Skelton and the Old Church

The History of Skelton-in-Cleveland

Having recently arrived in Wilton near Kirkleatham from Campsall near Doncaster, in about 1588 the family moved again to Moorsholm in the Parish of Skelton, in a period of religious tension.

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Directions

Approach Skelton on the A173 from Guisborough or the A174 from Brotton and Loftus.

I suggest you head for the Old Church beside Skelton Castle on the approach to Skelton from Guisborough, and take in Skelton’s history from there.

Skelton’s early history

Sceltun or Scheltun in the eleventh century; Scelton in the twelfth century; Sceltona, Scheltona and Skeltona in the thirteenth century; Skolton in the fourteenth century, Skelton-in-Cleveland comprises North Skelton, Skelton Green and New Skelton. Its name derives from skell, a brook or rivulet and tun, a town or village.

John Walker Ord’s History and Antiquities of Cleveland, 1846 summarised Skelton’s history. From this little nook of Cleveland sprang mighty monarchs, queens, high chancellors, archbishops, earls, barons, ambassadors, and knights, and, above all, one brilliant and immortal name, Robert Bruce, the great Scottish patriot, who, when liberty lay vanquished and prostrate in the dust, and the genius of national freedom had fled shivering from her native hills, bravely stood forth, its latest and noblest champion, and, in defiance of England's proudest chivalry, achieved for Scotland a glorious independence, and for himself imperishable fame.

Skeletons of wild ox and deer have been found in peat bogs just a few miles from Skelton and have been dated to around 7,000 BCE. Many Bronze Age burial sites or howes on the hills around Skelton provide the first real evidence of humans in these parts.

It is thought that the people buried at Hob Hill in the Anglo Saxon period were outlying settlers of the Anglo Saxon region called Deira and spent their lives in the Skelton area, possibly using Skelton beck as a water supply.

The first church might have been a simple timber building. Anglo-Saxon-Scandinavian coffins suggest its early origin. There are three medieval stone coffins and a carved coffin lid in the church.

In the 1840’s a carved stone was found in the old Churchyard, near the Castle. It appears to be part of a sun-dial, like Orm Gamalson’s Kirkdale sundial of the original Farndale lands, and must have come from the old Anglo-Saxon Church which was replaced in 1325.

Part of the sundial’s semicircle remains and four hour lines, just like the Kirkdale sundial, two of which are crossed, likely representing midday and 2pm. Like Kirkdale, the sundial had probably been divided into twelve hour spaces.

Below the lines of the sundial are what remains of four lines an inscription in Old Norse, with part of a line of runes down the side.

Margaret Scott Gatty (1809 to 1873) quoted Bishop Browne’s conclusion that The runes, I read as DIEBEL OK, which Mr Magnusson says is good Danish, of latish date, for ‘devil and’. He tells me that GRERA is part of the word ‘to grow’, and COMA is ‘to come’. The words ‘devil and’ may well be a pious curse on creatures of that kind.

From the style of the inscription this stone appears to belong to the early part of the twelfth century.

Two Anglo-Scandinavian Cross shaft fragments from the tenth or eleventh century, Fragment of a Scandinavian child’s tombstone with a dragonesque hogback and a rudimentary

probably sandstone quarried at Egton carving of a creature, about tenth century

Both Displayed in Skelton Old Church

Norman Conquest

The Skelton lands were held by Uhtred prior to the Conquest and comprised a manor and thirteen carucates (a carucate being the land which a team of eight oxen could plough in a year). They were recorded in the Domesday Book as including seven ploughlands with one lord’s plough team and three men’s plough teams, 20 acres of meadow and mixed woodland stretching two leagues by two furlongs. There were twelve villagers. The value of £2 reduced to 16s after the Conquest, perhaps the consequence of the harrying of the north. The lands were given to Count Robert of Mortain and Richard of Sourdeval was the tenant in chief.

There have been suggestions that an earlier ancestor of the House Bruce, Robert de Brix, served under William the Conqueror during the Norman Conquest and suppressed the northern rebellions during the harrying of the north. It is now thought that this came from the evidence of unreliable lists compiled in the later Middle Ages.

Rather the Bruce interest arose when Henry I defeated his elder brother and rival Robert Curthose at the Battle of Tinchebrai in Normandy in 1106. After his victory Henry I redistributed land from Robert Curtose’s supporters, including Robert de Stuteville to his new men, including Nigel d’Albini, ancestor of the Mowbray family and Robert de Brus.

The Bruce family thus came to hold large estates based on Skelton, Danby and in Kildale.

Skelton therefore followed the same ownership as Danby until the division in 1272 of the lands of the third Peter de Brus, when the castle and manor of Skelton with five knights' fees passed to Walter de Fauconberg and his wife Agnes.

A Royal Charter in 1124 by David I of Scotland granted Robert De Brus the Lordship of Annandale in Scotland. Robert De Brus was a friend and supporter of David, and his second son, also called Robert married the heiress to Annandale. The Bruce lines then split, with Robert’s eldest son Adam 1 de Brus continuing the senior Skelton line, and the second son, Robert II de Brus beginning the Annandale line. In time, Robert’s In time the Scottish decent would pass to Robert the Bruce, crowned as the Scottish King on 27 March 1306, to lead the fight for Scottish independence against Edward I of England. Robert rallied his troops at Bannockburn, By Oppression’s woes and pains! By your Sons in servile chains! We will drain our dearest veins, But they shall be free!, and establish an independent Scottish monarchy.

In the Declaration of Arbroath, this descendant of Skelton would declare of Scotland, As the histories of old time bear witness, it has held them free of all servitude ever since. In their kingdom one hundred and thirteen kings of their own royal stock have reigned, the line unbroken by a single foreigner.

Only a decade after the grant of Annandale, Henry I in died in 1135. David of Scotland refused to recognise Henry's successor, King Stephen. Instead, David supported the claim of his niece and Stephen's cousin, Empress Matilda, to the English throne. Robert of Skelton and Annandale fell out with David and he bitterly renounced his homage to David before taking the English side at the Battle of the Standard at Northallerton in 1138.

Before the battle, Robert made an impassioned plea to David. The appeal was rejected. Robert, and his eldest son Adam, joined the English army, while his younger son, Robert, hoping to recover his recently acquired Scottish inheritance, fought for David. At the Battle of the Standard in 1138 the elder Robert took prisoner his own son, the younger Robert, Lord of the lands of Annandale.

Skelton was thus the principal seat of the de Brus family early in the twelfth century. The castle was probably built in about 1140 and was lived in by eight generations of the de Brus family until the death of Peter de Brus III in 1272.

