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Copyright 2012, Philip Beasley

Welcome to Bubwith.NET, a One-Place Study of the parish of Bubwith in the Holme Beacon Division of Harthill Wapentake, in the East Riding of Yorkshire.
   
The site contains information on the history of the parish and its manors from the time of the Domesday to the present. It also contains extensive listings of the people who have lived here during that period. The focus is very much on the ordinary folk of the parish and their lives and their environment.

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The Parish of Bubwith in 1857

BUBWITH.-The area of this parish, with its seven townships, is 10,154 acres, and the number of its inhabitants in 1851 was 1,361 persons. The assessed property in 1815 amounted to £12,289. The surface is level, and the land is well cultivated. The Township of Bubwith contains 1,420 acres, and 583 inhabitants. Rateable value, £1,215.; assessed property, £2,009.; The principal landowners are the Rev. J. D. Jefferson, Thos. Clarke, Esq., Thos. Weddell, Esq., and Mr. W. Chaplin. The Hon. P. Stourton is Lord of the Manor. The Living is a Discharged Vicarage, in two medieties, in the patronage of the Crown, and the Dean and Chapter of York alternately. The first mediety is valued in the King's Books at £7. 2s. 6d., the second at £ 8. 0s. 5d. Of the two medieties, one was given by Guarin de Bubwith, to the Dean and Chapter of York; and the other was given by John de Mowbray, Lord of Axholme, to Byland Abbey, and fell to the Crown at the Reformation. There were formerly two Vicars in this church, which was not unusual. The united medieties are now worth £102. per annum, being augmented with £100. of Queen Anne's Bounty, in 1762 and 1792. Vicar, Rev. William Geo. Wilkinson. The tithes, great and small, of the townships of Bubwith and Harlthorpe, were commuted at the enclosure, in the 2nd Wm, IV. (1832). The Crown and the Dean and Chapter are the impropriators, but the Crown tithes have been sold to the landowners.
The Church (All Saints) stands on high ground, and consists of a nave with aisles, a chancel, and an embattled and pinnacled west tower, containing three bells. The clerestory has four square windows, and is embattled, with pinnacles, which on the south side bear shields of arms. The chancel, the oldest part of the edifice, is long, and the east window is of five lights. Most of the windows of the church are square-headed. The interior is neat; the nave and aisles are separated by an arcade on each side, of four pointed arches, supported by circular pillars. The chancel arch is Anglo-Norman, with bold mouldings, resting on three columns. There is a chapel on the north side of the chancel (now used as a vestry), separated from it by an elegant pierced screen, of wainscot, which, was removed here from the chancel arch, where it had been erected in 1781. The piscina is in the chancel. On the walls are several helmets and mantlings of the Vavasours of Melbourne, and in one of the windows are the ancient arms of Roos. The church was repaired in 1792. The flat leaden roof of the chancel was blown off the building, into a garden near the churchyard, in 1853, and the present neat high-pitched slated roof was put up in the same year.

The Vicarage House is a good substantial brick building.

The Village, which consists of two streets, and is half a mile in length, is situated about 6 miles N.N.W. of Howden, in the vicinity of the Selby and Market Weighton Railway, and on the eastern bank of the river Derwent, over which there is a stone bridge here of three large and seven smaller arches. A weekly corn market on Wednesday was established here about twenty years ago, but it has fallen into disuse since the opening of the above- mentioned railway, on which line there is an intermediate Station here. There are places of worship for the Wesleyans and Primitive Methodists.

There is a Staith on the bank of the river, for landing lime, gravel, coal, &c., and for shipping corn and potatoes, this district being famed for the production of the latter esculent; and great quantities of them are sent annually from hence to the West Riding, &c. There are two Breweries in the village; the largest of which was established about 80 years ago, and is in the occupation of Mr. R. R. Blanshard; and the other is occupied by Mr. T. Turner. A large tract of land along the banks of the Derwent, called the Ings, is subject to be flooded by the overflow of the river after heavy rains, but it yields very fine crops of hay. The poor of the whole parish have six acres of land, left by Jas. Turner, in 1714; and the poor of Bubwith township have eleven acres, left by one of the Hotham family. This is the birth place of Nicholas de Bubwith, Bishop of Bath and Wells, one of the English prelates that attended the Council of Constance, in 1415.

