Tadcaster is a
market town
A market town is a Human settlement, settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular marketplace, market; this distinguished it from a village or ...
and
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of Parish (administrative division), administrative parish used for Local government in England, local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below district ...
in the
Selby district of
North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by national parks, including most of the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors. It is one of four cou ...
, England, east of the
Great North Road, north-east of
Leeds
Leeds () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the thi ...
, and south-west of
York
York is a cathedral city with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many hist ...
. Its historical importance from Roman times onward was largely as the lowest road crossing-point on the
River Wharfe until the construction of the A64 Tadcaster by-pass some to the south, in 1978. There are two rail crossings downstream of the town before the Wharfe joins the
River Ouse near
Cawood.
Tadcaster is
twinned
Twinning (making a twin of) may refer to:
* In biology and agriculture, producing two offspring (i.e., twins) at a time, or having a tendency to do so;
* Twin towns and sister cities, towns and cities involved in town twinning
* Twinning inst ...
with
Saint-Chély-d'Apcher in France.
The town was part of the
West Riding of Yorkshire
The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county County of York, West Riding (the area under the control of West Riding County Council), abbreviated County ...
until 1974, but is now part of
North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by national parks, including most of the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors. It is one of four cou ...
.
Thanks to its position on the banks of the River Wharfe parts of the town adjacent to the bridge are prone to flooding.
History
Roman
The
Romans built a settlement and named it ''
Calcaria'' from the
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...
word for ''lime'', reflecting the importance of the area's
limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms wh ...
geology
Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ea ...
as a natural resource for
quarry
A quarry is a type of open-pit mining, open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock (geology), rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some juri ...
ing, an industry which continues and has contributed to many notable buildings including
York Minster
The Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Saint Peter in York, commonly known as York Minster, is the cathedral of York, North Yorkshire, England, and is one of the largest of its kind in Northern Europe. The minster is the seat of the Archb ...
. Calcaria was an important staging post that grew at the crossing of the River Wharfe on the road to
Eboracum
Eboracum () was a fort and later a city in the Roman province of Britannia. In its prime it was the largest town in northern Britain and a provincial capital. The site remained occupied after the decline of the Western Roman Empire and ultimate ...
(
York
York is a cathedral city with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many hist ...
).
Anglo-Saxon and medieval
The suffix of the
Anglo-Saxon
The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...
name Tadcaster is derived from the borrowed
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...
word ''castra'' meaning 'fort', although the
Angles and Saxons used the term for any walled Roman settlement. Tadcaster is first mentioned in the ''
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' is a collection of annals in Old English, chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the ''Chronicle'' was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of A ...
'', where it appears as ''Táda'', referring to the place where King Harald assembled his army and fleet before entering York and proceeding onwards to the
Battle of Stamford Bridge
The Battle of Stamford Bridge ( ang, Gefeoht æt Stanfordbrycge) took place at the village of Stamford Bridge, East Riding of Yorkshire, in England, on 25 September 1066, between an English army under King Harold Godwinson and an invading N ...
in 1066. The place-name probably means 'Tata's fort' after an unknown Anglo-Saxon landowner.
The town is mentioned in the 1086 ''
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 manusc ...
'' as "Tatecastre". The record reads:
Two Manors. In Tatecastre, Dunstan and Turchil had eight carucates of land for geld, where four ploughs may be. Now, William de Parci has three ploughs and 19 villanes and 11 bordars having four ploughs, and two mills of ten shillings (annual value). Sixteen acres of meadow are there. The whole manors, five quaranteens in length, and five in breadth. In King Edward's time they were worth forty shillings; now one hundred shillings.
In the 11th century
William de Percy established a
motte-and-bailey
A motte-and-bailey castle is a European fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised area of ground called a motte, accompanied by a walled courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade. Relatively easy to ...
fortress re-using Roman stone. The earthwork remains of this castle, including the
motte
A motte-and-bailey castle is a European fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised area of ground called a motte, accompanied by a walled courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade. Relatively eas ...
(known as Castle Hill) can still be seen adjacent to the parish church and bridge. The castle was abandoned in the early-12th century and was briefly re-fortified with cannon emplacements during the
Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polic ...
. The street plan south of the site reflects the shape of the former bailey.