The medieval castle has not survived. The site of the castle is situated on high ground near the Skelton Beck in the north of the parish, and the house which was later built on the same site is surrounded by park lands and woods and on three sides by a moat. The castle and its successor mansion has been the dwelling place successively of the House Brus, and later the Fauconbergs, Conyers, Trotters, Stevensons and Whartons.

The first Lord, Robert de Brus was buried in Guisborough Priory in 1141. The new lord of Skelton was Robert’s eldest son, Adam I de Brus, who had fought with his father at the Battle of the Standard.

Whilst still a minor, Adam II de Brus of Skelton was dispossessed of his castle at Danby in about 1145 by his guardian and uncle, William d’Aumale, Earl of York.

Plantagenet Skelton

In 1196 Peter I de Brus inherited the barony of Skelton but was soon in heavy debt. Initially he had been a faithful follower of King John, accompanying him to Normandy. Peter was given his first chance to rejuvenate the Skelton barony and buy back the vill and forest of Danby which he did for £1,000. In 1207 he purchased the wapentake of Langbaurgh, near Great Ayton, which included the whole tenant of Cleveland. In 1208, in order to obtain the money demanded by King John. Peter de Brus made an agreement with his Cleveland tenants within Langbaurgh, by which he agreed to limitations in the exercise of his authority in return for a guarantee that the knights and free tenants would make up any shortfall in the rent of forty marks charged by the king. The witnesses were Roger de Lacy, Robert de Ros, Eustachia de Vescy, Walter de Faucumberge.

The Charter made between Peter de Brus and the tenants of Cleveland was lodged with the Prior of Guisborough. It has been suggested by some that it was a pre-cursor to Magna Carta, when the Barons strove to place similar limitations on King John’s powers. Peter de Brus held 11 “knights fees” of the honour of Skeltone in Yorkshire.

Also in 1208, Peter de Brus was given custody of his Scottish relative, William de Brus, Third Lord of Annandale, as a hostage of King John to ensure the behaviour of the King of Scotland.

However Peter de Brus became increasingly disillusioned with King John when John abrogated the Magna Carta and in February 1216, he had to flee Skelton Castle to avoid capture by the king.

From the 8 to 10 February 1216, King John attacked and took Skelton Castle. Peter de Brus’s men were taken prisoner. On 15 February 1216, John agreed to receive Peter de Brus and Robert de Ros under safe conduct with all such as they should bring with them unarmed, to a conference, to treat with him about making their peace with him; and the said safe conduct shall hold good for one month from St Valentine’s day. And for greater security our lord the King wills that …..Archdeacon of Durham, Wydo de Fontibus, Frater Walter, Preceptor of the Templars in the district of Yorkshire, with one of Hugh de Bailloel’s retinue, shall go with them in person to the Lord King, and escort them; and they have Letters Patent from the King to that effect; and the said letters are the same day handed to the aforesaid parties, Thomas, Canon of Gyseburn, being further added to their numbers.

On 26 February 1216 King John issued the following mandate: We command you that you receive and see to the safe keeping of the prisoners whose names are underwritten, taken at Skelton Castle, who will be sent to you by Dame Nicholas de Haya –that is to say, Godfrey de Hoga, Berard de Fontibus, Anketil de Torenton, Robert de Molteby, Stephen Guher, William de Lohereng, Robert de Normanby, Roger le Hoste, Robert de Gilling, John de Brethereswysel, Thomas Berard’sman and Ralph de Hoga.

In July and August the King issued further orders that prisoners taken at Skelton Castle should be ransomed.

King John died later in 1216 and Henry III became King aged 9. In 1219 Peter de Brus was forgiven for his opposition to King John and recovered Carlton and other manors in Cleveland, which the Crown had taken from him.

In 1227, Peter de Brus was given licence to hold a Market at Skelton on Mondays.

In 1265, Skelton castle was surrendered to Henry III by Peter III who was suspected of supporting Henry’s son, Prince Edward.

There are records of the castle being used for keeping prisoners from the reign of King John and during the reign of Henry III.

In 1269 a deed recorded a quitclaim by Alice and Helena, Agnes and Hauisia sisters, to Peter de Bruis the third, of all their land of Scelton late belonging to Richard, the reeve, (prepositi) their uncle, viz., a toft and croft at the entrance of the town of Scelton towards the east late held by Walter Blevent; 1 acre in Scelton fields lying between the tilled land of Sir Peter de Bruis called Roskeldesik and the half ploughland belonging to the Mills; an assart late of Wm. Winde, lying between Langhacres and the vale of meadows of Scelton; 1 acre given by Wm. Cusin to Ralf, son of Wine, lying between Roskeldesic and the half ploughland belonging to the lord’s mills; and 2 1/2 acres in the territory of Scelton on Lairlandes; for the rents of 1d. to them and their heirs, heirs of Wm. Cusin for the acre between Roskeldsic and the half ploughland, 2d. to the same for the 2 1/2 acres on Lairlandes, 1d. to the heirs of Rolf son of Wine for the acre given to Ralf by Wm. Cusin, and 1d. to Richard Briton for the assart. Witnesses :- Sir Adam de Hilton, Sir Simon de Bruis, Sir Stephen de Rosel, Sir Berard de Fontibus, John de Tocotes, John de Nutel, Wm. Pitwaltel, Robt de Tormodeby, Geoffrey the Cook (Coco) Hugh Hauberger, Matthew the Clerk (clerico)

North of the castle is a mill on the Skelton Beck, which is probably the site of one of the mills appurtenant to the manor in 1272, and to the east is a fish-pond also mentioned at that date.

Peter de Brus III of Skelton Castle died in 1272. For nearly two hundred years six generations of the De Brus family of Skelton Castle had had male heirs. Their possessions had grown through marriage as the law directed that on marriage the property of the wife became the husband’s property. Peter de Brus III’s elder sister had pre-deceased him and both were childless. The de Brus Estates were therefore divided between his four remaining sisters.

At this time the de Brus estates were divided amongst four daughters, Agnes, Lucia, Margaret and Laderina. The first two daughters stayed within the Cleveland area. Agnes married into the de Fauconberg family and inherited Skelton castle and nearby estates, whilst Lucia married into the de Thweng family of Kilton castle.

A Charter in the eighth regnal year of Edward I, Hammer of the Scots, on 25 May 1280 declared For Walter de Fauconberg. The King to Archbishops, greeting. Know ye that we have granted, and by this our Charter confirmed to our beloved and faithful Walter de Faucunberge, that he and his heirs for ever have free warren in all his demesne lands of Skelton, Stanghow and Mersk, Uplithum, Redker, Grenrig and Estbrune in the County of York. Provided that those lands be not within the bounds of our forest, so that no one enter those lands to hunt in them, or to take anything, which may belong to the warren, without the licence and will of him the said Walter, or his heirs, upon forfeiture to us of £10; wherefore he will….

