Nafferton Parish information from Bulmers' 1892.

NAFFERTON:
Geographical and Historical information from the year 1892.

Wapentake of Dickering - County Council Electoral Division of Nafferton - Petty Sessional Division of Bainton Beacon - Poor Law Union and County Court District of Driffield - Rural Deanery of Harthill - Archdeaconry of the East Riding - Diocese of York.

This parish is circumscribed by those of Kilbam, Driffield, Skerne, Foston-on-the-Wolds, Lowthorpe, and Ruston Parva. Between its extreme northern and southern points it measures 6¼ miles, and contains 5,821 acres. It includes the townships of Nafferton and Wansford, and the hamlet of Pockthorpe. In the former township there are 4,899 acres, belonging chiefly to John Dickson, Esq., Wold House; William Henry Harrison-Broadley, Esq., J.P., D.L., Welton Hall; William Herbert St. Quintin, Esq., Scampston Hall, who is also lord of the manor; Matthias Nornabell, Esq., Bridlington; Sir Tatton Sykes, Sledmere; and Robert Butterfield, Esq., Nafferton Hall. The soil is clay and chalk, on which wheat, barley, oats, and turnips are chiefly cultivated. The rateable value is £8,585, and the population in 1891 was 1,235.

The earliest notice of this place occurs in Domesday Book, wherein it is called Nadfartone, a name which shows its Scandinavian origin. Nadfar was a personal name among the Norsemen, but history has recorded nothing of the Nadfar who first established himself here and gave his name to the place. In the time of Edward the Confessor, Nafferton was held by two Scandinavians named Bark and Karle, and was valued at £8. It contained 23 carucates of land, and after the Conquest was granted to William de Percy, who had also five carucates in Pockthorpe. The manor remained in the possession of this family several centuries.

The village of Nafferton stands on the Driffield and Bridlington road, two miles north-east of the former place, and 10 miles south-west of the latter. The Hull and Scarborough branch of the North Eastern railway passes a little to the south, and has a station here. The village is large and contains several good modern houses, and a few of the last century date. A copious spring near the church is the source of a beck which runs through the village. The church, dedicated to All Saints, is an ancient stone edifice in the Early English style of architecture, consisting of chancel, clerestoried nave, aisles, north and south porch, and a massive embattled tower in which are three bells and a clock. The dedication to All Hallows, as it was known of old, is regarded by many as indicating a Saxon origin, but there are no visible remains of any previous structure about the present edifice, except a large and beautifully carved old font, which is of undoubted Norman workmanship. In the south wall of the chancel is a hagioscope or slanting aperture which afforded a view of the altar from that part of the aisle. On a stone in the wall of the north aisle is cut the recumbent figure of a knight in armour, and in the churchyard lie two recumbent stone effigies. The nave is divided from each aisle by four pointed arches springing from octagonal pillars. In 1828, the interior was re-pewed and the fabric repaired; further repairs took place in 1846, when the roof was reconstructed and raised. The nave was restored, the vestry rebuilt, and a new organ introduced, at an expense of about £700. The chancel was repaired, and the tower re-roofed by G. Walker, Esq., of Nether Hall, and a new bell presented by R. Holtby, Esq., of Nafferton, in 1882. The east window, of four lights, is a stained-glass memorial of Richard Dickson, erected in 1864, by his nephew, John Dickson, who also presented the reredos. There are two memorial windows to Francis and Jane Dickson, and other two to Richard and John Laybourne. The families of Esh, Boyes, and Beilby are commemorated on mural tablets. The registers date from 1654. This church was an ancient rectory in the patronage of the Percys till Henry de Percy, Knt., gave it to the abbot and convent of Meaux, about the year 1304, and the living thenceforth became a vicarage with a stipend of 20 marks sterling, payable quarterly by the monks. The vicar was to receive further a missal penny for every funeral, and the penny offered in marriages at the church door. He had also a garden and an oxgang of land with common of pasture. The patronage of the vicarage was vested in the Archbishop of York, with whom it still remains. The living is now worth £280 a year, including 38 acres of glebe with residence, and held since 1854 by the Rev. James Davidson, M.A., King's College, Aberdeen.

There are places of worship in the village for the Wesleyans and Primitive Methodists. That belonging to the former body was originally erected in 1792, and rebuilt in 1839, at a cost of £1,200. It is a brick structure capable of seating 600 persons. The chapel of the Primitive Methodists was built in 1858, at a cost of about £500, and is not yet clear of debt. There is a Sunday school attached to each chapel.

