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Layerthorpe is a village in the unitary authority area of the
City of York The City of York is a unitary authority area with city status in the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, England. The district's main settlement is York, and it extends to the surrounding area including the town of Haxby and the villages of ...
,
North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by National parks of the United Kingdom, national parks, including most of ...
, England. It is outside the city walls of York. The road through Layerthorpe from the bridge over the
River Foss The River Foss is in North Yorkshire, England. It is a tributary of the River Ouse. It rises in the Foss Crooks Woods near Oulston Reservoir close to the village of Yearsley and runs south through the Vale of York to the Ouse in the centre of ...
to Heworth is also shares the same name.


Origin of the name

York historian Francis Drake suggested in his ''Eboracum'' (1736) that the first part of the name referred to a resting-place (or "lair") used by
deer Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the re ...
on the edge of the Forest of Galtres. The second part ( "thorpe") is a placename suffix used within the
Danelaw The Danelaw (, also known as the Danelagh; ang, Dena lagu; da, Danelagen) was the part of England in which the laws of the Danes held sway and dominated those of the Anglo-Saxons. The Danelaw contrasts with the West Saxon law and the Mercian ...
for small settlements adjacent to larger ones. The earliest known reference (in a charter of 1184–9) calls the village "Leirthorp".


History

After
William the Conqueror William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first House of Normandy, Norman List of English monarchs#House of Norman ...
created a dam in the
River Foss The River Foss is in North Yorkshire, England. It is a tributary of the River Ouse. It rises in the Foss Crooks Woods near Oulston Reservoir close to the village of Yearsley and runs south through the Vale of York to the Ouse in the centre of ...
in 1069 to create a moat around
York Castle York Castle is a fortified complex in the city of York, England. It consists of a sequence of castles, prisons, law courts and other buildings, which were built over the last nine centuries on the south side of the River Foss. The now-ruined ...
, the river flooded in the Layerthorpe area, forming a large lake that would become known as the "King's Pool" (or "King's Fishpool"). The King's Pool became an integral part of the city's defences during the Middle Ages – this explains the absence of defensive wall in the area today – and was well known for its abundance of fish. The fourteenth-century Layerthorpe Bridge, a crossing of the Foss, adjacent to the King's Pool, was once attached to a
postern A postern is a secondary door or gate in a fortification such as a city wall or castle curtain wall. Posterns were often located in a concealed location which allowed the occupants to come and go inconspicuously. In the event of a siege, a postern ...
in the city wall, known as Layerthorpe Postern. In 1829, the bridge was rebuilt, and the Postern and a short section of wall were demolished. In 1926, the bridge was widened again, and in the 1990s it was completely rebuilt on a different alignment. Layerthorpe bridge led to the village of Layerthorpe on the road, now called Layerthorpe, which runs from York to the suburb of Heworth. There was a medieval church (St. Mary's, Layerthorpe), which was built about fifty yards from the bridge in the fourteenth century or earlier. The church was closed in 1549, and the parish was united with that of St. Cuthbert's, Peasholme Green, in 1586. The church has disappeared, although its foundations were temporarily uncovered in 1920. Meanwhile, the King's Pool declined, as silt from upriver collected and there was not enough water coming down to move it on. In the eighteenth century, the waters were so low that marshy islands had begun to appear, giving the area the additional name of Foss Islands, and during the summer months the river smelled foul and was mostly dry and stagnant. At the end of the eighteenth century, the Foss was canalised and the Pool disappeared. In 1854, the area was drained and Foss Islands Road (now part of the York Inner Ring Road) was constructed between Layerthorpe Bridge and Walmgate Bar. In 1824, the York Gas Light Company began production on a site between Layerthorpe and
Monkgate Monkgate is a street in York, North Yorkshire running north-east from the city centre. History The street roughly follows the line of a Roman road from Eboracum to Derventio. Its starting point was the Porta Principalis Sinistra of the Roman ...
. This was expanded in 1885, and a siding from the Foss Islands Branch Line was constructed to serve it. The Branch Line had been opened in 1880 to serve the cattle-market at Walmgate Bar and to provide facilities for freight traffic, including deliveries of coal and, later, sand for bottle-making, on the eastern side of the city. On Foss Islands Road, just south of Layerthorpe Bridge, York Corporation built a
power station A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid. Many ...
and refuse destructor in the 1890s, again with sidings off the Branch Line. The 55 metres octagonal brick chimney from the refuse destructor has been preserved and was listed as Grade II in 1983. York (Layerthorpe) railway station, the northern terminus of the
Derwent Valley Light Railway The Derwent Valley Light Railway (DVLR) (also known as The Blackberry Line) was a privately owned standard-gauge railway in North Yorkshire, England, and was unusual in that it was never nationalised, remaining as a private operation all its ...
(DVLR) which connected with the Foss Islands Branch, opened in 1913. It was located on Hallfield Road.


Layerthorpe today

All the railway lines in the Layerthorpe area had been closed by 1989, and the route of the DVLR and part of the Branch Line is now a footpath and cycle-path. The Branch Line's sidings and the Corporation's premises have been replaced by a variety of industrial and retail units (and increasingly, residential). No trace of the railway station remains, and Hallfield Road, a through-route to the A1079 since 2007, contains much recent housing. New buildings are also beginning to appear on the
gasworks A gasworks or gas house is an industrial plant for the production of flammable gas. Many of these have been made redundant in the developed world by the use of natural gas, though they are still used for storage space. Early gasworks Coal ...
site.


References

* * * *{{cite web , first=Claire , last=MacRae , title=Character area 52: Layerthorpe , url=https://www.york.gov.uk/downloads/file/1149/area-52-layerthorpe , publisher=City of York Council , access-date=16 August 2021 , date=November 2013


External links


Victoria County History page with details of St. Mary's Church
Villages and areas in the City of York