Molescroft is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

in the

East Riding of Yorkshire The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a ceremonial county and unitary authority area in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, South Yorkshire to t ...

, England. It is situated approximately north-west of

Beverley Beverley is a market and minster town and a civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, of which it is the county town. The town centre is located south-east of York's centre and north-west of City of Hull. The town is known fo ...

town centre adjoining its northern border. It lies to the north of the

A1174 road List of A roads in zone 1 in Great Britain beginning north of the River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is ...

and is on the eastern slopes of the

Yorkshire Wolds The Yorkshire Wolds are low hills in the counties of the East Riding of Yorkshire and North Yorkshire in north-eastern England. The name also applies to the district in which the hills lie. On the western edge, the Wolds rise to an escarpment wh ...

. The Yorkshire Coast railway line from Hull to

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, su ...

passes through the parish but the nearest station is

. According to the 2011 UK census, Molescroft had a population of 6,820, an increase on the

2001 UK census A nationwide census, known as Census 2001, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday, 29 April 2001. This was the 20th UK census and recorded a resident population of 58,789,194. The 2001 UK census was organised by the Office for National ...

figure of 6,810. This is due to major housing developments in the north and east of the village due to unused

greenfield land Greenfield land is a British English term referring to undeveloped land in an urban or rural area either used for agriculture or landscape design, or left to evolve naturally. These areas of land are usually agricultural or amenity properties ...

, firstly in the late 1990s and secondly, on a smaller scale, in the 2010s. Over 65s make up over 25% of the population, higher than Under 18s. Until the early 1990s, Molescroft was very small, with the majority of the modern village being used as allotments and small farming ventures. However, housing developers saw a large, cheap area of land to place housing for the swiftly expanding

. Within a decade, Molescroft grew from a small agricultural village with a population of a few hundred, to 6,810 in 2001.

History

Molescroft is listed in the ''

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...

'' as in the

Hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to des ...

of Sneculfcros in the East Riding of Yorkshire. The settlement contained two households, two villagers, and two ploughlands. In 1066 Ealdred, Archbishop of York, was the

Lord Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or are ...

, this in 1086 transferred to the canons of

Beverley Minster Beverley Minster, otherwise known as the Parish Church of Saint John and Saint Martin, in Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire, is a parish church in the Church of England. It is one of the largest parish churches in the UK, larger than one-third ...

, and the later Archbishop of York

Thomas of Bayeux Thomas of Bayeux (died 1100) was Archbishop of York from 1070 until 1100. He was educated at Liège and became a royal chaplain to Duke William of Normandy, who later became King William I of England. After the Norman Conquest, the king ...

who was also

Tenant-in-chief In medieval and early modern Europe, the term ''tenant-in-chief'' (or ''vassal-in-chief'') denoted a person who held his lands under various forms of feudal land tenure directly from the king or territorial prince to whom he did homage, as opp ...

to King William I. In 1823 Molescroft was in the parish of Beverley Minster, and the

Wapentake A hundred is an administrative division that is geographically part of a larger region. It was formerly used in England, Wales, some parts of the United States, Denmark, Southern Schleswig, Sweden, Finland, Norway, the Bishopric of Ösel–Wiek, ...

of Harthill. Population at the time was 111, with occupations including four farmers, and the

landlord A landlord is the owner of a house, apartment, condominium, land, or real estate which is rented or leased to an individual or business, who is called a tenant (also a ''lessee'' or ''renter''). When a juristic person is in this position, t ...

of The Wellington

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and wa ...

. Residents included two gentlemen.

Facilities

The parish church that is dedicated to St Leonard was built in 1896, with the addition of a

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ov ...

in 1979 and further additions of a vestry, kitchen and toilets in 2001. Longcroft School is situated in the village although it has a very large catchment area, including Molescroft, northern and eastern

Leconfield Leconfield is a village and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, about north-west of Beverley town centre on the A164 road. The civil parish consists of Leconfield, the village of Arram and the hamlet of Scorborough. The 2011 ...

Cherry Burton Cherry Burton is a village and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is approximately north-west of the market town of Beverley, east of Market Weighton and south west of Driffield. The village lies on the eastern edge of ...

and other surrounding villages. The primary school in the village is Molescroft Primary School, serving Molescroft and Northern

. This school is routinely rated outstanding by Ofsted and is extremely popular. The Molescroft Inn is a late 18th-century

that is now a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. Woodhall Way playing fields are a large green space with a children's play area, skate ramps, an enclosed combined basketball and football pitch and a Pétanque court. Molescroft Pavilion is a community hall and events venue ran by the parish council and also sited on Woodhall Way playing fields.

References

External links

* Villages in the East Riding of Yorkshire Civil parishes in the East Riding of Yorkshire {{EastRiding-geo-stub