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Richmond
Historical and geographical information
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Dates are in red.
Hyperlinks to other pages are in dark blue.
Headlines are in brown.
References and citations are in turquoise.
Contextual history is in purple.
This
webpage about the Richmond has the
following section headings:
- The
Farndales of Richmond
- Redcar,
overview
- Timeline of
Redcar history
- Gilling West
- Links, texts and books
The Farndales of Richmond
The Richmond Line are the
descendants of William Farndale (FAR00531) 1875
to 1948 who was a farmer of Gillingwood Hall.
Richmond
Richmond is a market town and civil parish in
the district and county of North Yorkshire. It is in the Swaledale
valley, near the River Swale, and on the eastern edge of the Yorkshire Dales
National Park.
The town of Richemont, in Normandy was the
origin of the place name Richmond.
Richmond Timeline
1071
Richmond was founded in 1071 by Alan
Rufus, a Breton nobleman, on lands granted to him by William the Conqueror,
though it was called Hindrelag initially.
1086
In the Domesday Book of 1086, the area
was collected under Yorkshire, the town was in the Gilling Wapentake. After
this, it became the centre for wapentakes in the Honour of Richmond for the
North Riding of Yorkshire.
Richmond Castle was completed in 1086
with a keep and walls encompassing the area now known as the Market
Place.
Richmond was part of the lands of the
earldom of Richmond, which was intermittently held by the Dukes of Brittany
until the 14th century.
1322
Richmond is one of a few settlements
that was spared from being raided by the Scots during The Great Raid of 1322 by
bribing them off.
1399
John V, Duke of Brittany, died in 1399,
and Henry IV took possession.
1453
In 1453, the earldom was conferred on
Edmund Tudor, and it was merged with the crown when Edmund's son became King
Henry VII in 1485. During the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, the Covenanter Army
led by David Leslie, Lord Newark, took over the castle, and conflict ensued
between local Catholics and Scottish Presbyterians.
1608
In 1608, Robert Willance
became the first alderman of Richmond. Two years before that in 1606, whilst
hunting on the nearby Whitcliffe Scar, the horse Willance
was riding became nervous when thick mist descended, bolting over the edge and falling over 200 feet to the valley floor, Willance survived this fall with a broken leg and erected a
monument on top of the cliff as a show of gratitude for his survival. Willance died in 1616.
Eighteenth century
The prosperity of the medieval town and
centre of the Swaledale wool industry greatly
increased in the late 17th and 18th centuries with the burgeoning lead mining
industry in nearby Arkengarthdale. It is from this
period that the town's Georgian architecture originates, the most notable
examples of which are to be found on Newbiggin and in Frenchgate.
1830
One of Europe's first gas works was
built in the town in 1830.
1857
1877
A permanent military presence was
established in the town with the completion of Richmond Barracks in 1877.
1915
During the First World War, Richmond's
own Green Howards Regiment raised 24 battalions for the war effort, the castle
assumed a role as a barracks and training camp for new recruits and members of
the Non-Combatant Corps, in 1915, the first troops occupied the area south of
Richmond in what was to become Catterick Camp, the planning of which was
commissioned by Lord Baden Powell during his residence at the town's barracks.
1916
In 1916, a group of
"absolutist" conscientious objectors known as the Richmond Sixteen
were held at the castle after refusing to undertake even non-combatant military
duties. After being transported to France, they were court-martialled and formally
sentenced to be executed by firing squad, but this sentence was immediately
commuted to ten years' penal servitude, and the men were eventually released in
1919.
Richmond Castle's 19th-century cell
block continued to be used to house prisoners into the Second World War.
1927
In June 1927, Richmond was a centre line
of totality during a solar eclipse, the event is marked with a plaque at the
top of Reeth Road.
Gilling West
Gilling West is a village about 3.5 miles
north of Richmond in the Richmondshire district
of North Yorkshire. It is located in
the civil parish of Gilling with Hartforth
and Sedbury.
Anglo Saxon period
Gilling was once a place of some importance in
the Anglo-Saxon period of British history. In the 7th century it was
a seat of the Deira in the southern region of the Anglican kingdom
of Northumbria.
The Victoria County History – Yorkshire, A History of the County of
York North Riding: Volume 1 The wapentake of Gilling West, 1914: Gilling was always said to have been the Ingetlingum of Bede, where Oswiu king of Deira was slain by
Oswi king of Bernicia; but the scene of Oswiu's death
and the site of the expiatory monastery raised by Eanfled
has now been shown to be Collingham, 6 miles from Barwick in Elmet in the West
Riding.
