Escrick History


  1. Ice Age

    Ice Age to Saxon times

    Escrick’s history is thought to have begun in the Saxon period, as a small settlement on the moraine formed at the end of the last ice age. Escrick remained small throughout the medieval period.

    The moraine ridge (which runs roughly along the present Cawood Road, and through what is now Queen Margaret's towards Wheldrake) would have provided an area of dry land above the more waterlogged lands of the Vale of York. The ridge was also a key route between the River Ouse at Riccall (the limit of navigation at the time from the North Sea) and York and Stamford Bridge.

  2. 1086

    1086

    In the Domesday Book, Escrick was called ‘Ascri’, and it had only nine villagers, four freemen and eight ‘ploughlands’.

  3. ~ 1100

    ~ 1100

    Escrick estates acquired by St Mary's Abbey from Count Alan

  4. 1252

    1252

    Earliest evidence of a church in Escrick

  5. 1323

    1323

    Earliest record of a manor house in Escrick

  6. 1539

    1539

    Escrick Park became Crown property as a result of the dissolution.

    Then demised by the Crown to Thomas Knyvett in 1597

  7. 1668

    1668

    Sir Henry Thompson acquires Escrick estates

    When the estate was acquired it was described as:
    Manor of Escrick with capital messuage, messuages, cottages, windmill and lands (Lord's Carre, Riccall Hagge, Bloome Croft and West Garth, Fogge Carre; Hither, Middle and Further Hall Flatts; Calfe Close; Horse Close, Buskett Close, Lund Wood, Horse Pasture, Hilly Flatt, the Ings, the Intake, Ricall Parke, Dighton Spring)
    Manors of Escricke and Bardolgarth with 20 messuages [later corrected to 60],10 tofts, 1 windmill, 1 dovecote, 40 gardens, 1500ac. land, 200ac. meadow, 1000ac. pasture, 400ac. wood, 1000ac. heath and furze
    .

    The Escrick Estate has remained in the ownership of descendents of Sir Henry Thompson to the present day.

  8. 1683

    1683

    ~ 60 houses

  9. 1680-1700

    1680-1700

    Escrick Hall built

    Although modified and extended since, the current hall dates from this time.

  10. 1770s

    1770s

    Hall enlarged & stables built

  11. 1776

    1776

    Bridge over dyke rebuilt

    The stone remains on the bridge to this day - "BT" referring to Beilby Thompson.

  12. late 1770s

    late 1770s

    Houses around the hall demolished

    This started a period of reshaping the village, and establishing the hall with its own grounds with some separation from the rest of the village. The village was effectively relocated north of its former location - with the former site of the village becoming the grounds of Escrick Hall.

  13. 1781

    1781

    Act of Parliament to demolish and rebuild the church, and to divert the main road to the west of the Hall

    The new road followed a line to the west of Main St, along in part what is now the footpath leading to the playground. This was diverted further west in the 1820s, roughly along the present course of the A19, and at the same time Skipwith Road was established providing a bypass to the east.

  14. 1783

    1783

    New church consecrated in present location to the north of the village.

    Remains of the old church (located to the west of the then Escrick Hall), are thought to have remained until ~ 1920.

  15. 1801

    1801

    406 inhabitants

  16. 1820

    1820

    Paul Beilby Lawley Thompson (1st Lord Wenlock) inherits the Estate.

    Paul Beilby Lawley (1784-1852) inherited the Estate in 1820 and changed his name to Thompson. He became Baron Wenlock in 1839 and was granted a licence to put the name Lawley before that of Thompson and for his heirs to take the name Lawley only.

  17. ~1825

    ~1825

    School house constructed

    By 1844 there were 142 pupils on the roll.

  18. 1831

    1831

    717 inhabitants

    A rapid increase in the population during the first quarter of the nineteenth century, took the population to a peak of 717 - a level not reached again until the early 1970s.

  19. 1830s

    1830s

    Duck decoy built

    The remains of this decoy can still be seen in Gashouse woods and to the east of Skipwith Road. A second decoy was built a few years later further south on Skipwith Road.

