has been posted on the blog. Pat Procter very kindly wrote a wonderful piece about her recollections of the village, and this has also been posted on the blog. When planning our events for this year the Village Association committee decided we should give the quiz evening a rest, and instead have a ‘history evening’ because not only had various historical facts come to light, but many residents had expressed interest and enthusiasm. Many thanks to Sheelagh who has joined us in our searches. So, here we are ! Our research is at the early stages really, but we have nevertheless uncovered quite a lot. We hope this evening to give you some idea of what we now know.
Sources:
Speaking to people in the village or having connections with it;
Books such as ‘Goldsborough, Flaxby & Coneythorpe’, and that produced for the Millenium; The Domesday Book; Jennings – History of Harrogate & Knaresborough; books in Harrogate and Knaresborough libraries such as the Victoria County History, Yorkshire; Speight, H. ‘Nidderdale’, etc.
Internet. for information and leads to other sources.
County Archives. North Yorkshire at Northallerton and West Riding in Morley, Leeds. This is because before the boundary changes in 1974 this area was part of the West Riding.
This is very much an ongoing exercise with lots more sources to explore – the more we find out, the more it seems there is still to be discovered! If during the course of the evening you feel you have something to add, please do. Any questions we will endeavour to answer, if not, we’ll add them to the list for further investigation and, welcome to anyone who would like to join in the exploration of the fascinating history of our village.
So to begin: We shall start at the beginning with a bit about the geology and the landscape and progress through to the modern era. So over to Buck for the earliest history.
Geology and Landscape Buck
Late Mesolithic (before 4000 BC)
Early & Middle Neolithic Age (4000 - 2900 BC)
Late Neolithic Age (3000 - 2500 BC)
The Bronze Age (2500 - 800 BC)
The Iron Age (800BC - AD 43)
Roman Britain (43 – 409 AD)
During Neolithic times when man settled here, the landscape emerged largely as we see it today. It was forested, not all trees, but with areas of rough shrubland. Within our area there are a number of sites where late Neolithic/Bronze age relics have been found.
The Devil’s Arrows near Boroughbridge are part of a Neolithic complex on the Ure-Swale plateau which incorporates the Thornborough Henges. There are three standing stones now, but there were originally 4 or 5. They are millstone grit and believed to have been quarried and brought from Plompton.
Pat Procter mentions that a piece of shaped flint found in a neighbours garden was identified as a Neolithic scraper.
Remains of several Iron age settlements have been identified in our area. When Allerton quarry was being extended a geophysical survey found remains of 2 substantial Romano British enclosures and associated ditches, pits and post-holes and fragments of a Bronze age beaker.
The Iron age settlement in Flaxby, situated to the east of Ten Low Hill, on the rising ground north of Shortsill Lane and west of the cutoff York Road was excavated and evaluated by Northern Archaeological Associates in 1994 in advance of sand & gravel quarrying. The report concludes that it was a farmstead of 7th-6th centuries BC. It has a field system and tracks and inhumation (burial). It was then abandoned until the late Roman period when it was replaced by a Roman farmstead in the mid 2nd to late 4th century AD.
J.J. Sheahon in his History of the Wapentake of Claro 1871 talking about Ten Low Hill says ‘the situation and wide extent of country seen from the hill seems to point it out as a Castrum Exploratorum (a fortified place pertaining to searching or spying) probably derived from ‘tent’ to watch or guard, and ‘law’ a hill.
In pre-Roman times much of northern England was occupied by the Brigantes, a group Celtic tribes. One of their tribal capitals was Aldborough (Isurium Brigantum), near Boroughbridge. Under Queen Cartimandua, Brigantia remained independent in the first phase of Roman conquest of Britain, and in AD 51 when defeated resistance leader Caratacus sought sanctuary she handed him over to the Romans. Rebellion against Roman occupation lasted until the end of the 1st Century AD.
Aldborough remained an important town during the Roman era.
400 – 1066
After the Roman armies left in the early 5th century there came an influx of Anglo Saxons and Danish Vikings. This is when the village acquired its name. – ‘by’ being Scandinavian for homestead , and the first part thought to be from the name of someone called Flatt. There have been several variations in spelling since then – Flatesbi, Flasbie, Flaresbie, Fflasceby, Flaskby, before finally settling for Flaxby in the 18th or 19th Century.