In 1291 a dispute arose between Skelton Castle and Guisborough Priory over an area of land around what is now Skelton Ellers, called ‘Swarthy Head’ and then called Swetingheved. This was on the edge of the Skelton hunting park which stretched east to the castle and south over Airy Hill to Margrove Park. Walter de Fauconberg agreed to maintain the hedges and ditches to prevent the deer straying onto the prior’s meadows and arable land and to pay tithes on the deer themselves.

The Lay Subsidy of 1301, authorised by a Parliament at Lincoln, was a tax on the whole population and was based on a fifteenth part of each person’s movable possessions. Among the taxpayers of Skelton were a merchant, a fuller, a weaver, a potter, a tanner, a baker, a smith, a butcher, two carpenters and three carriers (pannierman, wainman and a carter). There were 63 taxpayers in Skelton who paid a total of £5 13s. Multiplying this by 15 gives the total value of these villagers’ possessions as £84 6s. The number of taxpayers in other places in the North Riding of Yorkshire, for comparison, were Guisborough 85, Whitby 96, Marske and Redcar 89, Yarm 72. There were likely many poorer, labouring people who did not pay tax.

Walter de Fauconberg died in about 1304 and was succeeded by his son Walter, who died in about 1318, his heir being John his son, who died in 1349.

A new church seems to have been built in stone by the Fauconberg family in about 1324. Part of the fabric of the older church was incorporated into this new church. It was probably of a similar size as the church which stands today.

The fourteenth century church was later replaced but might have looked something like this

In the Lay Subsidy of 1334 Skelton was assessed at £2, compared with Yarm £9, Guisborough £4 and Stokesley £1 4s.

In 1349, the twenty third regnal year of Edward III, an Inquisitiones Post Mortem surveyed the assets of the Fauconbergs on the death of John Fauconberg. In demesne, 24 bovates of weak and Moorish land, each worth 4 shillings…before the mortality of men in these parts this year. 30 acres of meadow each worth 1 shilling per annum before the Death. 3 water mills of which one is weak and ruinous….worth £4 before the Death.

The castle was described in this year as being difficult to maintain. This was the year that the Black Death hit Yorkshire, which may well have ben the cause of John’s death

There was also mention of a park of oaks with game, called le Wespark and Maugrey Park with deer. The area to the west of Skelton Castle, to Skelton Ellars and over Airey Hill to Margrove Park was part of the private woodland hunting reserve of Skelton Castle.

In this and the following years the plague killed a half to two thirds of the population of England. It would seem from the above that most of the population of Skelton died.

A carved sandstone effigy of a knight with hands clasped in prayer. His shield is decorated with three birds and his sword hangs below. Chain mail armour is visible. He is probably a member of the Thweng family, or Sir Robert Capon who died in 1346. The effigy is in Skelton’s Old Church.

John’s son Walter died in 1361 and was succeeded by his son Thomas de Fauconberg. A third of the manor, passed as a dower to Walter’s widow Isabel. Thomas granted his two-thirds of the castle and manor and the reversion of Isabel's third, for his lifetime, to Henry Percy Earl of Northumberland, who held the whole manor on the death of Isabel in 1401.

The Skelton estate was then taken into the custody of Henry IV, due to Thomas Fauconberg’s intermittent mental health issues. In 1403 the King granted custody of the estate to Robert and John Conyers.

The mentally ill Thomas Faucomberge died in 1407 when the estate settled on Walter de Fauconberg, the son of Sir Roger de Fauconberg, who was a brother of Sir Thomas.

The Inquisition Post Mortem shows the estate included a waste burgage, four waste messuages, and cottages either ruinous or waste or paying nothing. The condition probably reflected the decimation of the population of Skelton, after the Black Death, which was about 400 at the beginning of it. Among the long list of possessions, which also includes the Manor of ‘Mersk’ and Upleatham and many areas of land with now unrecognisable names is:

In the town and territory of Skelton in Cleveland: 1 built messuage with garden; 1 croft and 6 bovates held by William Shupherde; 1 built messuage with garden; 2 crofts and 1 bovate held by John Proctour; 1 waste messuage and 1 bovate by John Walkere; 2 bovates by John Harpour; 3 waste messuages and 1 bovate by William Mason senior; 1 burnt messuage, a close called ‘Cadycroft’ and a parcel of land called ‘le Wanles’ by the same; a third part of a messuage and of a bovate by Roger Homet; with all the services of these tenants; 4 a. of foreshore at ‘Thilekelde’, ‘Roskeldesyke’ and ‘Grenwalde’ held by John Proctour; 1 close of herbage in ‘Burghgate’ and 1 called ‘Copyncroft’ by John Donaldeson; 1 built cottage by Thomas de Newsom, and 1 by John Byrde; 1 with garden and croft by William Whytekyrke; 1 garden and croft with 9 a. by William Syng; 1 built cottage with 2 crofts by Robert Hogeson, the lord’s villein; 1 ruinous cottage by Sibota Westland; 1 croft of herbage called ‘Bruyscroft’ by William Westland; 1 built burgage and 1 croft by John Pottere; 1 close of herbage called ‘Kyrkebyclos’ and 1 plot used for making pots (pro ollis inde faciendis) by the same; 2 waste cottages in ‘Marketgate’ next William Lambard’s tenement on the south, let for a rent of 12d.; 1 cottage now in the lord’s hands, formerly held by William Westland for 20d., now paying nothing; In a place called Stanghow 1 built cottage, 2 waste cottages, 1 bovate and a tenement called ‘Blackhall’ held by Thomas Carlele; and 1 built messuage, 2 waste messuages and 4 bovates by John West. Also a third part of 3 watermills in Skelton with its members, called ‘Holbekmyll’, ‘Saltbornmyll’ and Skinningrove mill; a third part of a fulling mill, and of the profits of the oven, toll, market and fair there, of the assize of bread and ale, of the court of Skelton, of agistments in pasture and feedings not in severalty, of waste, of casualties arising in wood or plain, as in hawks, sparrowhawks, falcons, and other birds of prey or game, of warren and free chase, waifs and strays, etc. and of the mining of lead, iron, marl and coal and of quarrying of slate and other mines in the lordship of Skelton and its members.

Walter died in the same year that he inherited the estate, which then passed to his daughter, Joan. She inherited the estate as an infant. She was described as an ‘idiot’ from birth. Joan married Sir William Neville, son of Ralph Neville, the Earl of Westmorland. The castle therefore passed, by her marriage, to Sir William Neville. They made alterations to the castle in 1428. William Neville was summoned to Parliament as Lord Fauconberg in 1429, and was created Earl of Kent in 1461. He died in January 1463 seised of Skelton in right of his wife, who being of unsound mind held no lands after his death.

