East Witton, Yorkshire, England. Geographical and Historical information from 1835.

EAST WITTON:
Geographical and Historical information from the year 1835.

"EAST WITTON, a parish in the western division of the wapentake of HANG, North riding of the county of YORK, 2 miles S.S.E. from Middleham, containing 747 inhabitants. The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Richmond, and diocese of Chester, rated in the king's books at £5. 8.65., endowed with £600 private benefaction, £200 royal bounty, and £1100 parliamentary grant, and in the patronage of the Marquis of Ailesbury. The church, dedicated to St. Ella, is an elegant structure in the later English style; the first stone was laid in 1809, and the building was completed in 1812, at the expense of the Earl of Ailesbury, in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the reign of George III. A school was erected, in 1817, by the Marquis of Ailesbury, by whom it is chiefly supported; the master's salary is £60 per annum. In the neighbourhood are quarries of excellent freestonej well adapted for grindstones. About a mile east of the village are the ruins of Jervaulx abbey, founded about the middle of the twelfth century, by Akarius, in honour of the Virgin Mary, which at the dissolution had a revenue of £455.10. 5. These interesting remains having been recently cleared from briars and rubbish, considerable portions of the abbey church, with its cross aisles, choir, and chapter-house, also several tombs and stone coffins, are now plainly visible; the tesselated pavement of the great aisle was also discovered, apparently in a perfect state, but, by exposure to the air, it soon crumbled to dust."

[Transcribed by Mel Lockie © from
Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England 1835]