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Bempton Parish information from Bulmers' 1892.

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BEMPTON:
Geographical and Historical information from the year 1892.

Wapentake and Petty Sessional Division of Dickering - Electoral Division of Flamborough - Poor Law Union, County Court District, and Rural Deanery of Bridlington - Archdeaconry of the East Riding - Diocese of York.

This parish is situated on the northern shore of the tongue of land which terminates in Flamborough Head. Its total area, exclusive of foreshore, is 1,970 acres, and its estimated extent is 1,885 acres. The soil is of a loamy nature and very fertile, yielding excellent cereal crops. About one half of the land is laid down in pasture. The township is valued for rating purposes at £3,276, and had in 1891 a population of 310. W. H. Harrison-Broadley, Esq., J.P., J. C. Champion, Selina Champion, John Milner, Kilham, and the Rev. H. IR. S. Pearson, Lythe, Whitby, are the principal landowners.

The village stands about 3½ miles north-north-east of Bridlington, the same distance north-west of Flamborough, and near the station of its own name, on the Scarborough and Hull branch of the North-Eastern railway. The church, which is dedicated to St. Michael, is an ancient structure consisting of chancel, nave with aisles, south porch and a western tower containing two bells. The nave is separated from the aisles by arcades of Norman arches springing from circular piers. The chancel was rebuilt of red brick in 1829, by Henry Broadley, the lord of the manor and patron. The church has been recently restored and much improved. The font is ancient, Bempton was one of the many villages granted to the priory of Bridlington; and it was probably by the monks of that house that the church was erected. It continued dependent on that monastery till 1474, when it was separated.* The living, formerly a perpetual curacy, is now a vicarage worth about £100 a year, in the gift of W. H. Harrison-Broadley, Esq., and held by the Rev. Nicholas McGrath, B.A., Trinity College, Dublin, who is also vicar of Speeton.

The Wesleyan chapel, a small brick building erected in 1825, stands midway between Bempton and Buckton, and will accommodate 150 persons. The Primitive Methodists have a chapel in the village, built in 1843, and enlarged in 1862. The National school was built in 1873, for the accommodation of 90 children, and is attended by about 70.

A short distance from the village, by the side of the road leading to Flamborough, are the traces of an ancient British village, consisting of about sixty pit dwellings. They are circular excavations two or three feet deep, with paved floors, now covered with several inches of soil. The roofs, we may suppose, were thatched and conical, with an aperture at the apex for the escape of the smoke.

* Sheahan's "York and the East Riding," page 441.

[Description(s) from Bulmer's History and Directory of East Yorkshire (1892)]

Directories

  • Transcript of the entry for the Post Office, professions and trades in Bulmer's Directory of 1892.


Scan, OCR and html by Colin Hinson. Checking and correction by Peter Nelson.