Gilling was, however, the chief seat of Edwin
Earl of Mercia, and possibly for a time the head of the castlery
(castellaria) of Count Alan, though the day of its
greatness was already over in the 12th century; this stronghold may have stood
on 'Castle Hill.'
A quarter of a mile beyond the parish boundary
is Scotch Corner, and the earthwork which is to be seen
south of the village, and again for nearly half a mile to the north, is known
as Scot's Dike. From Scotch Corner a branch of Watling Street cuts through the
north of Gilling parish on its way to Barnard Castle. It skirts the extensive
woods of fir, pine and larch adjoining Sedbury Park
and Hall, and crosses the road that runs from Richmond to Lucy Cross through
Gilling. At this point the land reaches a height of 605 ft., and a fine view is
commanded over Gatherley Moor (now cultivated land)
to the north; Gilling lies 300 ft. below in the valley, with the woods and
hills of Aske to the south. Further on the Roman road is crossed by the high
road that runs from Richmond to Staindrop through
Gilling. The hamlet of Hartforth lies in a
well-wooded valley by Hartforth Beck. Jagger Lane,
one of the oldest roads in the country, connects the Hartforth
lead mines with Watling Street. A road runs from South Cowton through North
Cowton to Yarm, and is joined at Atley Hill by the
road from Catterick Bridge to Yarm.
Ninth century
From the 9th century, the surrounding area known
as Gillingshire was ruled by the Earls
of Mercia, specifically Edwin, who was the last of the Earls to have a
seat of power at Gilling. In April 1976 nine-year-old Garry Fridd
found a sword in the beck while playing close to the
bridge in Gilling. It turned out to be a double-edged, iron-bladed sword with a
silver-decorated handle, dating from the 9th century. It is regarded as being
amongst the best Anglian weapons ever to be discovered in England. The restored Gilling
sword is in the collection of the Yorkshire Museum in York.
1086
Gilling was mentioned in the Domesday
Book under the name of Ghellinges.
before the Norman Conquest saw Edwin's lands given to William
the Conqueror's kinsman, Alan Rufus. There were 16 villagers, 3 freemen
and 6 smallholders and the tenant-in-chief was Count Alan of Brittany.
The parish church is dedicated to St Agatha. The
Domesday Book records a place of worship in the village as of 1086. The Church of England website comments that "it is mentioned in the
Domesday Book and parts of St Agatha’s date back to this period".
The Victoria County History – Yorkshire, A History of the County of
York North Riding: Volume 1 The wapentake of Gilling West, 1914: Gilling, which passed at
the Conquest from the Saxon Earl Edwin to Count Alan, was at the time of the
Domesday Survey the chief manor in the district afterwards called Richmondshire. Count Alan held the vill
of 4 carucates in demesne. The berewicks of Hartforth, Newton, the two Cowtons,
Eryholme, Hale, Stapleton, Forcett and Barforth and the soke of Moulton, Barton, Eppleby, Cliff, Carlton, Barforth,
Ovington, Girlington, Wycliffe, Thorp, Mortham,
Egglestone, Brignall, Scargill, Barningham, East and West Layton, Manfield,
Hutton and Stanwick were appurtenant to this manor. Count Alan had a 'castlery' of 199 'manors', Gilling perhaps the head, but he
soon made Richmond his chief seat and the head of his honour.
Gilling lost all its old importance,
but continued to be held by the lords of Richmond in demesne until the
attainder of Richard Earl of Warwick, (fn. 18) when it ceased to be a member of
the honour of Richmond.
1190
The Victoria County History – Yorkshire, A History of the County of
York North Riding: Volume 1 The wapentake of Gilling West, 1914: The church of St Agatha
has developed from an early aisleless nave about 37 ft. by 18 ft. 6 in., with a
chancel probably 16 ft. wide and a west tower oblong in plan, measuring 12 ft.
by 9 ft. within the walls, its east wall being built beyond and not over the
west wall of the nave. Of this building the tower and parts of the nave walls
still stand and date, perhaps, from the end of the 11th century. The present
chancel has been so much refaced and renewed that its history is doubtful, but
a blocked 12th-century arch at the west end of its north wall proves the former
existence of an aisle or chapel here. In the 14th century a vaulted vestry was
added to it at the north-east and about the same time a good deal was being
done to the nave. The present chancel arch, south aisle and arcade were then
built and a few years later an aisle was built on the north side; in each case
the aisles were continued westward beyond the old west wall of the nave and the
space between the old and new west walls filled in, forming great blocks of
masonry on each side of the tower arch. If any older aisles existed there is
now nothing to prove it. In the 15th or 16th century the tower was heightened and the old belfry windows blocked up, and
windows were inserted in different parts of the church. In 1845 a second north
aisle was added, and the church now consists of a chancel 33 ft. by 14 ft., a
north-east vestry 14 ft. by 7 ft. with a modern extension westward, a nave 37
ft. by 20 ft., a west tower 14 ft. by 10 ft., a south aisle 43 ft. by 12 ft.
