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Leven Parish information from Bulmers' 1892.

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LEVEN:
Geographical and Historical information from the year 1892.

Wapentake of Holderness (North Division) - County Council Electoral Division of Leven - Petty Sessional Division of North Holderness - Poor Law Union and County Court District of Beverley - Rural Deanery of Hornsea - Archdeaconry of the East Riding - Diocese of York.

This parish consists of the townships of Leven and Hempholme, containing a total area of 5,061 acres, and a population of 856. In the first-named township there are 3,673 acres of land, belonging to several proprietors, the principal of whom are William Bethell, Esq., Rise, who is lord of the manor; Henry Strickland Constable, Esq., Wassand; G. Y. Whitehead, Esq., Naburn; the rector, in right of his church; and T. B. Jackson, Esq., Riston. A considerable portion of the township is copyhold. The rateable value is £4,544, and the number of inhabitants in 1891 was 767. The land has been very much improved by drainage, and is all under profitable cultivation. About 30 acres belonging to H. S. Constable, Esq., and the rector are let in allotments to cottagers. The soils are various, gravelly in the high grounds, and a carr land in the low; the subsoil is chiefly clay. Wheat, barley, oats, roots, and seeds are the chief crops.

The manor of Leuene was given by Edward the Confessor to the church of St. John of Beverley, and in Domesday Book it is enumerated amongst the vast possessions of that church. When the collegiate body was abolished, in the first year of Edward VI. (1547), the manor reverted to the Crown. Ten years later Sir Marmaduke Constable appears as owner, and it subsequently passed through various hands to the Micklethwaites. The last Lord Micklethwaite bequeathed his estates to the Ewer family, from whom they passed to the Duke of Portland, who, in 1742, sold the manor, demesne, and other lands, &c., to Mr. Bethell, an ancestor of the present owner.

The name of the parish is suggestive of a British origin; Lleven, in that language, signifying smooth or level, would be appropriately characteristic. Leven is still retained in Scotland, and denotes an open space lying between woods.

The village is pleasantly situated on the Beverley and Bridlington road, six miles north-east from the former place, and about seven miles west from Hornsea station. A canal, three-and-a-quarter miles in length, connects the town with the river Hull; it was cut at the expense of the late Mrs. Charlotte Bethell, under an Act passed in the 41st and 45th of George III., and opened in 1802. It is navigable for vessels of 85 tons burthen. At the head of the canal is a commodious wharf, with a warehouse, &c. The traffic is principally in corn, coal, and lime, and was formerly more considerable than at present.

The old church, which was dedicated to St. Faith, stood about a mile from the village, and was a plain pebble-dashed structure in the Early English style. That building was taken down in 1844, and the present church of the Holy Trinity was erected in the village and consecrated in 1845. The following inscription appears on a brass plate in the chancel : - " This church was built A.D. 1845, George Wray, M.A., Canon of York, rector and patron. The parish bore no part of the expense, except the bells. Richard Bethell, Esq., lord of the manor, gave the site and £500. The east window and communion plate were given by William Henry Wray, M.A., who was the only child of the rector, and who died at Braffords, May 31st, 1863, aged 45 years, and was buried at North Ferriby." It is a handsome Gothic edifice of stone, consisting of chancel, nave, south aisle, south porch, and a low western tower, containing four bells. The total cost was £2,625. The nave is divided from the aisle by four pointed arches springing from columns with moulded capitals. The arch leading into the chancel is of elegant form. In the south wall is the piscina brought from the old church; another relic of that edifice is the fragment of a beautiful cross, found in the old burial ground in 1836, about two feet below the surface, whither it had probably been consigned by the iconoclasts of the Commonwealth. It is apparently the work of the later Decorated period, and exhibits on one side a group, representing the Crucifixion, with the Blessed Virgin and St. John, and on the other the Virgin and Child, and the figures of two saints crowned. One of the latter carries in her hand a wheel, probably indicating St. Catherine, and the other a sceptre or mace in one hand and a book in the other. The east window was erected by the Rev. William Wray, M.A., as a memorial to his mother, and there are also stained-glass windows in memory of the Rev. Canon Wray, late rector, who died in 1878, and of his sister, who died in 1879, their united ages amounting to 190 years. In the south aisle is a two-light window, filled with stained glass, in memory of John Bainton Harrison, Esq., of Heigholme, who died in 1872. A new organ, by Forster & Andrews, of Hull, was erected in 1881, at an expense of £200, contributed chiefly by the present rector and his family, who likewise defrayed the cost (£70) of the handsome suspension lamps with which the church is lighted. The square font from the old church rests on five cylindrical shafts, and is ornamented with two trefoil-headed arches on each side. The registers date from the year 1663. There are 444 sittings, of which 417 are free. The churchyard was consecrated in 1869, up to which time the burial ground of the old church had been used for interments.

