Harswell Parish information from Bulmers' 1892.

HARSWELL:
Geographical and Historical information from the year 1892.

Wapentake of Harthill (Holme Beacon Division) - County Council Electorial Division of Londesborough - Petty Sessional Division of Holme Beacon - Poor Law Union and County Court District of Pocklington - Rural Deanery of Weighton - Archdeaconry of the East Riding - Diocese of York.

This parish contains 1,125 acres of land, lying in the vale of the Foulness rivulet. The soil is chiefly sand, and the subsoil clay and marl. Wheat, barley, oats, and turnips, are the chief crops. The rateable value is £933, and the population in 1891 was 63. The whole parish, except the glebe (43 acres), belongs to Mrs. Slingsby, Scriven Park, Knaresborough, who is also lady of the manor, and patroness of the living.

The manor anciently belonged to the Salvins, from whom it passed, in the early part of the 16th century, to the Husseys, one of whom was executed for his participation in the Pilgrimage of Grace. It came into the possession of the Slingsbys, early in the 17th century, from whom it has descended to the present owner, daughter of the late Sir Thomas Turner Slingsby, Bart., of Scriven Park.

The village, consisting of the church and eight houses, stands near Everingham station, on the Selby and Market Weighton branch of the North-Eastern railway, and three-and-a-half miles west of Market Weighton. The church is a small building in the Norman style, consisting of chancel, nave, south porch, and a western turret of wood, containing one bell. It is approached by a pleasant pathway through a wood, running by the side of a small stream. Below the west window, on enamelled tiles, is the following inscription :- " This church, of St. Peter, was opened for public worship by William, Archbishop of York, June 25th, A.D. 1871, having been rebuilt on the site of a former very ancient one which, through age and decay, had become unfitted for the service of God, by Emma Louisa Catherine Slingsby, of Scriven, and her husband, Thomas Slingsby." The east window, the gift of Basil Thos. Woodd, M.P., of Conyngham Hall, Knaresbro', and his brothers, was placed to the memory of the Rev. Henry Mitton, 38 years rector of Harswell, whose body rests in the chancel. The reredos to the glory of God and in memory of Sir Charles Slingsby, of Scriven, Bart., who was accidentally drowned in the river Ure, at Newby, February 4th, 1869, was erected by the inhabitants of Harswell and others, "who deeply mourned the loss of a kind friend and liberal landlord." One of the sculptured corbels taken from the old church has been built into the wall over the doorway, and in the floor, at the west end, is the lid of a stone coffin bearing an incised cross. The total cost of rebuilding was about £700. The living is a rectory, valued in the Liber Regis at £4, and now worth £200 per annum, with residence, and held by the Rev. Edmund Willes Atkinson, of Clare College, Cambridge, who is also curate-in-charge of Seaton Ross. The tithe rent charge is £174.

The parish is included in the School Board District of Holme-on-Spalding Moor, Foggathorpe and Harswell, and the children attend the school at the first-named place.

The Manor House, now occupied by Mr. Walter Quarton Appleton, stands on the site of an ancient moated mansion, which was probably the residence of the early lords of the manor. Park Farm has been held by the Marshalls for several generations. The house was rebuilt in 1797. Robert Ireland, the celebrated jumper, was born in this parish, in a cottage still standing on the farm of Webster Featherby. He was buried in Shipton churchyard in 1815.

Some mammoth bones, relics of the Antediluvian world, were found embedded in the marl.

[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.