There is little still surviving from this period in our history but just to the north of Flaxby is Claro Hill, near Clareton. Harry Speight writing in 1894 describes it as ‘a very remarkable place from whence this wapentake is denominated. Its situation is near the road from Boroughbridge to Wetherby, opposite Allerton Park. The ascent, from the base to the summit, on the north side, is 228 ft. Here in Saxon times, was held the gemote or assembly of the people of this wapentake for the transacting of all public concerns, relative to the district and where, by the law of King Edgar every free man, in such district was obliged to attend’.
The Wapentakes were administrative areas in the north of England similar to the Hundreds in the south. This area was in the lower division of the Burghshire wapentake, so named in the Domesday Book. The name was changed to Claro in the 12th Century, presumably from the above Claro Hill.
Another local survivor from this time is the Goldsborough hoard, discovered in 1859. There are silver pieces including Viking brooches, arm rings and coins, including 3 anglo-saxon coins. These are now in the British Museum.
Also in Goldsborough, south east of the church are the remains of steps and a cross, probably 9th century in origin. When restored in 1913, human bones and a Viking type bronze were discovered.
1066-1700
The Battle of Hastings, 1066 saw the beginning of Norman rule and a few years of turmoil. Rebellion against them led in 1069 to the ‘harrying of the North’ when towns and villages were burned and many people murdered, followed by a winter of death from cold and starvation. An estimated 100,000 people died of hunger.
Domesday Book 1086-7
This is a survey of England made by the King’s commissioners covering the whole of England. Flaxby’s entry is ‘4 carucates of land to the geld, there is land for 2 ploughs. The soke is in Aldborough. Erneis has 1 plough there; and 5 villans and 2 bordars with 1 plough. It is half a league long and a half broad. TRE (before the conquest) worth 30s, now 25s.’ A second entry states that Erneis has 4 caracutes, perhaps the same 4 mentioned before.
Erneis de Buron was the owner of the land. He came with the Norman army and fought at the Battle of Hastings. He was given a large amount of land in several parts of the country.
A carucate is an area of land which could be ploughed with an 8 ox team in a day.
A geld was an old English monetary unit used for land-tax (Danegeld).
Soke was the judicial court associated with the possession of land.
A villan was a villager, a peasant with a higher economic status than a bordar.
A league it seems was an indeterminate distance (say 2 ½ - 4 ½ miles)
The next few centuries saw several events which though we have as yet no information relating specifically to Flaxby, must have had some effect on life here: the 12 and 13th were centuries of recovery from the initial impact of Norman rule, population increased and more land was cleared for farming. But early 14th century 1315 - 22 changes in climate brought poor crops and famine. In raids by the Scots in 1318, Northallerton was burned as was much of Knaresborough and in 1349 came the Black Death which killed about a third of the population.
In the 15th century Yorkists and Lancastrians fought the Wars of the Roses. Knaresborough had links to the Lancastrians through John of Gaunt and his wife Blanche of Lancaster, and is still part of the Duchy of Lancaster.
In the 16th century Yorkshire recovered, agriculture flourished and the population grew.
The Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536 was a rising in the north largely centred in York, protesting against Henry VIII’s break with the Roman Catholic Church, but also concerned with social, economic and political grievances. It was defeated and a large number of its leaders executed.
Then came the Civil War in 1642-44 with the defeat of the Royalists at Marston Moor (1644) which led to Charles 1 being beheaded in January 1649.
Now back to Flaxby. It would be fascinating to know just how much the village and its people were affected by events happening nearby. For much of the time since Norman times the village has been owned by 2 large estates, Allerton Mauleverer and Goldsborough. Allerton Mauleverer owned most of the east side of the village, and Goldsborough the remainder.
Goldsborough. Before 1066, the manor was held by Saxon Merlesuan, in the reign of Edward the Confessor. It was named Godensburg in the Domesday Book and some years after the conquest it came into the possession of John de Busey, who ganted it to Richard, afterwards named De Goldsborough. (according to Sheahan) The Goldsbrough family kept the estate until 1547 when it was sold to Sir Richard Hutton. Through marriage it passed to the Byerley family and in 1756 was bought by Daniel Lascelles. His brother Edwin owned the Harewood estate. Daniel was vicar of Goldsbrough. When he died the estate passed into the ownership of the Harewood Estate. The Lascelles family owned the Goldsborough estate until 1952 when it was sold to pay death duties. We have a copy of the sale particulars and map here tonight.