  20. 1841

    1841

    710 inhabitants

  21. 1846

    1846

    All houses to south and west of the hall removed

    The hall now standing in its own extensive grounds, with no fewer than three drives approaching it, each guarded by a lodge house.

  22. 1848

    1848

    Rectory constructed

    The rectory was replaced with a newer smaller building in 1951, with the 1848 rectory becoming part of Queen Margaret's School for a time, and then later the Parsonage Hotel.

  23. 1840s

    1840s

    Dower House constructed

    More recently converted to flats of the same name.

  24. 1856-7

    1856-7

    New church built in same location

  25. 1857-8

    1857-8

    Police station and court house built on Skipwith Road

    (Now Derwent Court)

  26. 1860s

    1860s

    Water and gas supplies installed.

    Water was drawn from an artesian well located just north of the hall. One of the four original hydrants can still be seen on Main St, opposite the footpath leading to the primary school.
    Gas works were constructed in the area that now forms Gashouse woods behind Carrs Meadow.

  27. 1871

    1871

    Railway station opens

    Located about 1 mile west of the village on the road leading towards Stillingfleet, adjacent to what is now Lilac Cottage.

    There was once an extensive rail network south of York, with Escrick council and Lord Wenlock being instrumental in the construction of the Derwent Valley line, which ran through Skipwith.

  28. 1871

    1871

    651 inhabitants

  29. 1897

    1897

    Dolphin Fish Fountain commissioned to celbrate Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee

  30. 1897

    1897

    Wholesale butchers established, later to become the abattoir

  31. 1901

    1901

    544 inhabitants

    The size of the village had shrunk during the Victorian era, with industrial towns providing employment, and farming suffering from cheaper overseas imports. Towards the end of the Victorian era, landlords such as the Wenlocks increasingly invested in their villages in an attempt to encourage residents to remain.

  32. 1904

    1904

    Five alms-houses built on Main St

  33. 1908

    1908

    Escrick & Deighton Club built

    (originally known as Escrick Institute)

  34. 1911

    1911

    597 inhabitants

  35. 1915-1919

    1915-1919

    Escrick & Deighton Club used as war time NCO hospital

  36. 1917-1919

    1917-1919

    Escrick Hall used as war time hospital for officers

  37. 1920

    1920

    Estate passes to Forbes Adam family through marriage of Irene Lawley to Colin Forbes Adam.

  38. 1920

    1920

    Gas plant closes

    Presumably the arrival of electricity to the village made the need for gas for gas lamps redundant?

  39. 1921

    1921

    597 inhabitants

  40. 1923

    1923

    Church destroyed in fire

    (rebuilt two years later)

  41. 1929

    1929

    Hall let out as flats

  42. 1930s

    1930s

    First cricket pavillion built

  43. 1937

    1937

    Memorial & benches constructed at Main St / Carr Lane junction to commemorate the coronation of King George VI

  44. 1939-1945

    1939-45

    World War II

    The village housed many evacuees from Northern cities. Hollicarrs Woods was used as a munitions store from 1942 - with the remains of several of the brick and concrete buildings still visible.

  45. 1949

    1949

    Queen Margaret's School moves into Escrick Hall

    The school additionally occupied a number of buildings in Escrick, including the now Parsonage and Dower House, before consolidating on the current site at Escrick Hall.

    Escrick 1946 - English Heritage.

  46. 1951

    1951

    440 inhabitants

  47. 1953

    1953

    Escrick railway station closes to passengers (and closes to goods 8 years later in 1961)

    The railway itself remained (part of the East Coast Mainline from Edinburgh to London) until 1983 when it was re-routed further west due to expected subsidence from mining.

  48. 1961

    1961

    443 inhabitants

  49. 1960s

    1960s

    Wenlock Drive and The Glade built

    This period of development more than doubled the population of the village - the increased ownership of motor cars started the era of Escrick as a commuter village.

  50. 1971

    1971

    950 inhabitants

  51. 1970s

    1970s

    'Woodlands' and Dower Chase built

  52. 1972

    1972

    Escrick Hall sold to Queen Margaret's school

  53. 1973

    1973

    New primary school buildings built for junior classes at site of current primary school

    (Until 2007 the primary school was split across two sites, with the juniors on the new site, and seniors in the Old School House).

