ECONOMIC HISTORY
The ground in this neighbourhood is remarkably fertilized by the overflowings of the Derwent, and yields abundance, not to be surpassed except on the banks of the Nile.
This remarkably glowing description of the farmland in the parish of Bubwith was afforded by Edward Baines in 1823 (History, Directory & Gazetteer, of the County of York, Edward Baines , Volume II, the East and North Ridings). Bubwith has always been an agricultural parish from the time of Domesday until the present, with very few other industries.
Land and Crops
The soil around the village is partly sand and partly clay, and the subsoil clay; the chief crops are wheat, oats, barley, and potatoes. The low lying lands near the river, called the Ings, yield very fine crops of hay, but are frequently flooded when the river is swollen by heavy rain from the hills. When these floods occur whole fields of hay are often swept away. The soil and crops in Breighton and Gunby are very similar to Bubwith, but Foggathorpe, Harlethorpe and Gribthorpe possess a stiff clayey soil, with very little sand, and a clay subsoil. Wheat, beans, and oats are the principal crops. In Spaldington and Willitoft the soil is mostly clay, with small portions of sand. Wheat, oats, barley, clover, beans, and peas are the chief crops. The surface throughout the parish is generally level and well cultivated. It has never been (since Domesday at least) well wooded, with just a few thickets and the wood of the hedgerows. A corn market was established around 1836-7 which was held every Wednesday, but the market fell into disuse within twenty years due to the opening of the railway.
The evidence from wills also show that livestock, including pigs, sheep, horses and cattle were farmed throughout the medieval and late modern period. There are also ample references referring to grazing on the Ings. The Ings hay meadows were cut in early July, then grazed with sheep or cattle until the late autumn. Many other fields were referred to in estate documents as being used as pasture for animals.
Workers for the fields and houseservants were generally recruited from the Selby Hiring Fair, held on Martinmas Monday. The farmers and agricultural labourers stood near to the Abbey, whilst the lads and lasses stood at the other end of the market near the banks. After the hiring was concluded the workers would celebrate in a fair held in Wide Street.
Transportation
River
The chief communications artery to and from Bubwith for many centuries has been the river Derwent. Bubwith stands at a crossing point over the river, and there are natural staithes which make it an ideal landing place for river goods. The 38 miles of river between Malton and its confluence with the river Ouse have almost certainly been used by small craft since the time of the Romans, and improvements in the 18th century permitted navigation by the barges then trading on other Yorkshire rivers. The unusual upstream facing outfall of the Derwent is man made. It is believed to have been cut during the Roman occupation of Britain to reduce the distance between the Derwent mouth and the Roman legionary headquarters at York by 9 miles. The first navigation weir, also believed to be of Roman origin, was a flash weir built near Wheldrake to raise the level of the river upstream and regulate its flow downstream.
During the reign of King John (1199-1216) a water mill on the Derwent at Wheldrake was given to the monks of Fountains Abbey and later in the thirtenth century a weir is known to have existed at the same place. By 1462 when the Lord Mayor of York was authorised to "correct and amend defects" of the Derwent "from the Ouse as far as the town and bridge of Sutton upon Derwent" the river must have been navigable at least to Sutton. A corn mill existed at Sutton upon Derwent by 1597. It was rebuilt in 1836 and continued in use until 1960.There are other water mill sites at Stamford Bridge, Buttercrambe, Howsham, Kirkham and Malton. (Navigation on the Yorkshire Derwent, Pat Jones, 2000).
There were several attempts to improve the navigation of the Derwent by Act of Parliament. George Sorocold produced plans for making the river navigable on which two unsuccessful Bills were promoted in 1695 and 1698. He surveyed the river again for a Bill introduced in 1700, which failed, but an Act was finally passed in 1701.
On the 6th May 1702 the Derwent Navigation Act received the Royal Assent. The driving force behind this Act had been the traders of Malton, and the Act empowered the five undertakers to not only dig cuts, trim the banks, remove obstructions and weeds, but to also prepare towpaths. The promoters were allowed to charge tolls on the cargo carried on any part of the river. By 1724 Malton was at the head of a fully navigable river taking boats of up to 50 tons.
In 1720 the navigation was acquired by Thomas Wentworth, together with his descendant Earl Fitzwilliam. They employed Joshua Mitchel to work on a survey for making the river navigable to Yedingham Bridge on the York to Scarborough turnpike road. This was done by an additional cut of the river but with a shallower depth, making it navigable only with 15 ton boats rather than 50 ton boats to Malton. Between 1723 and 1724 Mitchel leased the tolls jointly with Mark Andrew. On the 20th October 1755 the tolls were leased to William Fenton, for a term of twenty-one years and subsequently to Thomas and James Fenton, who leased the tolls until March, 1805. By 1805 the extent of the navigation had been increased by a further eleven and a half miles as far as Yeddingham Bridge.
The Major traffic during this period was coal coming to Malton having been mined in the pits of Fitzwilliam in the Barnsley area via the Aire and Calder canal the along the Ouse navigation. In 1840 the coal tonnage was 37898 tons. Lime was also caried in large quantities, as it was used to improve soil fertility. The boats were normally loaded with corn for the return journey.
The boats on the river were mainly sailing keels and sloops, but due to the meandering nature of the river the boats must have made extensive use of the towing horses. However, the towpaths were not uniform on both sides of the river, so on several occasions the horses had to be ferried to the opposite bank to continue the tow. The boats were largely of Malton, but a survey of 1807, in connection with the raising of tolls, listed boats using the Derwent other than those of Malton, and included 4 from Cottingwith, 1 from Bubwith, and 1 from Hemingbrough.