A note in Speight’s book about Flaxby and the adjoining village, Newton, states that ‘the property at Newton and Flaxby was no doubt the inheritance of Alice, wife of Sir Richard Goldsburgh who had jointure of a messuage in Goldsborough in the tenure of Robert Picard and of lands and tenements in Newton near Flaxby, 15th Dec. 1471’. ( a messuage is the unit of land-tenure, comprising a house or houses with additional land/buildings.)
The village of Newton has intrigued us, being mentioned as only remaining in a field name, but not identifying where the field was. A map of 1758, though, shows Newton Pastures as on John Sturdy’s Farm, fields to the east side of York Road, land occupied now roughly by ‘Magnolia’, Nos 1 to 4 York Road and Southedge, and extending over part of the golf course. Was Newton village here or nearby? It must have disappeared before the end of the 17th century. The land was later renamed Flaxby Close. There was another village long gone called Thorpes which seems to have been just to the north west of Goldsborough.
Allerton Mauleverer: the Mauleverers owned the estate until 1713 when Richard, the last of the line died aged 26, unmarried. His mother remarried into the Arundell family and left Allerton to Richard Arundell, her son from her 2nd marriage. Having no children surviving past childhood, the estate then passed to a cousin by marriage, William Monkton 4th Viscount Galway who sold it in 1786 to HRH The Duke of York. In 1791 it was sold again this time to Colonel William Thornton, the estate of 4,525 acres for £110,000. He renamed it Thorntonville Royale, with the permission of the Duke of York, but sold it in 1805 to 17th Baron Stourton. The Stourtons, having acquired other titles, kept the estate until the death in 1965 of William Marmaduke, 25th Baron Mowbray, 26th Baron Seagrave, 22nd Baron Stourton. He was the last to live in the house. In 1965 there was a sale of the contents of the house, the house itself being sold to the present owner Dr Gerald Rolfe in 1983. Outlying parts of the estate were sold in 1967 (including Pond Cottage [Lilliel Cottage], Clareton Farm and Spring Bank Farm), but the estate remained in the ownership of Charles Stourton. On his demise in 2006 the estate passed to his son Edward Stourton, the 27th Baron Mowbray.
Land in Flaxby has been used largely for arable farming, corn; such as wheat and barley, and some animal husbandry. Wheat was an important product of land for income. The price of a bushel of wheat at York market from ‘Extracts from the Corn inspector’s return’ in the 1820s show 7s 6 ½ in 1821, 6s 4 ½ in 1822, 8s 10 in 1825, 7s 6 in 1826 ( a bushel is a unit of weight or mass depending on the commodity measured and the water content, wheat is generally 60lbs weight, barley 48lbs)
In the C19 most farming in Flaxby was based on the two farms, one each side of York Road, one belonging to Allerton Mauleverer, the other the Goldsborough Estate. Most of the inhabitants of the village worked for the Allerton Estate.
C18 Maps show the land divided into tenanted fields. There were areas of glebe land which belonged to the church or vicar on which rent was paid to him. One such was Spring Bank Farm, earlier called Glebe Farm. Outside the village were areas of common land at Shortsill and Flaxby Moor accessible to everyone for grazing, until the Enlosure Acts.
The House of Lords Journal Vol. 33, Feb. 1772, pp21-28 makes reference to a bill (draft Act) being read by the Lords, and reported by The Earl of Denbigh, which was for “dividing and enclosing several open fields and waste grounds within the manor of Clareton with Coneystrop, and a piece of waste ground called Shortsill, in the Manor of Allerton with Flaxby, all in the county of York.” The Act was passed.
The land enclosed on High and Low Shortsill was 60 acres.
The Act gives to the rector of Goldsborough, land on High and Low Shortsill, 6 ancient enclosures in lieu of all tithes.
