Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for KIRKDALE

KIRKDALE, a parish in Helmsley district, N. R. Yorkshire; averagely on the river Bran, 1¾ mile SW of Kirkby-Moorside, and 8 W by N of Pickering r. station. It contains the townships of Bransdale-West-Side, Skiplam, Muscoates, Welburn, Wombleton, and Nawton; the last of which has a post office under York. Acres, 12, 554. Real property, £7, 866. Pop., 1, 043. Houses, 211. The property is divided among a few. The Bran disappears in a limestone tunnel near the church, but reappears before reaching the Dove. A famous fossilcave, about 30 feet above the Bran's level, about 300 feet long, and at a short distance from the church, was discovered in 1821, at the working of a limestone quarry; and contained, in a layer of mud, and in a comparatively fresh state, bones of hyæna, lion, tiger, bear, wolf, fox, weasel, elephant, rhinoceros, hippotamus, horse, ox, deer, hare, rabbit, water rat, mouse, raven, pigeon, lark, duck, and partridge. Dean Buckland examined the cave soon after the discovery; wrote subsequently his "ReliquiæDiluvianæ;" and was of opinion that the cave had been a den of large beasts of prey, at a time when the surrounding tract was inhabited by what are now intertropical animals. The living is a p. curacy in the diocese of York. Value, £200. Patron, the University of Oxford. The church includes some very early Norman work; has undergone many defacing alterations; consists of nave and chancel, with bell turret; and contains monuments of the Gibsons, the Robinsons, and the Cayleys. A dial is over the S door, with a Saxon inscription, stating that the church was rebuilt in the time of Earl Tosti, which was about the year 1060; and that inscription, though it cannot refer to the church in its present form, undoubtedly refers to it in its original shape. There are two Wesleyan chapels, a national school, and charities £8.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a parish"   (ADL Feature Type: "countries, 4th order divisions")
Administrative units: Kirkdale AP/CP       Yorkshire AncC
Place: Kirkdale

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