Arthington - Leeds District - West Yorkshire

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Exploring Arthington, West Yorkshire

Introduction

This is a study based on maps and whatever information can be gathered from books and websites, illustrated by Geograph photographs and links to Google Street View and other websites. Part of West Brearey was transferred to Bramhope CP at some time after 1851, perhaps when civil parishes were formed in 1866. East Brearey was a hamlet of Adel cum Eccup township. This article includes only the part of West Brearey that is in the modern civil parish of Arthington.

History

Arthington was listed in Domesday Book, held by Richard de Surdeval from the Count of Mortain. Before the Conquest the manor was held by Alweard. It was 1 league (3 miles) long by 4 furlongs broad and contained ploughland, meadow and wood pasture. It was divided into smaller holdings at an early date. West Breary was a hamlet (but see note 2 above), and Creskeld might have been, as it was a separate manor described as a vill in the 13C and in the 15C. There were two forges in the park of Creskeld in 1352, but in Pool township; Pool and Creskeld manors were in the same ownership in 1508, so the park might have extended over the township boundary. In a later agreement of 1395 permission was given to use trees in Creskeld Wood, presumably for the making of charcoal as fuel for the forges, and a channel was to be made to convey water to a water-wheel. (Faull and Moorhouse 1981). It would seem likely that the forge was adjacent to the watercourse that runs along the parish boundary to the west of Creskeld Hall. The 1851 map gives Kirkskil instead of Creskeld, and Jefferys's map shows 'Kers Kilns'. Could this name be from 'kilns' meaning furnaces?
Arthington was a township of the ancient parish of Adel, in Skyrack wapentake. It became a civil parish in the West Riding of Yorkshire in 1866, lost an area to Leeds in 1937 and was absorbed by Leeds Metropolitan District in 1974. It became an ecclesiastic parish in 1865 but the church is no longer used by the Church of England.

Geography

Arthington consists of the south side of Wharfedale between the civil parishes of Pool and Harewood. The underlying rock of the Millstone Grit series, which is quarried at Arthington Bank and Black Hill, the latter in West Brearey. There are large areas of flat farmland on the alluvium beside the river; some of this is washland, and subject to periodic flooding. There might once have been a lake here, dammed by a moraine following the last glacial period.
The A659 road from Otley to Tadcaster forms the spine of the road system, following the river on the south side. The village is not nucleated, but is strung out along the main road. The Leeds to Harrogate railway cuts across the valley at right-angles, joined by the abandoned branch to Otley, which continued to Burley-in-Wharfedale where it joined the Bradford to Ilkley line.
The population in 2001 was 561.

Maps consulted

Thomas Jefferys's map of Yorkshire at 1/mile, published in 1775
The OS First Edition 6 inches/mile map ('the 1850 map')
The late 19C or early 20C 1:2500 map on the National Library of Scotland website.
Large scale mapping on the Historic England Map Search.

Websites consulted

Historic England Mapsearch for architectural information. Links to the latter are provided where there is a photograph that does not duplicate one on the geograph site.
The various roads have been viewed using Google Street View.

Books consulted

Ed. M.L.Faull and S.A.Moorehouse, West Yorkshire: and Archaeological Survey to AD 1500, West Yorkshire MCC 1981
Nikolaus Pevsner and Enid Radcliffe, The Buildings of England – Yorkshire, West Riding, 1967
Guide to the Local Adminstration Units of England, Volume 2, Frederic A Youngs, Jr., 1991
Domesday Book, A Complete Translation, Penguin Classics, 2003

Links to web pages with images

Where there is no Geograph image for a location I have included links to Google Street View and Historic England. The images on Street View are interactive and you can rotate or move the view or choose a different date (where available). If the links become out-of-date and no longer work you can, of course, open up the websites and search for the location or listed building just as I have done. Note that it is best to press the shift key whilst clicking on the links so that they open in a new window, which can be closed when finished with. Otherwise the 'back' button often takes you back to the top of the page rather than where you were.

Geograph maps

I have inserted small maps showing the ends or centres of each road or path. For the location of the photographs see the map on the image pages, and click on this map to get the interactive map so that you can change to the 1:25000 scale and follow the various roads and paths. LinkSE2644

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