A letter 18th Sept 1774 from Mr Chas Mellish. ‘Inclosure of Clareton with Conestrop and Shortsill. I have read 2 opinions of Mr Johnson on the construction of the said Act. I agree that the commissioners are fully authorised to give Mr. Lamplugh (vicar)an allotment in Shortsill, within the parish of Goldsborough. No other Part of Flaxby to be inclosed. Tithes to be paid to Mr Lamplugh’. So it seems the vicar got his land in Shortsill and the tithes in the village!
Public House
The New Inn opened in 1813. It was marked on the 1853 OS map but not on 1889-99 and was sited on the west side of York Road, where Pump Cottage now is.
The School
Flasby Free School was set up in 1640 by the Rev. Richard Hodgshon of Ilkley. He left the rents from his properties to endow a school in Flaxby as well as to provide money for charities elsewhere. It is not known of any connection Hodgshon had with Flaxby, but there were Hodgshons families living in the area. The school was sited on the west side of Shortsill Lane at the north end of the village. The schoolmaster lived there with his family. Later on there were 12 free scholars from Flaxby township and 6 fee paying scholars from elsewhere. ‘Pupils were instructed in reading, writing, arithmetic and the church catechism, books to be provided by the parents together with 1s entrance fee and 2s for fuel for heating in the winter’. Charges would have been less in its early days. Income from the endowment as late as 1809 was only £5 10s a year. One master who was there for 27years until his death in 1805 was William Willsthorp.
In 1810 the school was rebuilt. It was set back from the road and roughly on the boundary between nos. 3 and 4 Shortsill lane. A photograph taken c.1950 shows a building there that Mary Morland referred to as a dovecote. The Ordnance Survey map of 1863 shows this building and labels it ‘school’. It is possible that this old dovecote had been the rebuilt schoolhouse. The school had the title of Flaxby Academy and was built at least partly at the expense of Lord Stourton. It must have accommodated larger numbers of children, having 2 schoolmasters, father and son, both called Edwin Hastings.
According the Victoria County History, the ownership of the school was suspended in 1854. It had become a subject of dispute between the inhabitants and Lord Stourton. Canon Lascelles, then rector of Goldsbrough decided in 1856 to abandon the school and granted a site for another by deedpoll.
In 1857the National school was built. The building still exists and is currently being converted into a house. The school was meant to take up to 40 children, but attendance was much less than that. It was later used as an infants or preparatory school for the Goldsborough church school. The building continued to be used for village activities, as a youth club venue and for mince pies and punch after the village carol singing until it became in a very poor condition and was sold in 2008 (?) .
The Flaxby Free School Trust was formed after the closure of the school and this still helps children from Flaxby and Goldsborough with costs for secondary and further education.
Transport
The village now seems a bit of a quiet backwater away from the main road system, but in the past it has been right on the main east west Harrogate-York road. What must have been a series of rough tracks from village to village became a main thoroughfare, its upkeep being the responsibility of the people of the parish and which was by the early 18th century becoming unfit for the traffic it was bearing. As well as local traffic, the area had become a tourist destination with the development of Harrogate Spa, visitors exploring the surrounding sites and it was an access to the Great North Road.
In 1752 an Act of Parliament established Turnpike roads, including the Knaresborough-Green Hammerton stretch. The existing road was said to be ‘ruinous’ and ‘in some seasons impassable for carriages’. It was also ‘a great way about’ as it went by Ferrensby, Arkendale and Whixley. The Act was for laying out the new way and for repairing the road from Knaresborough by Longflatt Lane (now York Road), Gouldsbrough Fields, Flaxby, Allerton Mauleverer and Scate Moor to Green Hammerton in the same county and for making the same a high Carriage Road’. A Toll bar was put in Flaxby. The bar-house was sited where the bungalow ‘Four Winds’ is located. In 1969 the A59 was extended from White Rail Bridge (near the old level crossing) to the present roundabout with the A1(M), and Flaxby was relieved of through traffic.
The milepost on the old York Road towards the A1M is an English Heritage Grade 2 listed building, ID 33062 listed 1985. It stands ½ way between Knaresborough and Green Hammerton – 4 miles each way.
