Product Code Database
Coxwold is a village and civil parish in the county of North Yorkshire, England, in the North York Moors National Park. It is 18 miles north of York and is where the Rev. Laurence Sterne wrote A Sentimental Journey.
The village is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as part of the Yarlestre hundred by the name of Cucvalt. The lord of the manor at the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066 was Kofse but the manor passed to Hugh, son of Baldric, and thence to Roger de Mowbray. Before 1158 the manor and lands of Coxwold passed to Thomas de 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 proudly displayed at one of the roof intersections in the twelfth-century Norman church in Coxwold. Yearsley: A Genealogical Story Part 1: The Early Years
Successive generations of Colvilles held the estate and lands of Coxwold until 1405 when the eighth Thomas Colville was murdered, probably on the instructions of Richard le Scrope, Archbishop of York, who, in turn, 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.
While in possession of the Coxwold estate the Colville family made generous grants to Byland Abbey and Newburgh Priory but 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.
In 1304 the fifth Sir Thomas Colville 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.
The seventh Sir Thomas Colville (of Yearsley and Coxwold) became famous following a jousting incident before the Battle of Crécy 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, the third son of Edward III and by far the richest noble in England.
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. 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.
From 1974 to 2023 it was part of the district of Hambleton, it is now administered by the unitary North Yorkshire Council.
A new Coxwold village website was launched in 2018.
According to the 1881 UK Census the population was 313. The 2001 UK Census put the population of the wider civil parish at 265.
The nearest villages to Coxwold are Husthwaite to the south-west, Carlton Husthwaite to the west, Kilburn to the north-west, Wass to the north-east and Oulston to the south-south-east. Ordnance Survey
Green's Beck runs south-westwards through the village to join Mill Beck, form Elphin Beck and eventually flow into the River Swale.
Sir George Orby Wombwell, 4th Baronet and the last surviving officer of the Charge of the Light Brigade, is buried in the village churchyard. In more recent times the village was the home to the Coxwold Pottery, run by Peter & Jill Dick.
To the north of the village are the ruins of Byland Abbey, a Grade I listed building, which was founded in the 12th century by Savigniac monks.
In the village is Bell House, almshouses dating from 1662, and The Old Hall, a former school built about 1600.
|
|