Alicia Neville was the daughter of Joan Fauconberg and Sir William Neville. She married Sir John Conyers (1435 to 1469), later Lord Conyers.

Inheritance of Skelton was always a little messy. At Joan's death in 1490 her heirs were her grandson James Strangways, son of her daughter Elizabeth, wife of Sir Richard Strangways, and William Conyers, son of her daughter Alice who married Sir John Conyers of Hornby. Skelton came to the Conyers, although the Strangways seem to have held some interest in the manor, which followed the descent of the manor of West Harlsey.

Tudor Skelton

In 1490 Skelton Castle was inherited by William Conyers, when it was described as ruinous. William Conyers married Anne Neville (1475 to 1550).

The Lay Subsidy of 1542 evidenced that in Skelton well over half the taxpayers assessed for the Lay Subsidy paid at the lowest rate, on goods valued at less than £1 or 240 d. As before, the Lay Subsidy was a taxation system based in rural areas of a fifteenth part of a person’s moveable goods including crops. In towns it was a tenth.

After the dissolution of the monasteries in about 1545, the Church at Skelton was granted to the see of York. The Archbishop is still patron of the living, and therefore controls appointment, payment, and vicarage of local vicar.

The Conyers estate passed via Christopher Conyers to John Lord Conyers, on whose death in 1557 it was divided among his daughters and co-heirs, three of whom, Anne wife of Anthony Kempe, Katharine wife of John Atherton and Elizabeth wife of Thomas D’Arcy, survived. The fourth daughter, Joan (or Margaret), died a minor in 1560.

Nicholas and Agnes Farndale, with their son William Farndale and his new wife Margaret, and their daughter Jean Farndale settled in Wilton near Kirkleatham in about 1565, after William and Margaret’s wedding in St Mary Magdalene Church in Campsall in 1564 and before Jean’s wedding to Richard Fairley in Kirkleatham in 1567.

They lived there, about five kilometres west of Skelton, but within about a decade or so, William and Margaret and their family moved to Moorsholm, in the parish of Skelton.

This emigration occurred in the midst of the Elizabethan age, thirty years after the Reformation during Henry VIII’s reign (1509 to 1547) had fundamentally transformed English society by removing Rome’s supremacy. The First Act of Succession in 1534 had resolved Henry’s marital and succession issues and two Acts of Supremacy confirmed Henry VIII as supreme head of the church of England. This was the first time England had brexited from the European world. To most ordinary folk, these issues were probably remote and caused little to change, but there was a heightened awareness of religious difference which impacted everywhere. This religious difference would have impacted on the Farndales living around Doncaster in 1536 when the Pilgrimage of Grace reached both York and Doncaster. It probably impacted all corners of the nation during the reign of Bloody Mary (1553 to 1558), which brought a devastating Counter Reformation and the burning of protestants, cruel heresy laws, when John Foxes’s Actes and Monuments of these Latter and Perillous Days, known as the Book of Martyrs, compiled the shocking stories of the persecutions.

Elizabeth I (1558 to 1603) brought some calm and toleration back to her realm. The Act of Supremacy 1558 was An Acte restoring to the Crowne its Jurisdiction over the State Ecclesiasticall and Spirituall, and abolyshing all Forreine Power repugnaunt to the same, The Act of Uniformity 1559, authorised a book of common prayer which was similar to the 1552 version but which retained some Catholic elements, and the Thirty Nine Articles 1563 provided a compromise return to a new Anglican world. This was the foundation of a new religion which was later called Anglicanism. “It looked Catholic and sounded Protestant.” It was a religious middle way. It was a compromise and perhaps the foundation of the British spirit of compromise. It contrasted to a time of Catholic versus Protestant polarisation in Europe. Elizabeth had little sympathy for hardliners from either wing of the religious divide. She stopped heresy trials. This was a brave new world, though still to be threatened for a while by Spanish invasion plans and a medley of plots.

Over time however, there were acts by her monarchy which supressed Catholicism, which was still popular in Yorkshire. The Recusancy Acts in 1558 required attendance at Church of England services, returning to Henry VIII’s Reformation. Those who refused to do so were called Recusants and were brought to Court to face penalties. In Cleveland, at first Egton, with 9 Recusants, was its only centre. By 1586, Brotton had 19 presentations for Recusancy, Egton 13, Hinderwell 10 and Skelton 8.

The mid 1560s were therefore a period of renewed hope, whilst still threatened by opposing ideas. It was in 1568 that Mary Queen of Scots escaped from Loch Leven Castle and fled to England and was interred in a succession of castles, including Bolton Castle in Wensleydale. Soon after Mary’s arrival, a rebellion began in the pro Catholic north of England led by the earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland. The Rising of the North of 1569, also called the Revolt of the Northern Earls or Northern Rebellion, was an unsuccessful attempt by Catholic nobles from Northern England to depose Queen Elizabeth I of England and replace her with Mary, Queen of Scots.

It was at this time that Jean Farndale had married Richard Fairley in Kirkleatham on 16 October 1567. This was the first event which marked the family’s arrival there. The Fairleys were a Scottish family once known as de Ros who adopted the name Fairlie when they were granted lands at Fairlie (Ayrshire) by Robert the Bruce, that Scottish King of Yorkshire descent. This is a locative name from Fairlie in Ayrshire near the mouth of the Forth of Clyde. By 1881 the later family were centred around Midlothian and Lanarkshire, but also Durham and Northumberland. The family was also in Ireland. The two branches of the Bruce family had lands in Annandale in Scotland and around Skelton.

This sign on the wall of the Old Church at Skelton might reflect the mood as the family set up home there, where they continued to live through the English Civil War

There is record of disagreement between the three husbands. The story goes that each allowed their part of the castle to fall into disrepair so that the others wouldn’t have any benefit of it.

Anthony Kempe, the husband of Anne Conyers sold their part of the Skelton Estate to Robert Trotter. Robert was the son of a Robert Trotter senior of Pickering and married to Margaret who came from Pudsey.

As the sixteenth century ended, there were early signs of the future industrial revolution which would soon reinvent Cleveland. By 1595, Sir Thomas Chaloner established alum works at Belman Banks. The first profitable alum site in Yorkshire was opened in 1603 at Spring Bank, Slapewath, which was then part of Skelton. John Atherton, possibly in conjunction with his brother-in-law’s family, the D’Arcys, opened Springbank alum works at Slapewath in about 1603. This was probably the first alum works in north-east Yorkshire.

