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Wheldrake Parish information from Bulmers' 1892.

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WHELDRAKE:
Geographical and Historical information from the year 1892.

Wapentake and Petty Sessional Division of Ouse and Derwent - County Council Electoral Division of Escrick - Poor Law Union and County Court District of York - Rural Deanery of Bulmer - Archdeaconry of Cleveland - Diocese of York.

The parish comprises the townships of Wheldrake and Langwith. The former contains 4,300 acres of land; its rateable value is £5,105, and the population in 1881 was 596. Lord Wenlock is lord of the manor and the most extensive landowner. Leonard Dodsworth, Esq., owns upwards of 200 acres, the rector 217 acres of glebe, and John Sturdy Moon 61 acres. There are several small freeholders. The surface is level and well wooded, and the soil strong clay and loam, except on the moor, where it is sandy. The parish is bounded for a considerable distance on the east side by the Derwent, but at the south-eastern extremity it stretches across the river, and includes a tract of rich meadow land called Whelkdrake Ings. These comprise about 275 acres, and though at times flooded, very good crops of hay are obtained in favourable weather.

The ancient Britons appear to have held their own in Wheidrake against the conquering Saxons, and to have maintained their independence here after the surrounding district had fallen into the hands of their enemies. This is shown by the name Wealh-ric given to the place by the Saxons, signifying in their language the dominion of the Wealhas (strangers or Welshmen). Soon after the Norman Conquest Wheldrake belonged to a branch of the Percy family, and in 1200 Hugh (Percy) de Bolton and Cecilia, his wife, gave to the nuns of Thickhed "all our part in the Castellaria et balliva de Queldric." No remains of the "castle" are now in existence, nor is the spot known where it stood.

The village stands eight miles south-east of York, and four miles north-east of Escrick station, on the main line of the North-Eastern railway. The church of St. Helen consists of an ancient stone tower, and a chancel and nave of brick, rebuilt in 1779. The interior was restored and re-decorated in 1875, at a cost of £350. The old gallery was removed, open benches substituted for the high-back pews, and a new organ erected at the north-east corner of the nave. The churchyard was enlarged in 1824, and again in 1877. The register commences in 1603. The living is a rectory, valued in the Liber Regis at £25 17s. 3½d., and now worth £310. It is in the gift of the Archbishop of York, and held by the Rev. Sidney Smith, M.A., of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Certain tithes were commuted at the enclosure in 1769 for allotments of land, and other tithes were commuted in 1841. The present tithe rent-charge is about £180 net.

The Rectory House was enlarged by the Rev. William Vernon Harcourt, and here was born his son, Sir William Vernon Harcourt, Knight, Solicitor-General, and Home Secretary during Mr. Gladstone's administration. The Right Rev. Dr. Camidge, the present Bishop of Bathurst, New South Wales, held this rectory previous to his removal to Thirsk.

The Wesleyans have a chapel in the village, built in 1863. It is a neat building of brick capable of seating 200 persons. The National school was enlarged by the addition of class-rooms in 1869. It is mixed, and under a master; there are 100 names on the books, and 75 children in average attendance.

Wheldrake Hall, a former residence of the Sykes family, and where the first Sir Tatton Sykes, Bart., was born, has almost wholly disappeared, there remaining only a fragment of the entrance gate and a piece of the garden wall. The hall stood near the modern farmhouse occupied by Mr. Wilson.

The income arising from the endowments of the school and the poor's land amounts to £45 per annum, and is now apportioned under a scheme of the Charity Commissioners as follows :- One-third to the poor and two-thirds to the school. In 1889 George Davison gave to the vicar and churchwardens the sum of £400, the interest thereof to be applied in clothing orphan boys.

LANGWITH is a small township of 775 acres, belonging to George William Bateson de Yarburgh, Lord Deramore, J.P., and the Hon. Robert Wilfred Bateson de Yarburgh, J.P., Heslington Hall. The rateable value is £512, and the number of inhabitants 42. There is no village, - the township consisting of four farms and a few cottages, about two-and-a-half miles north-east of Wheldrake. In February of the present year, 1891, a quantity of copper coins, two or three stones in weight, was turned up on Mr. George Little's farm.

[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.


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