  54. 1974-75

    1974-75

    Village Hall rebuilt

  55. 1979

    1979

    North Selby Mine shafts started

    Residents of Escrick fought against the proposed mine complex. Sinking of the 1km deep shafts for the mine commenced in 1979 and completed in 1986. Production started in January 1991 and continued until the merger with Stilingfleet mine in July 1997. The site was used for several years after as a training location.
    Unlike neighbouring mines, the mine deliberately did not use the Escrick name.
    Coal was not extracted at this location - instead being carried by conveyor belt to Gascoigne Wood.

  56. 1980s

    1980s

    Escrick Park Gardens and Dower Park built, and a period of change for farming

    During the 1980s changes in the nature of farming began to impact the nature of the Escrick Estate. Small farm holdings began to be amalgamated into larger units, and the Estate began to convert the now redundant farmsteads into office and industrial units. At the height of this rural diversification development, the Estate provided some 41 business units.

  57. 1985

    1985

    1045 inhabitants

  58. 1991

    1991

    1131 inhabitants

  59. 1991

    1991

    Escrick brickworks closes

    A brickworks had existed on the site (west of the current Escrick Business Park) since approximately 1850, with its own quarry on-site. The brickworks closed in 1991 and the factory building was demolished in 2006.

  60. 1990s

    1990s

    Carrs Meadow built

  61. 1996

    1996

    New bells in St Helens

    The bells were replaced by the former bells from St Martin-in-the-bullring (Birmingham). These bells were hung in a new two-tier 10 ton galvanized steel frame set on a massive re-inforced concrete gillage. The new frame contained 14 pits, to allow for latter augmentation. The more mellow tone of the new bells proved extremely popular in a village which had fallen out of favour with the previous ones.

  62. 1996

    1996

    Village Green established

    The Village Green was established as part of the Carrs Meadow development, having previously been farmland. The Green is leased to the Parish Council by the Estate on a long-term peppercorn rent.

  63. 2001

    2001

    1235 inhabitants

    The 2001 Census reports 857 residents in 359 households, plus a further 378 residents in communal living

  64. 2004

    2004

    Development of Hollicarrs Woodland Holiday Park commences

    As a further diversification the Estate started the development of "The Hollicarrs" - a woodland holiday park which now comprises of nearly 170 timer lodges and chalets in the Hollicarrs woods south of the village.

  65. 2005

    2005

    New playing fields / playground opened

    A group of parents coordinated fund raising through a mix of grants and local fund raising to invest in a new playground on land kindly made available by the Estate on a peppercorn rent.

  66. 2007

    2007

    Primary school leaves old school house, consolidating on current site

    The former school site is redeveloped for housing.

  67. 2008

    2008

    Village Hall extended and refurbished

    The Village Hall received a £144,204 Lottery grant in 2008 which was used to extend and refurbish the village hall, provide an extra meeting room, modernise the kitchen, improve disabled access and toilet facilities and increase storage space.

  68. 2011

    2011

    1078 inhabitants

    The 2011 Census reports 909 residents in 370 households, plus a further 169 residents in communal living

  69. 2014

    2014

    Post Office and General Store closes

    A buyer could not be found to take over the village store.

  70. 2016

    2016

    Farrier's Close and Lawley Gardens built

  71. 2021

    2021

    1064 inhabitants

    The 2021 Census reports 933 residents in 385 households, plus a further 130 residents in communal living.

  72. 2021

    2021

    Black Bull pub closes.

    A year later the premises are sold and an application to convert to three residential properties is approved. The pub dates from the 1750-1770, and was known as The Spotted Bull in 1823, later 'The Bull' and then laterly The Black Bull, with the current facade built 1865-1866.

  73. 2022

    2022

    Abattoir closes after 125 years

    A planning application for eight houses is submitted, preserving some of the historic slaughterhouse buildings.

  74. 2023

    2023

    New village store opens

    Tenacious work by a small group of residents results in a new village store opening, 9 years after the previous general store closed.