Britain had been an agricultural nation and wool was its chief export. Alum was used in the dyeing process as the setting agent and was also needed in the tanning of hides. It was a highly valued product, which previously had been imported. In 1610, James I made Alum production a monopoly of the Crown. By 1616 alum production began at Selby Hagg, near Hagg Farm, Skelton. Ships anchored off Saltburn to transport the finished product. They brought with them casks of urine, which was mixed with the liquid that had been obtained from the calcined shale as part of the process. This was probably done in an Alum House near Cat Nab in Saltburn. The shale liquid ran from Selby Hagg by gravity down a trough that followed the course of Millholme Beck.

In 1577, Anthony Kempe (1529 to 1597) sold his share in the estate, including the castle, to Robert Trotter

Meantime the Skelton Parish Registers for baptisms started from 1571, marriages from 1568 and burials from 1567.

Seventeenth Century Skelton

In the turbulent years of the early seventeenth century, there were some folk of Skelton who were getting themselves into trouble as Papists. Recusants were people who refused the sacraments of the Church of England. In Skelton the list included William Milner and Allison his wife. Agnes, the wife of Robert Allenbye. Jane, the wife of Robert Nelson. Alice, the wife of John Staynhous. Robert Sawer. Elizabeth Staynhous. Recusants 8 or 9 yeares, but poore laborers. Robert Trotter Esquier, Margaret his wife ; noncommunicants this last yeare. Private baptisme “Xpofer Burdon” husbandman had a childe secretly baptised, where and by whome they know not. Robert Allanbye, Joan, the wife of William Nelson. Jane, the wife of Richard Locke. Jebbs widowe Burton widowe r Averell wife of Xpofer Burdon, John Staynehous. Thomas Staynhous, Richard Staynhous. Poore labouring people which came to church before the xxvth of Marche 1603 & since are become Recusantes.

Robert Trotter died in 1611 and was succeeded by his son Henry, who died in 1623. Henry's son and heir George was succeeded by Edward, who married Mary daughter of Sir John Lowther, bart, of Lowther, to whom he conveyed the manor in 1659.

Skelton Old Church. Here lies y bodie of Robert Trotter of Skelton Castle Esqvyer who lived at y age of 81 yeares and died in Year of Our Lord God 1611.

In April 1613, at the Quarter Sessions held at Thirsk Robert Tose, Curate of Skelton in Cleveland, was charged with keeping an alehouse there, contrarie to the statute in such case made and provided.

The oldest grave-stone still to be found in the old Church yard at Skelton was placed in September 1632, commemorating John Slater.

Folklore has it that Cromwell passed close to Skelton, but missed the Castle hidden in the woods. The locals, however, were heard and given a good beating on Flowston. A small skirmish took place somewhere between Skelton and Guisborough between Royalists under the command of Colonel Slingsby and Parliamentarians under Sir Hugh Cholmley and Sir Matthew Boynton. Slingsby was taken prisoner and some of his men killed. The story of the Civil War is told in more detail in Chapter 12 of the Farndale Story.

The current Old Church of Skelton was rebuilt in 1785, so the modern structure is from a later period. Its austere feel however seems to transform you into a world of seventeenth century puritanism.

It has been suggested that the brasses on the Fauconberg blue marble stone in the floor of the old church at Skelton were torn off by the Puritans during the Protectorate in about 1653.

On 3 October 1670 at Malton Quarter Sessions it was ordered That John Tooes of Skelton in Cleveland having been bound to appear at the Sessions to answere for alluring and entycing’ mens wifes and on other complaints is to find good sureties for his good behavious and to appear at next Sessions.

Edward Trotter was lord of the manor in 1681.

Trotter died in 1708, and was succeeded by his grandson Lawson Trotter, son of his son John. Lawson Trotter still held the manor in 1721 and in 1729, but afterwards sold it to Joseph Hall, his sister's husband, probably before 1732.

The Hall-Stevensons and the Crazy Castle

Joseph Hall died in 1733 and was succeeded by his son John Hall, who assumed the name of Stevenson in addition to his own. John Hall Stevenson was lord of the manor till his death in 1785. His son Joseph William, who succeeded him, died a year later, his heir being his son, another John Hall Stevenson, who assumed the name of Wharton.

John Hall Stevenson (Lord of the Manor of Skelton from 1733 to 1785) was quite a character. He married Anne Stevenson and added Stevenson as his surname after his marriage to Anne, the daughter of Ambrose Stevenson and Ann Wharton. He was a Cambridge scholar and poet. John was an author (including Crazy Tales) and friend of Laurence Sterne, who wrote “The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman”.

John Hall Stevenson in 1741

John had a reputation for throwing wild parties for his friends (including Lawrence Sterne, Zachary Moore and Panty Lascelles) who were known collectively as the “Demoniacs”.

He was something of a hypochondriac and wouldn’t get out of bed if there was an east wind blowing. The story goes that Sterne paid a youth to fix the weathervane so it never showed an east wind.

The castle at this time was in a state of disrepair, earning for itself the nickname “Crazy Castle”.

Map of Skelton, 1740

In 1764, the Archbishop of York, Robert Hay Drummond, sent out a Questionnaire to all his Parish priests. The Skelton in Cleveland, Curate, Thomas Kitching replied as follows:

Admitted 20 August 1760. Deacon 18 December 1743, [Samuel Chester]. Priest 22 September 1745, Samuel Chester. 1. There are about 240 families, 5 of which are Quakers and 4 are Papists. 2. The Quakers have a meeting house at ‘Moorsholme’, but whether it is licenced or not I do not know. They assemble there every Sunday in the morning in small numbers. Their speaker is one Philip Narzleton of Moorsholme aforesaid. 3. There is no publick or charity school within this Parish. 4. There is no alms-house or hospital in this Parish. There are some lands and some cottages belonging to the Church, the profits of which are ‘applyed’ [and I believe very honestly] to the repairs of the nave or body of the Church. This Curacy was augmented in the year 1718 by a benefaction of £200 from the Trotter family and others who had connexions with that family, by £200 more given by the directors of Queen Ann’s Bounty and by £25 given by the late curate. An estate called ‘Sadler Hills’ in this Parish was purchased 1735 and the yearly rent is £18. 5. I do reside in the parsonage-house. 6. I have no curate. 7. I perform divine service at Skelton on 2 Sundays in the mornings and in the afternoons. I attend Brotton, which is annexed to the curacy of Skelton. On the third Sunday I perform divine service at Brotton in the morning and in the afternoon I attend Skelton. I preach twice every Sunday and I make service at Skelton on holy days. 8. I know of none who come to church that are not baptized, neither do I know of any of a competent age, who are not confirmed. I have baptized no adults since your Grace came to be Archbishop. 9. I catechise at Skelton and Brotton alternately from the beginning of Lent till Whitsuntide. Many of my parishioners send their children, but very few of their Servants. At your Grace’s last confirmation, or rather before it, the Servants did attend me at the times appointed and I did all I could to meke them understand the principles of our holy religion. I know of no exposition they make use of. 10. The sacrament is administered once every quarter both at Skelton and Brotton. I give notice of it on the preceding Sunday in the form appointed by the Book of Common Prayer. The number of communicants in the parish may amount to 375. At Easter 156 did communicate. At other times the number is not so great. I have refused the sacrament to none since I was admitted curate. 11. The chapel at Brotton is annexed to the cure of Skelton and is served in the manner above specified. It is distant from Skelton about 3 measured miles. There is no particular endowment belonging to Brotton. We have no chapel in ruins. 12. There has no public penance been performed since your Grace came to be Archbishop, neither do I know of any commutations of penance made by any of my parish within that time.