The other road which in the past must have affected life in Flaxby is the Great North Road, now the A1(M). It is thought to follow the ancient pre Roman track to Aldborough on which the Romans then built their road. In the 17th /18th Centuries it was an important coaching thoroughfare, mailcoaches passed daily and droves of Scottish cattle passed, sometimes 1,000 head. Speight talks about the first charges being: wagon, 1s, coach 6d, cart 8p, horse 1p 20 sheep 1s 2p, oxen 5p, hogs 2p. The road has changed its course several times, the current one being the furthest west. The former A1 has been re-numbered the A168, and further south where the railway line crosses there remains a section of a previous Great North Road. Here, New Inn Farm used to be the New Inn , a coaching inn where passengers ‘were occasionally entertained with the exciting spectacle of a cock fight’. Hopperton Lane (Allerton) station was built where the railway crossed the Great North Road.
The A1 became dual carriage way in the 1940s-50s and the 13mile stretch from Walshford to Dishforth was upgraded to motorway in 1995. Neolithic remains and a Roman fort were found during construction.
Flaxby must have been a very busy, noisy place. (David’s story of the boy from Otley, 2 days to get to the north road to collect sheep to take back).
Buck on Railway
We know little about the people of Flaxby or the lives they led, but:
Sheelagh. The people of Flaxby
Bishops Transcripts: The village has always been part of Goldsborough Parish, so most of the details of births, deaths & marriages will be in Goldsborough Parish records of Goldsborough Bishops Transcripts which we haven’t yet consulted. We have seen the Allerton Mauleverer Bishops transcripts, though which show some interchange between the 2 parishes:
1812 23rd July Rector of Goldsborough married Julie Ann Stourton to Peter Middleton at Allerton Hall Flaxby
People buried at Allerton : 1835, 2nd July Catherine Mauson, aged 19; 1845 22nd Sept. another Catherine Mawson, aged 70; 1857 11th Nov, Sarah ......, aged 18; 1859 22nd Sept, Jane Phillips, aged 70.
Castle Farm Chapel
At the Shortsill Lane end of the lane leading to Castle Farm there was in the past a Primitive Methodist Chapel. I asked Richard Brown who farms there now, about it. He moved to the farm in 1956 and understood that the chapel had been demolished a year or two earlier. There remained only some of the foundations, now gone. He said it was on a 99 year lease from the Lady Hewley Charity which owned Hay a Park Estate. The farm lane was called Hay Park Lane. Apparently there was a bridle path from Knaresborough, through the farmyard to the chapel. People came by pony & trap. Lady Sarah Hewley lived 1627-1710. She built alms houses in York and at least one chapel in Knaresborough. Her Trust is still in operation, with a head office, in Chester, ‘making grants to ministers, retired ministers, their widows, who are members of the United Reformed or Baptist churches and also students who are studying for ministries in these churches’. Lady Hewley’s Charity records 1707- 1987 are in the archives at Northallerton. These should be interesting to look at.
Richard Brown put me in touch with the lady who lived at Castle Farm before him, Mrs Backhouse. She moved to the farm in 1931, as a child. The chapel was not in use during the time she lived there, but she and her sister used to play in and around the building.
Benjamin Walker (a Quaker of Knaresborough) and his family moved to Castle farm in early 1861. He leased 290 acres from Lady Hewley’s estate and employed 4 men, 2 boys and 1 woman. He had 4 children, all born at Castle Farm. He died in 1891.
Flaxby Grange: The Gill family were tenants of the farm of 190 acres until they bought it in the mid 1960s when Allerton Estate farms were sold. Corn crops were wheat and barley and pigs were kept.
Sale of land in Flaxby: Land from the Goldsborough/Harewood Estate was sold in 1952 to pay death duties. We have a map showing the land and property for sale from the Goldsborough estate, and details of the Flaxby lots.
Spring Bank Farm: (270 acres) Mr Falls farmed there in the late 1940s. He was an ex prisoner of war in Burma, but had 2 Germans POWs working on the farm. Mr Goldthorpe was a later tenant until John Milburn took over in the late 50s. He bought the farm some years later. He was kind enough to lend us the details of the sale of Spring Bank Farm and Clareton Farm in 1965 as part of the Allerton Estate sale. It also gives details of a cottage in Flaxby which was Included in the sale, Pond Cottage, now called Lilliel Cottage.
This is the end of our searches so far. We hope you have found it interesting and if you feel you would like to take part in looking further into our village history we would welcome your help with this fascinating project!
Kath White
20.10.13