The National school (mixed), was erected in 1845, and is endowed with £5 a year left by Mr. John Baron in 1709, for the free education of four children. The school will accommodate 150 children, and is attended on an average by 75. An Infant School for 100 children was erected in 1880, at a cost of £280. The Wesleyan Day School is a neat brick building at the rear of the chapel. It was erected in 1849, and will accommodate 140 children.

The Ancient Order of Shepherds is a prosperous society in the village. Their meetings are held in a hall built in 1861, at a cost of between £400 and £500.

Charities. - These comprise two trusts, consisting of houses and land left for the benefit of the poor and for parish uses. The poor's land (about 10 acres) was bequeathed by Thos. Robinson and Thos. Moore in 1698, and produces £37 a year, and the income of the parish trust is £32 15s. 8d.

POCKTHORPE is a hamlet containing 760 acres, chiefly the property of W. H. Harrison-Broadley, Esq., J.P., D.L. The hall is an ancient building, partially rebuilt in 1849. The foundations of buildings which have been discovered show that there was once a village here, and a chapel is mentioned in the Chartulary of Meaux Abbey. Pockthorpe is about one mile south-west of Kilham, and the tumulose piece of ground known as Danes' Graves, and described under Kilham, is in this hamlet.

WANSFORD is a township forming the southern extremity of the parish, but included in the Electoral Division of Hutton Cranswick. Its estimated extent is 970 acres, rateable value £1,419, and population 228. The soil is loam and gravel, and the chief crops are wheat, barley, oats, and turnips. Sir Tatton Sykes is lord of the manor and principal landowner. Anciently, the manor belonged to the Percys, who held it of the king in capite.

The village is pleasantly situated three miles south-east of Driffield, and on the Driffield canal, which is navigable for vessels of 70 tons burden. The church of St. Mary, a chapel-of-ease to Nafferton, is a handsome stone edifice, erected by Sir Tatton Sykes, Bart., in 1868, from designs of the late G. E. Street, Esq., R.A. It is in the Early English style of architecture, and consists of chancel, nave, organ chamber, south porch, and a small tower surmounted by a spire. The interior is extremely elegant. A screen of marble and granite, beautifully carved, separates the chancel from the nave. Above this is a cross of white marble, and above the communion table is another, beautifully carved. The pulpit is of marble, richly carved with a fruit pattern, and ascended by steps of polished granite. All the windows are of stained glass. The east window is a memorial of Mary Anne, wife of the late Sir Tatton Sykes, who died in 1861, and another in the chancel is to the memory of Mrs. Boyes, of Wansford. The seats are oak and of modern type. The churchyard is entered by a lych gate; in the centre stands a very fine stone cross, designed by G. E. Street, Esq.

This church, which may possibly in time become parochial, is not the first one erected here. Wansford had its own chapel in the 14th century, and probably much earlier. It was in a ruinous condition in 1330, when Elias de Wandesford, clerk, founded therein a chantry, to the honour of the Blessed Virgin and St. Nicholas, and endowed it with two messuages in the city of York, for the support of a chaplain to celebrate mass for the soul of the founder and the souls of William, his father, and Juliana, his mother. The chantry was suppressed by Edward VI., the chapel disused, and in time disappeared without leaving a trace behind. "The old font," say Messrs. Sheahan and Whellan, in their History of York and the East Riding (1856), "belonging to it is now used as a flower pot in the garden of Mr. Richard Davison, druggist, Driffield."

The Wesleyans and Primitive Methodists have each a chapel in the village; that belonging to the latter body was built in 1864. They are both small buildings, of brick, capable of accommodating, respectively, 80 and 50 persons.

The National School (mixed) was built in 1877, by Sir Tatton Sykes, Bart., in place of one erected in 1849. The designs were supplied by the late G. E. Street, Esq., R.A. It will accomodate 60 children, and is atended by about 40.

There was formerly a cotton and carpet factory here, carried on by the Boyes family. A considerable trade was done, and Baines, in his History, Directory, and Gazeteer, published in 1823, says it was the only establishment of the kind in this part of the country. The population of Wansford at that time was 344. Subsequently, the factory was converted into a flour mill.

There were formerly almshouses in the village for three poor widows, who received 16s. a year from a rent-charge, left by one of the St. Quintin family, at one time owners of the greater part of Wansford.

[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.