On 24 November 1770 William Smith, a Miller, was murdered at night in his bed at home in Skelton in Cleveland by Luke Atkinson who also lived in the village. On Sunday evening he told Mr Wharton that he had without the least provocation for 3 weeks before the perpetration of the murder several times a strong inclination to commit it; but had always got the cruel thought driven from his mind, till the unhappy night in which he effected it, when he went to bed, but could not rest; that he arose from out of his bed and fell to prayer, in hopes of diverting these thoughts; but so irresistible was the impulse, that he at last went to the house of William Smith armed with a mattock and hatchet, broke open the door with the mattock, and found him asleep in bed, where he struck him several times on the head, but whether with the mattock or hatchet he did not remember; and that afterwards he took the deceased’s purse containing one half guinea, a quarter guinea, about five shillings in silver and sixpence in copper. He declared that his wife was ignorant of the murder and died penitently.

Upleatham’s Big Stone in the old church at Skelton. It marked the spot of a duel where a member of the Smallwood family was killed. It may originally have been a village cross or a graveyard monument.

The old church near Skelton Castle was rebuilt for a third time in 1785. This is the present, now redundant, Church. It was funded by a sizeable donation from John Hall-Stevenson and by selling leases on the pews. The names of many of the subscribers can still be seen, painted on the end walls of the box pews.

The 1785 church is a plain structure. There is also a kind of transept, forming a pew, in the middle of the north wall, with a fireplace at its north end. This pew was reserved for the Skelton Castle family. The triple decker pulpit is opposite the Skelton Castle family pew. The vicar preached from the top pew; lessons from the Bible were read from the middle level, and the parish clerk sat on the lowest tier from where he took a register of the names of those who attended the service. Between 1593 and 1650, it had been a punishable offence to fail to attend an Anglican church, so perhaps the pulpit originated in the second church.

The eighteenth century church prioritised hearing the words of the Bible over Holy Communion at the altar, sol the pews between the pulpit and the chancel arch face backwards. During Communion, these churchgoers had to stand up to face the altar.

The Wharton Era

John Hall Stevenson Junior was the son of Joseph William Hall Stevenson. He changed his surname to Wharton to comply with the terms of a legacy in order to inherit his great-great-aunt Margaret Wharton’s estate at Gilling, near Richmond. He inherited a considerable fortune from his aunt, much of which he spent of demolishing the castle and building his new home.

The castle was thus rebuilt between 1788 and 1817 and later extended to become a country house in the nineteenth century. It was constructed for John Wharton, by then Member of Parliament for Beverley who had inherited the ruined Skelton Castle from his father Joseph in 1786.

Skelton Castle

The present house is built of dressed sandstone with a roof of Lakeland slate. It is a two-storey block with a five bay frontage. It incorporates some remains of the medieval castle.

Practically the whole of the site of the old castle was cleared and the hill on which a keep seems to have once stood was destroyed. Some terraces which overhung the moat were also removed. John Farndale wrote the present Skelton Castle, comparatively speaking, is a modern structure. Nothing now, it is said, remains of the castle in the olden time, nor of the baronial fortress of De Brus. A writer speaking on this subject says that “It was built about 1140, and was a beautiful specimen of antiquity and picturesque loveliness, being nearly surrounded by a deep glen, finely wooded.” In the year 1783, the whole of this beautiful edifice was pulled down, and in its stead, the present castle was erected; but though it may not be thought equal in splendour and beauty to its ancient predecessor, yet standing, as it does, in the centre of sylvan landscapes, which scarcely can be surpassed for loveliness, and being associated with recollections of the chivalrous achievements and illustrious history of the De Bruces, who resided here many years after the Norman conquest, this castle and its environs will always be looked upon with more than usual interest by the antiquarian and the tourist. The present possessor of this large and ancient domain being fond of agricultural pursuits, has been indefatigable in improving the property since he came into possession of it, and no gentleman could have done more than he has towards making the poor of the district comfortable by alloting them portions of land and building them more commodious abodes.

Ord recorded in his History of Cleveland that the old ruined castle had a magnificent tower, and it was described in the Cotton manuscripts as an ancient castle all rent and torn, it seemed rather by the wit and violence of man than by the envy of time. This was its ruinous condition in John Hall Stevenson's time that earned it the title of Crazy Castle.

Later internal alterations were made in 1892 and in 1908.

John Wharton of Skelton Castle was returned as the MP for Beverley, beginning a 40 year association with that East Riding town. It was to lead to his eventual financial downfall. Beverley had the right to send two members to Parliament and it was a nationwide custom to bribe officials and the electorate. The only people allowed to vote were adult males who owned land, so called freemen, and Beverley had an above average number of these, as well as voters who lived outside the area. It became advantageous to have more than two candidates in order to find out who could offer the most in sweeteners. As well as making direct payments to the voters, candidates paid for such things as travel expenses, ribbons, innkeepers fees, musicians, and security guards. The expenditure did not end there. The MP prior to J Wharton paid over £650, including £50 towards flagging the streets in 1786, £20 a year on coal for poor freemen, £10 per year to the master of the grammar school, £25 for the races, and 5 guineas to the Charity school, besides providing a buck and a doe for the mayor’s table. John Wharton must have made an excellent job of this bribery as he received 908 votes from the 1,069 voters, including a high proportion of the working-class and London voters. Wharton was an active Whig with radical views. In Parliament he was a staunch supporter of the abolition of slavery and favoured relief for Roman Catholics and constitutional and Parliamentary reform. His resounding success in the 1790 election gained him a considerable popular following in Beverley and his overt political position led to the development of clear Whig and Tory factions in the town. It was said by the Whig grandees, It is beyond the power of imagination to conceive the popularity of Wharton here … Perhaps it has never happened in the History of Electioneering that out of 1,050 voters 908 should be on one side in favour of our friend and his principles.

John Wharton lost the election in Beverley in 1794 after he disagreed with some of his previous supporters over the war with France. He was made a Captain in the North Riding of Yorkshire Yeoman Cavalry.

The winter of 1794 to 1795 was one of the severest in living memory with hard frosts and snow from December to March. Snow still lay on the Cleveland hills in May. Bad weather conditions had a more serious effect on people’s lives then than today. Most worked in agriculture and were wholly dependant on the land. Fuel was used up. The fact that the country was at war with France added to the problems. There was a shortage of corn, which drove up the price of bread and there were riots in some places. Poaching was rife. The landed classes had always considered that any wildlife that moved across their property belonged to them. From Norman times, and probably long before, any peasant who trespassed on the Lord’s hunting preserve was liable to harsh penalties. To save a family from starvation the risk was often taken in Skelton. In these difficult times the punishments were severe. From 1760 night poachers were liable to 3 to 6 months prison with hard labour and second offenders given 6 to 12 months with a public whipping. From 1782 to 1799 there were only 26 convictions for poaching in the North Riding of Yorkshire.

Despite these harsh punishments it was recorded by October 1780 the game upon the manors of John Wharton of Kilton, Skelton and Brotton was nearly destroyed.

So, in 1800 new legislation made convicted poachers liable to 2 years hard labour and a whipping. Offenders over 12 could be sent for military service.

John Wharton was returned to Parliament in 1799 as the MP for Beverley, coming second in the bye-election which had been caused by the death of the sitting MP. He now stood as an Independent and was opposed by J. B. S. Morritt of Rokeby Park in the North Riding of Yorks. He had mixed success in the elections which followed up to 1826.

Meantime in 1801, the first national census was carried out by house to house enquiry, by the local Overseers of the Poor. The population of England and Wales was estimated to be 9 million. The population of Skelton was 700. There were 317 males and 383 females. There were 167 inhabited houses, with 180 families. 6 houses were uninhabited. 171 people worked in agriculture and 279 in trades. In the 20 years from 1781 to 1801 there were 612 baptisms, 399 burials and 168 marriages.

The Roxby and Cleveland Hounds were formed on 5 June 1817 and John Andrew, the notorious smuggler, and direct ancestor of the author of this website, of the White House, Saltburn Lane was made Master.

A E Pease in The Cleveland Hounds set the scene.

At the Angel Inn at Loftus, on a summer’s afternoon, we may picture John Andrew Snr, Isaac Scarth, Henry Clarke, Henry Vansittart Esq, Thomas Chaloner Esq and the other signatories to the rules then drawn up, sitting with their tumblers of punch, making a treaty.

In 1817, Mr John Andrew was appointed master. The Hounds were taken to Saltburn, then but a fishing hamlet on the sea-shore, where, for more than fifty years, the management was in the hands of the Andrew family. They hunted foxes in the winter, and, with a few of the old Hounds, otters in the summer. A few years after this the Roxby was dropped from the name of the pack, and they became the Cleveland. John Andrew hunted them until 1835, assisted by his son, John Andrew Jun, who took them when his father gave them up. John Jun was master until 1855, when they were taken by his son, Tom, who had them until 1870, having, previous to becoming master, acted as huntsman to his father. Tom, altogether, hunted the Hounds for thirty-three years, having many grand runs, and sometimes hunting when the snow was deep on the ground.

By 1821, the population of Skelton Parish was 1235, as recorded by the local Curate, William Close. Skelton villages’ population was approximately 700.

On 4 August 1821 a most dreadful storm of thunder and lightning occurred at Marske and Skelton in Cleveland. At Skelton Mr Mackereth, surgeon of Guisbrough, was passing from one part of the village to the other, over some fields and in the middle of the pasture was knocked down and laid insensible for two or three minutes. Two women in the adjoining field, making hay, were struck down, but providentially, the whole three have perfectly recovered.

The Topographical Dictionary of Yorkshire by Thomas Langdale of 1822 described Skelton Castle situated on the brink of a large sheet of water, in many places 50 feet deep, which nearly surrounds the castle, except an opening to the south. Skelton was described as in the parish of Skelton, east division of the wapentake and liberty of Langbarugh, Skelton Castle the seat of John Wharton Esq, 3 ½ miles from Guisbrough, 11 ½ from Stokesley, 16 from Stockton, population 700.

Baines Directory for 1823 listed the inhabitants of Skelton, with a population of around 700: Castle: John Wharton MP. Curate: Rev William Close. Attorney: Thomas Nixon. Blacksmiths: Thos Crater, Robert Robinson, William Young. Butchers: William Lawson, Isaac Wilkinson, William Wilkinson. Corn Millers: Robert Watson, William Wilson. Farmers and Yeoman: William Adamson, John Appleton, Thomas Clarke, James Cole, James Colin, William Cooper, Steven Emerson, John Farndale, Robert Gill, William Hall, Edward Hall, Jackson Hardon, William Hutton, Sarah Johnson, William Lockwood, John Parnaby, Thomas Rigg, William Sayer, William Sherwood, John Taylor, William Thompson, Robert Tiplady, William Wilkinson, Richard Wilson. Grocer and Drapers: John Appleton, William Dixon, Ralph Lynass, Thomas Shemelds, John Alater. Flax dresser: McNaughton D. Joiners: William Appleton, Leonard Dixon, Mark Carrick, Joseph Middleton. Schoolmasters: Atkinson M, John Sharp. Shoemakers: Robert Bell, Luke Lewis, Thomas Lowls, George Lynass, Thomas Steele. Stonemasons: Thomas Bryan, John Pattinson. Straw hat makers: Sarah Sarah, Esther Shields. Weavers: Stephen Edelson, Thomas Dawson, John Robinson, Robert Wilson. Land agent: John Andrew. Victuallers: William Bean at Duke William, William Lawson at Royal George. Woodturner: James Crusher. Gamekeeper: Frank Thomas. Plumber and Glazier: William Gowland. Sadler: Thomas Taylor. Shopkeeper: Eliza Wilkinson. Carriers: Marmaduke Wilson - to Guisborough on Tuesday and Friday, departing 8am and returned 4pm; Robert Wilkinson to Stockton on Wednesday and Saturday, departing 4am and return 8pm, to Lofthouse on Monday and Thursday departing 9am and return at 6pm; Letters were brought to Guisborough by coach and thence to Skelton by daily horse post arriving at 10am and mail taken back at 3pm.

John Wharton was defeated in the election at Beverley in 1826 and retired from politics, heavily in debt.