The original river-crossing was probably a ford near the current bridge, followed by a wooden bridge . Around 1240, the first stone bridge was constructed, possibly from stone reclaimed from the castle. The current bridge was constructed on the foundations of the original c. 1700, although it has been substantially modified at least twice since. Historically, the Wharfe marked the boundary between the
West Riding and the
Ainsty of York.
Civil War
During the
English Civil War
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians ("Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of Kingdom of England, England's governanc ...
, on the morning of Tuesday 7 December 1642 the
Battle of Tadcaster, a skirmish, between
Sir Thomas Fairfax's
Parliamentarian forces and
Sir Thomas Glemham's Royalist
A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of governm ...
army took place on and around
Tadcaster Bridge.
Market
A market has been held since 1270, when
Henry de Percy obtained a royal charter from
King Henry III to hold "a market and fair at his manor of Tadcaster" each Tuesday. The ancient market place is at the junction of Kirkgate and Bridge Street. A stone base, believed to have been part of the original market cross, stood on Westgate where the Tadcaster War Memorial now stands The present-day market is held on Thursdays in the car park of Tadcaster Social Club on St Josephs Street.
Governance
For local government purposes, the River Wharfe divides the town into eastern and western electoral wards. The combined population of Tadcaster East and Tadcaster West in 2004 was 7,280, 3,800 in Tadcaster East and 3,480 in Tadcaster West (source: Office for National Statistics). The local authority is
Selby District Council
Selby is a market town and civil parish in the Selby District of North Yorkshire, England, south of York on the River Ouse, with a population at the 2011 census of 14,731.
The town was historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire until ...
.
Tadcaster gave its name to a much larger rural district council,
Tadcaster Rural District and other administrative areas. This may lead to confusion when comparing the size and extent of the current town with information for earlier periods. For example, the population in 1911 of the Tadcaster sub-district was 6831 compared with that of the Tadcaster Registration District, 32052 (source: A Vision of Britain through time).
Tadcaster also elects a
mayor
In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well as ...
on an annual basis.
Economy
Tadcaster has a long association with the
brewing
Brewing is the production of beer by steeping a starch source (commonly cereal grains, the most popular of which is barley) in water and fermenting the resulting sweet liquid with yeast. It may be done in a brewery by a commercial brewer, ...
industry because of the quality and accessibility of the local water, which is rich in lime sulphate after filtering through Permian limestone. In the right conditions freshwater springs, known locally as ''popple-wells'', still bubble up near St Mary's church in the town. Tax registers from 1341 record the presence of two breweries or brewhouses in the town, one paying 8d in tax and the other 4d. Today Tadcaster is second in importance only to
Burton-upon-Trent as an English brewing centre.
Currently there are three breweries in the town:
The Tower Brewery (Coors, formerly
Bass
Bass or Basses may refer to:
Fish
* Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species
Music
* Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range:
** Bass (instrument), including:
** Acoustic bass gui ...
),
John Smith's and
Samuel Smith's Old Brewery, which is the oldest brewery in Yorkshire and only remaining independent brewery in Tadcaster. A fourth brewery stood by the river on the site of the present central car park.
Despite these large commercial enterprises, Tadcaster exhibits many signs of urban decline, with a large number of empty and derelict properties in the town centre. In part this can be attributed to disputes between the owner of the Samuel Smith's brewery, Humphrey Smith, who is a major landowner in the town, and Selby District Council. There are no major tourist attractions in the town, which has one supermarket and no bank. The closure of the railway station (1964), the reduction of the market and the construction of the A64 Tadcaster bypass (1978), whilst substantially reducing traffic using the Tadcaster Bridge, have all contributed to the decline of footfall and therefore of retailing in the town.
Culture and community
Local newspapers covering Tadcaster include ''
The Press
''The Press'' is a daily newspaper published in Christchurch, New Zealand owned by media business Stuff Ltd. First published in 1861, the newspaper is the largest circulating daily in the South Island and publishes Monday to Saturday. One com ...
'' and the ''
Wetherby News
The ''Wetherby News'' is a local weekly tabloid newspaper published on a Thursday and based in Wetherby, West Yorkshire, England.
The newspaper was founded in 1859 with its offices on the High Street next to the Angel Inn.
The paper's news ed ...
''. The major regional newspaper in the area is ''
The Yorkshire Post
''The Yorkshire Post'' is a daily broadsheet newspaper, published in Leeds in Yorkshire, England. It primarily covers stories from Yorkshire although its masthead carries the slogan "Yorkshire's National Newspaper". It was previously owned by ...
