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The Ampleforth Area
A Guide to the history of the Ampleforth with a focus on the locations associated with Farndale family history
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Introduction
Dates are in red.
Hyperlinks to other pages are in dark blue.
Headlines of the history of the
Ampleforth Area are in brown.
References and citations are in turquoise.
Contextual history is in purple.
This webpage about the Ampleforth area has the
following section headings:
·
The
Farndales of the Ampleforth Line
·
Ampleforth,
an overview
·
Coxwold
·
Yearsley
·
Windgate Farm
·
Timeline
of the Ampleforth Area
·
Links,
texts and books
The Farndales of Ampleforth
Elias
Farndale (FAR00184)
was a Farmer of Windgate Farm and started the line of Ampleforth Farndales. The Ampleforth Line
of Farndales is a large grouping who generally continued to live in the area of Ampleforth for some time.
In
addition to those directly associated with the Ampleforth Line, other Farndales
associated with Ampleforth are Ann
Farndale (FAR00208),
and John Farndale (FAR00880).
Ampleforth, an overview
Ampleforth is
a village and civil parish in the Ryedale district
of North Yorkshire. It is 32 km north of York The village sits on the edge of the North York Moors
National Park.
The name
‘Ampleforth’ derives from a combination of the Old
English words ampre (sorrel)
and ford meaning ‘(place by) ford where sorrel grew.’
Until
immediately after the Second World War Ampleforth mainly consisted of
houses built along a principal thoroughfare. Those buildings dated back to the ninbeteenth century including the village's shop and the
adjoining Coram Cottage, constructed in 1856.
The Church of England parish
church is dedicated to St Hilda, an English abbess who
founded Whitby Abbey. The church dates back to Saxon times,
with elements from the 13th century.
Ampleforth
Abbey is only 1.6 km away. Our Lady and St Benedict's
church is served by the monks of Ampleforth and has been the parish
church for the village's Catholic population for many decades. Attached to
the Roman Catholic parish is the co-educational primary
school, St Benedict's, which is run by the Diocese of Middlesbrough .
There are
two public houses in the village, the White Swan
and the White Horse. The latter takes its name from the large white horse which
was carved into the hillside a few miles to the west.
Ampleforth
had a Quaker settlement on the edge of the village, in Shallowdale
to the west. The sixteenth century Carr House Farm was occupied by flax workers
to weave flax into linen.
The
village was the setting of the Ampleforth Sword Dance, traditionally held at
Christmas. The dance derived from the story of a traveller killed by the six
swordsmen. When a doctor was called for to revive the dead traveller, a clown
pushed him aside and brought the traveller back to life through his
dance.
The
village used to have a railway station on the Thirsk and Malton
Line that was 2.4 km south of Ampleforth. The station closed in
1950, some years before the rest of the line did to passengers.
Coxwold
Coxwold is
a village and civil parish in the Hambleton district
of North Yorkshire, and is located within
the North York Moors National Park. It is 28 km north of York.
The
village name is derived from Saxon words Cuc,
meaning cry and valt,
meaning wood.
The
village is mentioned in the Domesday Book as part of the Yalestre hundred by the name of Cucvalt. The Lord of the manor
at the time of the Norman invasion was Kofse, but title passed to Hugh, son of Baldric and thence to
Roger de Mowbray, tracing a similar history to Farndale
and Kirkbymoorside. By 1158, the manor and lands of Coxwold passed to Thomas
Colville.
The now ruined Byland Abbey, north of
Coxwold was founded in the 12th century by Savigniac
monks. Newburgh Priory was built in 1145 by Roger De Mowbray.
The Rev. Laurence Sterne who wrote A
Sentimental Journey lived at Shandy Hall from 1760 to 1768. At
one time, the village had a station on the Thirsk and Malton
Line. It opened on 19 May 1853, but closed on 7 August 1964 as part of the
reorganisation of the national railway system.
Yearsley
Yearsley is a small village and civil parish in the
district of Hambleton in North Yorkshire. It was part of the parish of Coxwold
until it became an ecclesiastical parish in 1855 (although this was not
sustained) and a civil parish in 1866. The population of the civil parish was
less than 100 at the 2011 Census.
The entire parish of Yearsley is within the Howardian
Hills which is Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It was, and remains, a
predominantly agricultural village with significant forestry on the moors to
the north of the village.
The name 'Yearsley' is recorded in the Domesday Book
as 'Eureslage' and then, in the Pipe Rolls of 1176, as 'Euereslai'. The origins of the name are probably
Anglo-Saxon, from a word meaning Boars' Wood.
As for Coxwold, following the Norman invasion, the
lands of Yearsley fell into the hands Roger de Mowbray, who, by 1160, passed
the estates to Thomas Colville. Yearsley was the original residence of the Colvilles of Coxwold.
Yearsley is the site of a number
of barrows and other early earthworks.
Yearsley was also the site of the pottery of William
Wedgewood, a relation of the famous Staffordshire Wedgwood family of potters. A
mill at Yearsley belonged in the late 16th century to the Fairfax family of Gilling
The village was part of the Newburgh Priory estate
of the Wombwell family until 1944.
The Pond Head reservoir between Yearsley and Oulston is fed from the nearby source of the River Foss.
The local church is that of St Hilda.
Windgate Farm
Elias
Farndale (FAR00184)
was a Farmer of Windgate Farm. Whilst we originally
linked this to Wildon Hall Farm near Coxwold, there was a later reference to
Elisha’s land near Yearsley, so I was looking at the farm now known as Windyridge Farm on the northeast outskirts of Yearsley. However I have now found that there is a detached modern
property called Windygates, which was originally a
stone farmhouse. It is now a building in the same area as High Lions Lodge in
the map below. The modern building dates from the 1800s, but might have existed
in some form in 1788, when Elias/Elisha farmed there, or if not was almost
certainly the location of the farm of the early Ampleforth line of Farndales.