Breighton-cum-Gunby Township.-Area, 2,030 acres; population, 193 persons; rateable value, £1,002.; assessed property, £1,253. The Archbishop of York is Lord of the Manor, and owner of a great part of the soil, Robert Scholefield and J. A. Hepton, Esqrs., being lessees under him. There are about 500 acres unenclosed, and 150 acres of common.

Breighton Hamlet is situated about 1 mile S. of Bubwith. A close called Hall Garth is evidently the site of an ancient mansion, the moat of which still remains. The farm and manor of Gunby consists of about 360 acres, and is now the property and residence of Mr. Jonathan Burtt. It is seated on the banks of the Derwent, about three quarters of a mile N. from Breighton. Gunby was given by the Conqueror to his standard bearer, Gilbert Tison, and it afterwards gave surname to the family, from it called De Guneby, which resided here for many generations. The old mansion was taken down some 70 or 80 years ago.

Foggathorpe Township contains 1,284 acres, and 99 souls; rateable value, £ 1,457.; assessed property, £1,401. Chief proprietors, Mrs. Rhodes. Mrs. Musgrave, Mr. William Jewett, and Mr. B. Taylor. This place, which in Domesday is called Fulcathorpe, was also given by the Conqueror to his standard bearer. The Ackroyds had an ancient mansion here, which was moated on three sides, and was taken down in 1743, and a farm house built on its site. There is no assemblage of houses here that might be called a village, the farm houses and cottages being scattered all over the township. The place is situated about 3 miles E. from Bubwith. The Grange, a large brick building, erected in 1829, is the property and residence of Mr. William Jewett. There is a small but neat Methodist Chapel, built in 1803.

Gribthorpe Township consists of three farms and a few cottages, situated 3 miles E. of Bubwith. It contains 875 acres, chiefly the property of Col. George Wyndham, the Lord of the Manor. Population, 52 souls. Rateable value, £635. The hamlet is very small.

Willitoft Township contains 855 acres, and 33 inhabitants. The assessed property of Gribthorpe and Willitoft amounts to £1,874. The Hamlet stands about 2 miles S.W. of Bubwith. Willitoft Hall was formerly the property and residence of the Vavasours. The property now belongs to Wm. Green, Esq., and the old mansion was demolished many years ago. The present hall is a farm house, erected about the year 1825. About 150 acres of this township are situated in Aughton parish.

Harlthorpe Township contains 520 acres, of the rateable value of £462.; population, 78 souls. Lord of the Manor, Hon. Philip Stourton; principal landholders, Rev. J. D. Jefferson, Mr. Thos. Eland, and Mr. Dodsworth. The Hamlet is small, and stands 2 miles E. of Bubwith.

Spaldington Township.-Area, 3,710 acres; population, 323 souls; rateable value, £3,170. It lies on the south side of Spalding Moor. The soil belongs mostly to Lord Londesborough and Sir H. M. Vavasour.

The Village, which is scattered, is seated about 4 miles N. by E. of Howden; and the township includes the scattered hamlet of Spaldington Outside, on the Market Weighton road, 4 miles N. by E. of Howden. At this place also was a mansion of the Vavasour family, a fine old building in the Elizabethan style, which was pulled down in 1838. The present hall, the property of Sir H. M. Vavasour, and residence of Robert Goldthorp, Esq., is a large brick building, with stone dressings, erected in 1810. Here is a small ancient Episcopal Chapel, and a Methodist Chapel, built in 1820.

Whellan's History of the East Riding, 1857