Victorian Skelton

By 1831, the population of Skelton was 781. In the last 30 years its population had increased by 81. The national population about 14 million. The number of females in Skelton was 396. Males numbered 385. Of these 138 were over 20. An entry in the Parish Register for this year recorded 174 Families living in 172 Inhabited houses with 12 uninhabited. There was no current house building. This record further divided these families into 100 employed in Agriculture, 42 in Trade/Manufacture and 24 Others. Agriculture occupiers 1st Class 39, 2nd Class 73 and Labourers 26. Manufacturers – None. Retail trades and Handicraft – 43. Wholesale and Capitalists, Clergy, Office Clerks, Professional and other Educated Men – 1 [presumably the Vicar]. Labourers non Agriculture – 15. All other males over 20 – 1. Male servants 20 and over – 18. Male servants under 20 – 10. Female servants – 22.

The Great Reform Act 1832 extended the right to vote slightly and altered constituencies. Up to this time only about 3 % of householders qualified to vote, based on land ownership. The new rules were still based on wealth and now about 5 % had the vote. Skelton was part of the North Riding of Yorkshire and there were only 4 representatives for the whole County. Up to 1821 this had been only 2.

Voting boundaries in 1832

One of the longest cold periods, beginning January 1837, with temperatures down to -20 at Greenwich, and lasting some 7 to 8 weeks.

In 1841, the Rev J C Atkinson, a local historian, described visiting local cottages.

We then went to two cottage dwellings in the main street. As entering from the street or roadside, we had to bow our heads, even although some of the yard-thick thatch had been cut away about and above the upper part of the door, in order to obtain an entrance. We entered on a totally dark and unflagged passage. On our left was an enclosure partitioned off from the passage by a boarded screen between four and five feet high, and which no long time before had served the purpose originally intended, namely that of a calves’ pen. Farther still on the same side was another dark enclosure similarly constructed, which even yet served the purpose of a henhouse. On the other side of the passage opposite this was a door, which on being opened gave admission to the living room, the only one in the dwelling. The floor was of clay and in holes, and around on two sides were the cubicles, or sleeping boxes – even less desirable than the box beds of Berwickshire as I knew them fifty years ago – for the entire family. There was no loft above, much less any attempt at a ‘chamber’ ; only odds and ends of old garments, bundles of fodder and things of that sort and in this den the occupants of the house were living.

Martin Farndale of full age, bachelor, labourer of Skelton son of George Farndale, labourer married Elizabeth Taylor of full age, spinster of Fogga, Skelton, daughter of James Taylor, farmer at the Parish Church Skelton on 19 February 1842. Elizabeth Taylor was the granddaughter of the smuggler king turned master of the Cleveland Hunt, John Andrew.

On 7 August 1848, the first mine in Cleveland opened in Skinningrove. It was not until August 1850 that Bolckow & Vaughan made a trial of the Main Seam by quarrying near Eston. Soon the workings moved underground, using pillar and stall, and became very large scale with over half a million tons of ironstone was raised annually in the mid 1850s.

John Wharton died childless and in poverty in 1843 without issue and Skelton passed to his nephew, John Thomas Wharton of Gilling.

Skelton Tithes Map 1844

The grave of Martin Farndale (1818 to 1862) in Skelton Old Church yard just to the right as you enter the metal gate.

Skelton in 1857

In 1859 a font in Caen stone was given to the church

The opening of the ironstone mines had caused a large increase in the population since 1871. The mining villages of Boosbeck and North Skelton, to the south and southeast of Skelton village, had stations on the North Eastern railway. Lingdale, further south, was connected by a special line with the Kilton Thorpe branch railway, and Charlton Terrace or Slapewath (Slaipwath) had a tramway running from the mines to the North Eastern railway line which passed it to the north.

The management of the Skelton Park pit in the 1880s

Primitive Methodist chapels and a public elementary school were built in 1881 and enlarged in 1894.

In 1884 a new church, also dedicated to All Saints, was opened in High Street. The font and one of the bells were moved to the new church.

Modern Skelton

John Thomas Wharton died in 1900, his heir being his son William Henry Anthony Wharton, who was Lord of the manor until 1938.

The Victoria County History – Yorkshire, A History of the County of York North Riding described Skelton in 1923: The ancient parish of Skelton, including the townships of Great Moorsholm and Stanghow, covers 11,803 acres, of which 2,219 acres are arable land, 4,657 acres permanent grass and 578 acres woods and plantations. The soil is clay, with a subsoil of Kimmeridge clay, and the chief crops grown are wheat, beans, oats and barley. In the north the parish forms a kind of peninsula between the Skelton and Millholme Becks, which have very steep banks, whence the land slopes downwards, rising again towards the centre and also towards the south of the parish, where there are wide stretches of moorland. The greatest height is about 975 ft. above ordnance datum. Skelton village itself is situated on the northern slope. The whole parish is given up to iron-stone mining, to which the neighbourhood owes its importance.

The older part of the village is that nearest the castle. Boroughgate Lane approaches the western end from the south. The newer village stretches towards the east and is straggling and uneven; in the north-east on high ground is the new church of All Saints. There are Wesleyan and Primitive Methodist chapels about the centre of the village, and in the south is the hospital, with Skelton High Green to the west, and to the east Skelton Green, where there is a public elementary school built in 1887 and enlarged in 1892 and 1900.

New Skelton lies to the east of Skelton and has a school.

Further east is North Skelton, where there is a church mission-room, Primitive Methodist chapel and a Friends' burial ground. Boosbeck lies due south of Skelton village; it was constituted an ecclesiastical parish in 1901 with its church of St. Aidan.

William Henry Anthony Wharton was High Sheriff of Yorkshire in 1925, and on his death in 1938, the estate passed to his daughter Margaret Winsome Ringrose Wharton. She had married Christopher Hildyard Ringrose, a Royal Navy captain, who had added the additional surname of Wharton to that of Ringrose. She lived there until at least 1986, by which time her relative, Major Wharton, actually ran the estate on account of her age.

Skelton in 2016

Return to the Contents Page

or

Go Straight to Chapter 12 – Arrival in Cleveland

Read about Nicholas and Agnes Farndale and William Farndale

Read about Kirkleatham.

You could also read a bit more.

The Skelton-in-Cleveland History by the late Bill Danby, is maintained by the Skelton History Group.

The Cleveland Family History Society is probably more useful for later periods.

You might also be interested in John Walker Ord’s History and Antiquities of Cleveland, 1846. You can get a copy from Yorkshire CD Books.

There is also the History of Cleveland Ancient and Modern by Rev J C Atkinson, Vicar of Danby, 1874, to be found in many libraries.

The History of Cleveland by Rev John Graves, 1808.

The Victoria History, 1923.

Skelton Parish Records – Baptisms – Marriages – Burials

The webpage on Skelton includes a chronology and research notes.