Until the arrival of the railway the Derwent navigation had proved quite profitable, but it was the third Earl FitzWilliam who eventually saw the writing on the wall. In the late 1830s he embarked on an extensive programme of dredging and improvements, and introduced the first steam-driven dredger to the river, in order to be better placed to compete with the inevitable arrival of the railway. Paradoxically, much of the sand and gravel and other materials used in the construction of the railway on the Hull-Selby, Selby-Market Weighton, and the York-Malton-Scarborough lines were carried by boat on the Derwent.
The navigation was purchased benefiicially by North Eastern Railway Company on the 1st May 1855 for £40,000. However, the decline in the navigation traffic and profitability was slow and steady. In the month of May 1805 the number of boats passing Barmby chain was 146, whereas in May 1847 it had reduced by one third to 93, and in May 1862 it was down to 38. Navigation as far as Cottingwith, from which point the Pocklington canal was served, survived up to the 1930s, and that to Sutton for just a little longer.
By the beginning of the 20th century the river had started to be used by pleasure craft and by 1920 there were craft based regularly at Stamford Bridge and Kirkham Abbey. In 1935, the statutory Right of Navigation was revoked above Sutton Lock. There followed a long series of fights for public access against riperian interests which continue to the present day and the navigation currently ends at Stamford Bridge.
The records of the Derwent Navigation, 1702-1918, are held at the North Riding Record Office in Northallerton, under reference ZPB.
Bubwith Ferry
There is mention of a ferry over the Derwent at Bubwith from at least the 12th century (Selby Coucher Bk. 2, Y.A.S. Rec. Ser. XIII). Other early references to it are in C 134/64 no. 12 (1320); Yorks. Fines, 1347-77, p. 115 (1367); Yorks. Deeds, v, p. 32 (1407). In 1601 John Aske held a moiety in the ferry, and it is mentioned in his will of 1605 (in which he left it to his wife, Margaret, in trust for his son Richard, who was aged 16 at the time), and in his Inquisition Post Mortem of 1607. The ferry had a cottage and croft attached to it (DDBH/31/3). The ferry was again mentioned in the will of Richard Aske, in 1683, when he left everything he had to his son Conan, who was aminor at that time, with the tuition of Conan being granted to Samuel dawson of York.
In 1633 the other moiety of the ferry was included in the marriage settlement of William Middleton, son and heir of Sir Peter Middleton, and Katherine, second daughter of Henry, Viscount Dunbar. In 1764 Mr. C. Yorke provided a legal opinion, (under the Marriage Settlement of Mrs. Middleton), concerning the manors of North Duffield and Habton, and the ferry at North Duffield.
It is not known with any certainty when the ferry at Bubwith was last used. It would certainly have been in use up to the completion of the bridge at Bubwith in 1798. There is also a reference in an 1851 mortgage concerning the Manor of North Duffield, which speaks of "rent of £5 per annum payable by the proprietors of the bridge over the Derwent near Bubwith Ferry, and farms and lands in North Duffield". Whether this implies that the ferry was still operating at this time, or whether 'Bubwith Ferry' was now just a local place name is open to conjecture.
Breighton Ferry
A second ferry in the parish, at Breighton, was mentioned as early as the 14th century (Yorks. Deeds, ix, pp. 126, 161-2). John Aske held a moiety of the ferry in 1607 (IPM, ref: DDBH/3/79, Hull University Archives). The other moiety was held by the Crown, as in the 1609 survey of 'His Majesties Manor of Brighton' we learn that Raphe Rabie holdeth there half of the Ferry called Brighton Ferry over the river Derwent, and half of the fishing thereof, by Patent.
In 1737 Nathan Fligg of Menthorpe was the ferryman, as in that year we learn that he was indicted at the Quarter Sessions for refusing to take people over the ferry. Between 1760 and 1768 William Beilby was the ferryman, but apparently not a good one, as in 1747 he too was indicted before the Quarter Sessions for refusing to take George Crawle esq., and others over the ferry, and in 1760 for neglecting his duty as a ferryman at Menthorpe. According to the VCH the Menthorpe to Breighton ferry was last used before the Second World War, according to local knowledge.
Road
Road construction and usuage in the Bubwith area had always been limited by the river Derwent. The two ferry crossings at Bubwith and Breighton were at the two local east-west road thoroughfares. However, the major east-west thoroughfare over the Derwent was of course at the main bridge crossing, which prior to the construction of the bridge in Bubwith was on the Pocklington-York road, at Kexby, on the present-day A1079, built in the late 1420s, rebuilt in 1650, and turnpiked in 1764.
Our knowledge of roads in the Bubwith area stem from the well-known Act for the amending of Highways, of 1555. This Act placed the onus for road repair on the parish, and stipulated that each parish should elect two honest men of the parish to be Surveyors and Orderers for one year. The Surveyors were to name four days each year when the parishioners had to provide free services for the repairing of any highway that lead to a market town. Labourers had to provide their labouring services free for the four days, while all those farmers who occupied a Plow-Land or who owned a draught or plough, had to provide a wagon or cart with oxen or horses, and two labourers. All the parishioners had to provide their own suitable tools. The penalties for non-compliance were fairly stiff, being ten shillings for the farmer, and one shilling per day for the labourer. Offences could be brought before the Quarter Sessions by the personal knowledge of any Justice of the Peace, and it is through the presentments here that our knowledge of the road systems, and their state of repair, or lack of it, can be found. The following cases, from 1706-1800, have been found in the Quarter Sessions records: