North Frodingham Parish information from Bulmers' 1892.

NORTH FRODINGHAM:
Geographical and Historical information from the year 1892.

Wapentake of Holderness (North Division) - County Council Electoral Division of Beeford - 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 and township extends eastward from the river Hull, and comprises a total area of 3,147 acres. The surface is level, except in a few places where it is broken by diluvial aggregations of sand and gravel, locally called barfes. The soil elsewhere is strong clay, and in the carrs peat. The chief crops are wheat, oats, barley, and roots. Henry William Bainton, Esq., of New Walk, Beverley, is lord of the manor; and the following are owners of estates containing more than 20 acres : - Lord Hotham, Sir Tatton Sykes, Bart., the Vicar of the parish, R. W. Bird, W. J. Chadwick, Mr. Chaplin, Peter Gofton, George M. Gale, James Jon. Harrison, W. C. Harrison, Wm. Otley Jarratt, Exors. of Botterill Johnson, John Milner, Dr. Lee, John T. Pashby, Capt. Preston, W. H. St. Quintin, and John S. Seymour. The rateable value is £4,038, and the population in 1891 was 596, a decrease of 86 since 1881.

The manor of Fotingham, as the name is spelt in Domesday Book, was held in the time of the Confessor by Ulf, or Ulphus, whose name is associated with the horn still preserved in York minster. His lands were wrested from him and given by the Conqueror to Drogo. There was a church and a priest here, from which we may infer that it was a place of some importance. William le Gros, Earl of Albemarle, another Norman owner, gave the manor and church to Thornton Abbey, in Lincolnshire, which he had founded, and they remained in the possession of that monastery till the dissolution, when they reverted to the Crown. The Hellards, Appleyards, Hunters, and Bethells were afterwards successively owners of the lordship.

The village consists of one long irregularly-built street, situated 5½ miles south-east of Great Driffield, and 4½ miles south of Nafferton station, on the Hull and Scarborough branch of the North-Eastern railway. Less than half-a-mile west is the river Hull, which is navigable up to this point for small craft that come laden with coal, lime, &c. The river is here crossed by a bridge, erected in 1826, to supersede the old wooden structure for foot passengers previously in use. The vessels anchor near the bridge, where there are warehouses and coalyards for the storage of the cargoes. Frodingham had formerly its weekly market, but in consequence of the decline in its population, and the more convenient position of Great Driffield, its ancient charter was transferred to that town about the middle of the last century. The old market cross was destroyed by the workmen employed in excavating the Barmston and Beverley drain. The present cross, which stands at the junction of three roads, was erected in 1811. Fairs are still held here on July 10th and October 2nd yearly, for the sale of all kinds of smallwares.

The name of the place has come down to us from Saxon times with very little change. In Domesday Book it is spelt Fotingham, but this is probably an error of the Norman scribe for Frothingham, as it is written in later documents. Its signification is clear; the ham or settlement of the Frodings, or descendants of Froda, whose name is mentioned in the poem of Beowulf.

The church, which bears the uncommon dedication to St. Elgin, dates from Norman times, and consists of chancel, nave, north aisle, south porch, and an embattled western tower containing three bells, the oldest of which is dated 1627. The tower is lofty and in the Perpendicular style. On the west buttress is the following inscription : - " The bottom bed of this stone was 15 feet 11 inches above the off-set of the west abutment of Frodingham bridge, when levelled, 15th Sept., 1815." The chancel and nave were rebuilt in 1878, at a cost of about £4,000, and re-opened by the Archbishop of York on the 22nd October of that year. The north aisle is separated from the nave by four pointed arches springing from octagonal pillars. The chancel arch is plain, and rests on clustered columns; the piscina and sedilia have been retained. The font is modern. All the interior fittings are of oak. The south doorway is Norman. The register dates from 1580. This church, as before stated, was given at an early period to the Abbot and Convent of Thornton-upon-Humber, in the county of Lincoln, and it remained in the patronage and impropriation of that house till the suppression of monasteries, in the reign of Henry VIII. The living is a discharged vicarage, worth about £220 a year, including 130 acres of glebe, with residence, in the gift of the Rev. H. West, and held by the Rev. James Isaacson, M.A., Oxon.

There are chapels in the village belonging to the Wesleyans, Congregationalists, and Primitive Methodists, and attached to the last-named is a Sunday school, built in 1865, for the accommodation of 60 children.

A cemetery was formed in 1883. It covers about one acre, and has one mortuary chapel. It cost £450, and is under the management of a Burial Board of six members.

EMMOTLAND is a hamlet consisting of two farms, about one mile south of Frodingham. The land here lies very low, in some places below the surface of the river Hull, which formerly laid these low-lying carrs constantly under water. The river is now confined to its channel by artificial banks, and the carr lands have been drained. Two becks unite here, forming the river Hull, and from this circumstance the place is said to have derived its name, Ea-mot, signifying in Saxon speech, the "meeting of the waters." There was formerly a swannery here. The soil is composed of vegetable matter, three to four feet deep, and below this are frequently found trunks of trees. One piece measured 60 feet in length, and was partly sawn through. Celts and other British remains are also occasionally found in the carrs.

[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.