The living is an ancient rectory, formerly in the patronage of the provost of the college of St. John of Beverley, now in the gift of Gerald F. Towlerton Leather, Esq., Middleton Hall, Belford, Northumberland, and held by the Rev. William Medcalf, M.A., St. John's College, Cambridge. Its present net yearly value, about £800, is derived from the tithe rent-charge and 390 acres of glebe. The Rectory House is a large and handsome building surrounded by pleasure grounds and shrubberies, at the south-west end of the village.

The Wesleyans and Primitive Methodists have chapels here. The former was erected in 1816, enlarged in 1835, and renovated in 1889 at a cost of £160. The latter was built in 1877, at a cost of £905, exclusive of the site, which was given by Mr. J. W. Garton. It is a neat building of brick, in the Norman style, and seated with open benches to accommodate 200 persons. The windows are filled with coloured glass. A Temperance Hall was erected in 1860, and now belongs to the Wesleyans.

The Boys' School, with master's house attached, was built by voluntary subscription in 1873, for 75 boys, and is attended by 37 on an average. The present master, Mr. J. L. Richardson, who was appointed in 1890, is author and editor of various educational works and other literary productions. The Girls' School was built by Miss H. Wray in 1866, at a cost of £1,000, and includes a residence for the mistress. Miss Wray also endowed it with the rent of a field of 2a. 1r., to keep the fabric in repair. There are 80 names on the books, and 59 in average attendance.

The Police Station, a neat building of brick, erected in 1852, consists of three cells, magistrates' room, witness and ante-rooms, and apartments for the inspector, &c. The magistrates for the north division of Holderness hold their sessions here every alternate Wednesday. The following places are included in the Petty Sessional Division of North Holderness : - Arnold and North Skirlaugh; Atwick, Skirlington, and Arram; Bewholme and Nunkeeling; Bonwick, Brandesburton, Catfoss, Catwick, Dringhoe, Dunnington, Goxhill, Hatfield Magna, Hatfield Parva, Hempholme, Hornsea, Leven, Mappleton and Rowlston, Moortown, Rise, Riston, Routh, Sigglesthorne, Skipsea, Wassand and Seaton, and Withernwick. The local police force consists of an inspector, sergeant, and three constables.

Leven Carr extends to the river Hull. Gold and other coins, urns, battleaxes, bronze spears, swords, deer horns, &c., have been frequently dug up in the carrs.

About a mile south from Leven, at the junction of the three roads, is the shaft of a stone cross, which has long been known as White Cross, from the annual covering it formerly received at the hands of the whitewasher. The fine piece of sculpture found in the old churchyard is supposed, by some, to have been the capital of this cross.

HEMPHOLME, is a township situated about three miles north-north-west of Leven, and eight miles south-east from Driffield, in the poor-law union of Skirlaugh. It includes the hamlets of Hempholme, Heigholme, and Hollytreeholme, containing a total area of 1,320 acres, and valued for rating purposes at £799. The population in 1891 was 89. Hempholme came into the possession of the Crown on the dissolution of religious houses, and was afterwards held on lease by the family of Bethell. There was a Swannery here, and a Swannery Court, with its code of laws and penalties for the protection of the swans, was regularly held twice a year. It was presided over by the lessee of the estate, who held the office of king's swanner. Hempholme estate, containing about 800 acres, was purchased from the Crown, in 1864, by the late J. S. Harrison, Esq., father of the present owner, J. J. Harrison, Esq., of Brandesburton Hall.

HEIGHHOLME, is the property and residence of Captain William Harrison Preston, J.P., late of the 73rd (Perthshire) Regiment, grandson of the late Wm. Harrison, Esq., of this place. This hamlet was detached from the manor of Leven, and given at an early period to the monks of Meaux. After the dissolution of that house, the property was granted to the Noels, who held it for several generations, The Hall stands in pretty park-like grounds, about one-and-a-half miles northwest of Leven.

This hamlet, containing 312 acres, was added, for rating purposes, to the township of Brandesburton about five years ago.

HALLITREEHOLME, or Hollytreeholme, in this parish, formerly belonged to Bridlington Priory, and the canons of that house had, besides other privileges, free warren in their lands here. There was a chapel, dedicated to St. Nicholas, which John de Oketon and others endowed with lands and fisheries for the support of a chaplain. On the dissolution of the priory, this estate reverted to the Crown, and, in the reign of Elizabeth, it was granted to the Bethells for a term of 999 years. It now belongs to William Bethell, Esq., of Rise, and consists of one farm, containing 164 acres.

HOLLYTREEHOLME, see Hallitreeholme.

[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.