with a porch which has been rebuilt, and two north aisles 43 ft. by 20 ft. and
43 ft. by 9 ft. 6 in. respectively.
The registers begin about 1568.
Fourteenth century
The Victoria
County History – Yorkshire, A History of the County of York North Riding:
Volume 1 The wapentake of Gilling West, 1914: Gilling parish in the 14th century included the present parishes
of Forcett, Hutton Magna, South Cowton and Eryholme,
besides the chapelries of Barforth and Mortham.
1475
The Victoria County History – Yorkshire, A History of the County of
York North Riding: Volume 1 The wapentake of Gilling West, 1914: It was granted in 1475
to Richard Duke of Gloucester, afterwards Richard III, and in 1495 to John
Norton of Norton Conyers, representative of the lords of the adjoining vill of Hartforth, and his heirs.
1569
The Victoria County History – Yorkshire, A History of the County of
York North Riding: Volume 1 The wapentake of Gilling West, 1914: The Nortons held Hartforth and Gilling Manors until Richard Norton, one of
the ringleaders of the rising in the north, lost his lands by attainder in 1569.
1571
Sir William Fairfax’s household books for 1571
to 1582 indicate the significant administrative task to manage an Elizabethan
household. Sir
William Fairfax (1531 to 1 November 1597), of Gilling Castle and Walton,
Yorkshire, was an English politician. He was the eldest son of Sir Nicholas
Fairfax of Gilling, who he succeeded in 1571.
1572
The Victoria County History – Yorkshire, A History of the County of
York North Riding: Volume 1 The wapentake of Gilling West, 1914: The site of the manor was
in 1572 leased to William Stockdale for twenty-one years, the manorial rights
being reserved; and the manor was finally granted to Robert Bowes, a younger
son of Richard Bowes of South Cowton, who was treasurer of Berwick and
ambassador to Scotland for nearly twenty-one years, and died in 1597.
1609
The Victoria County History – Yorkshire, A History of the County of
York North Riding: Volume 1 The wapentake of Gilling West, 1914: His son Ralph in 1609 sold it to Humphrey
Wharton, from whom it has descended to the present owner, Mr. William Henry
Anthony Wharton of Skelton Castle.
1750
Gillingwood Hall is a late eighteenth to early nineteenth
century farmhouse with a reused early eighteenth century doorcase. It was owned
by the Wharton family. The name of the farm comes from the mansion of the
Wharton family (Old Gillingwood Hall), which burned
down in 1750, and part of the site of which is occupied by the farmhouse.
1914
The Victoria
County History – Yorkshire, A History of the County of York North Riding:
Volume 1 The wapentake of Gilling West, 1914:
The Wapentake of Gilling
West includes the parishes of Arkengarthdale;
Barningham; Bowes; Brignall; Easby; Forcett; Gilling; Hutton Magna or Hutton Longvilliers; Kirkby Ravensworth; Marrick; Marske;
Melsonby; Rokeby with Egglestone Abbey; Romaldkirk;
Stanwick St. John; Startforth; Wycliffe.
The area of the present parish is 2,072 acres of
land, more than half of which is laid down to permanent grass, and 6 acres of
land covered by water. In 1810 300 acres of land were enclosed in Gilling. The
subsoil is Yoredale Rocks with alluvium near Dalton
and Gilling Becks. Eryholme is on Keuper Marl.
The village of Gilling lies at the bottom of the
valley between Gatherley Moor and the moors and hills
to the west. It extends along the Melsonby and Richmond road,
which is here crossed by Gilling Beck. The village street is still partly
cobbled. At the north end of the village the road turns up the valley and leads
to Hartforth. About 1¼ miles distant is Hartforth Hall, a modern house built in the classical
style, with the remains of a chapel in the grounds. … At the north end of the village, about a
mile up a by-road running south-east, is Sedbury
Hall, the seat of the lords of Sedbury Manor. Behind
it the land sloping up towards the north forms a large and well-wooded park….
Links, texts and books