Kirkdale, Yorkshire Genealogy

England Yorkshire  North Riding  Kirkdale



Parish History
Kirkdale St Gregory ( with Nawton) is an Ancient Parish in the county of Yorkshire. Other places in the parish include: Bransdale West Side, Bransdale Westside, Muscoates, Nawton, North Holme, Wombleton, Sunley Court, Welburn, Welburn near Helmsley, West Ings, and Skiplam. KIRKDALE (St. Gregory), a parish, in the union of Helmsley, wapentake of Ryedale, N. riding of York, 4¼ miles (E. by N.) from Helmsley; containing, with the townships of Bransdale West Side, Muscoates, Nawton, Skiplam, Welburn, and Wombleton, 1040 inhabitants. This parish, which is about 60 miles in circumference, has no village or township of its own name; the higher parts are mountainous moorland, and the lower a rich and luxuriant valley. Coal-mines are worked, and good limestone is obtained for building and for agricultural purposes. The living is a perpetual curacy; net income, £137; patrons, the University of Oxford; impropriators, John and Francis Barr, Esqrs., lords of the manor of Nawton. There are 3 acres of glebe. The church, which is in Welburn township, in the sequestered and finely-wooded valley of the Hodge beck, has been enlarged at various periods, and contains some Norman portions; the chancel is in the early English style. In the wall over the south door is a stone bearing a Saxon inscription, removed from its original situation, commemorative of the purchase and repairs of St. Gregory's church here, in the reign of the Confessor. At Nawton and Wombleton are places of worship for Wesleyans. In the celebrated Kirkdale Cave, varying from two to five feet in height and breadth, and extending for 300 feet into a solid white rock, various fossil remains of a hyena, elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, and other animals, were found in the year 1820, imbedded in a layer of mud at the bottom of the cave, about one foot thick.

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 697-701. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51083 Date accessed: 29 April 2011.

Civil Registration
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. There are several Internet sites with name lists or indexes. A popular site is FreeBMD.

Church records
To find the names of the neighbouring parishes, use England Jurisdictions 1851. In this site, search for the name of the parish, click on the location "pin", click Options and click List contiguous parishes.

Contributor: Include here information for parish registers, Bishop’s Transcripts, nonconformist and other types of church records, such as parish chest records. Add the contact information for the office holding the original records. Add links to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection.

Census records
Contributor: Include an overview if there is any unique information, such as the census for X year was destroyed. Add a link to online sites for indexes and/or images. Also add a link to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection.

Poor Law Unions
Kirkby Moorside Poor Law Union, Yorkshire

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Yorkshire Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

Maps and Gazetteers
Maps are a visual look at the locations in England. Gazetteers contain brief summaries about a place.


 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Web sites
Contributor: Add any relevant sites that aren’t mentioned above.