The location of the old Windygates
Farm
Timeline of the Ampleforth Area
1066
The Lord
of the manor of Coxwold at the time of the Norman invasion was Kofse. Ampleforth had previously belonged to Ulf.
1086
Title to
the Coxwold lands passed to Hugh, son of Baldric and thence to Roger de
Mowbray, tracing a similar history to Farndale
and Kirkbymoorside. In 1086 the Archbishop of York held a 'manor' and 3
carucates of land in Ampleforth (Victoria County History – Yorkshire; A
History of the County of York North Riding: Volume 1, Parishes: Ampleforth). The Domesday
Book showed that it had a recorded
population of 7.7 households in 1086. However there
was a larger area at Ampleforth, comprising 54 villagers and 15 ploughlands, 8
by 3 leagues of woodland and 4 furlongs of mixed land, which were Kofse’s lands before the Conquest and fell into the hands
of Hugh, son of Baldric, so these were the lands which included Coxwold.
1135
The now
ruined Byland Abbey, north of Coxwold was founded in January 1135 by Savigniac monks. The abbey was absorbed by the Cistercian
order in 1147. The community which moved five times before settling at New
Byland, near Coxwold in 1177.
The Ruins
of Byland Abbey
The house known as Byland Abbey
1145
To the
south of the village is Newburgh Priory, today a Grade I
listed stately home built on the site of a former Augustine Priory. The
original Priory was built in 1145 by Roger De Mowbray,
but fell victim to the Dissolution of the Monasteries carried
out by King Henry VIII. The King sold the estate to Anthony de Bellasis, whose family took the name of Fauconberg
upon the creation of the Baronetcy. The estate passed to the Wombwell family in
1825 at the end of the male line, and remains in their
possession today.
1158
By 1158,
the manor and lands of Coxwold passed to Thomas Colville. In return for the
lands, Thomas had to swear allegiance to Roger de Mowbray. Thomas de Colville's
estate included the manors of Yearsley, Coxwold and Oulston as well as other properties and land
in York, Thirsk, Everley, Nunwick, Kilburn and Upsland.
The Colville shield is displayed at one of the roof intersections in the
twelfth century Norman church at Coxwold.
While in
possession of the Coxwold estate, the Colville family gave generous grants
to Byland Abbey and Newburgh Priory.
1300
At the
turn of the fourteenth century, there were disputes between the monks of Newburgh Priory and
the Colvilles over rights to land around Coxwold.
1304
In 1304 Sir
Thomas Colville the Fifth started a tradition of a weekly market to be held in
the grounds of the manor of Coxwold. He also established a two-day annual fair
to celebrate the Assumption, a tradition that survived uninterrupted in Coxwold
Manor for some five hundred years.
1346
Sir
Thomas Colville the Seventh of Yearsley and Coxwold became famous following a
jousting incident before the Battle of Crecy in 1346 when he crossed the river
to joust with a French knight who had been hurling abuse at the English king.
He later joined the retinue of John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster who was the
third son of Edward III and the richest of the nobility in England.
1405
Successive
generations of Colvilles held the estate and lands of
Coxwold until 1405 when Thomas Colville the Eighth was murdered, probably on
the instruction of the Archbishop of York Richard le Scrope,
who was acting on behalf of Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland. The
bulk of the Coxwold estate was then granted to the Uhtred-Neville family.
1600
The house
known as Newburgh Priory which dates from about 1600
1603
In 1603,
Sir John Harte, who was born in nearby Kilburn, North Yorkshire, built a
Grammar School in the village, which closed in 1894. He was also a Lord Mayor
of London.
The Old
Grammar School at Coxwold
1760
The
Rev. Laurence Sterne lived at Shandy Hall from 1760 to
1768, and the house was named by him. Shandy Hall is located on Thirsk Bank at
the north-western end of the village and was originally built in 1430 as a
parsonage for Coxwold's village priest. It is a small
brick building, with a mossy, stone-covered roof, wide gables, and massive chimney-stacks. It was originally a timber-framed, open-hall
house but was considerably altered in the 17th century. The stone tablet above
its doorway states that Sterne wrote Tristram Shandy and A
Sentimental Journey at Shandy Hall. This is not entirely correct since
two of the nine volumes of Tristram Shandy had already been
published in 1759 before Sterne moved to Coxwold.
Shandy
Hall
1853
At one
time, the village had a station on the Thirsk and Malton Line.
It opened on 19 May 1853, but closed on 7 August 1964 as part of the
reorganisation of the national railway system.
1889
Sir George
Orby Wombwell, 4th Baronet, the last surviving officer of the Charge of
the Light Brigade is buried in the village churchyard in 1889. When he had
reached the guns at Balaklava, his horse was killed under him and he was
shortly after pulled off and taken prisoner, his sword and pistols being taken
from him by some Russian Lancers. He managed to escape, catch another loose
horse and ride back to the British lines, hotly pursued by Russians. He retired
from the Army as a lieutenant in 1855, when he inherited his title in Coxwold
and Newburgh Priory. This was the old seat of the Belasyses.
Included in this estate was Over Silton Manor, where Wombwell's initials
(“GOW”) can still be seen on one of the manor cottages, and High House, at
Thornton-on-the-Hill. He was appointed High Sheriff of Yorkshire in 1861.
1965
The
Coxwold Pottery was a pottery studio based in the village of Coxwold, North
Yorkshire, England, launched by artist potters Peter and Jill Dick in 1965, and
in operation until 2012.
Links, texts and
books