''. The local
BBC radio
Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transm ...
station is
Radio York, and commercial stations include
Greatest Hits Radio York and North Yorkshire and
Capital Yorkshire.
A leisure centre on Station Road provides for a variety of sport activities, and is the base for private sports clubs and a
physiotherapy clinic.
Tadcaster's community swimming pool, which includes a fitness suite, opened in December 1994; run as a charity. At the end of 2007 the pool underwent repairs costing £130,000, reopening in 2008; some fundraising was through a celebrity football match, one side of which was formed from cast in television
soap
Soap is a salt of a fatty acid used in a variety of cleansing and lubricating products. In a domestic setting, soaps are surfactants usually used for washing, bathing, and other types of housekeeping. In industrial settings, soaps are used ...
''
Emmerdale
''Emmerdale'' (known as ''Emmerdale Farm'' until 1989) is a British soap opera that is broadcast on ITV1. The show is set in Emmerdale (known as Beckindale until 1994), a fictional village in the Yorkshire Dales. Created by Kevin Laffa ...
''.
The route of
The White Rose Way
The White Rose Way is a walking trail in England from Leeds, West Yorkshire to Scarborough, North Yorkshire. It was created in 2011 by local author Paul Brown. The walk starts at the foot of the Black Prince Statue in City Square with the fini ...
, a long-distance walk from
Leeds
Leeds () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the thi ...
to
Scarborough, passes through the town.
Jan Dalibor, co-creator of the children's TV puppets
Pinky and Perky, worked as a quarryman at Tadcaster after his arrival as a refugee from
Czechoslovakia
, rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי,
, common_name = Czechoslovakia
, life_span = 1918–19391945–1992
, p1 = Austria-Hungary
, image_p1 ...
.
Tadcaster is twinned with the town of
Saint-Chély-d'Apcher in the Lozère department of southern France.
Landmarks
Breweries
The colossal John Smith's Brewery (1883, with later additions), a notable example of Victorian industrial architecture, stands on the site of John Smith's earlier brewery at the southern end of the High Street. The tall stone chimney and ornate wrought-iron atrium are prominent features and are listed (protected) structures.
Adjacent to these, across the narrow New Street, are the more modest Georgian headquarters of Samuel Smith's Brewery, with a handsome frontage on the High Street.
The Ark
The oldest building in active use in the town , other than the parish church, is the half-timbered building on Kirkgate known as 'The Ark', built in the late 15th century, although it has been enlarged and altered many times since. Two carved heads on its front are thought to represent
Noah
Noah ''Nukh''; am, ኖህ, ''Noḥ''; ar, نُوح '; grc, Νῶε ''Nôe'' () is the tenth and last of the pre-Flood patriarchs in the traditions of Abrahamic religions. His story appears in the Hebrew Bible (Book of Genesis, chapters 5 ...
and his wife , hence the name. The Ark has been a meeting place, a post office, an inn, a butcher's shop, a private house and a museum; it is currently the Town Council offices. In the 17th century it was known as Morley Hall, and was licensed for
Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their na ...
meetings. Some of the so-called
Pilgrim Fathers
The Pilgrims, also known as the Pilgrim Fathers, were the English settlers who came to North America on the '' Mayflower'' and established the Plymouth Colony in what is today Plymouth, Massachusetts, named after the final departure port of Ply ...
are reputed to have planned their voyage to America in the building; an exact replica exists in
Ohio
Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...
, US.
Viaduct
The eleven-arch Tadcaster railway viaduct is above the Wharfe bridge; it was built as part of a projected
York and North Midland Railway (Leeds Extension)
The York and North Midland Railway (Y&NMR) was an English railway company that opened in 1839 connecting York with the Leeds and Selby Railway, and in 1840 extended this line to meet the North Midland Railway at Normanton near Leeds. Its fir ...
line from Leeds to York. Construction of the line was authorised in 1846, and much of the northern section including the viaduct had been completed when the collapse of railway investment in 1849 led to its abandonment. Between 1883 and 1959 the viaduct carried a short branchline servicing a corn mill on the east side of the River Wharfe (Mill Lane area). The viaduct is a Grade II listed building owned by Tadcaster Town Council.
Bridge
The current bridge dates back to around 1700. It is the main transport route connecting the town centre, which is divided by the river, and one of the town's two road crossings, the other being the
A64 bypass bridge. The bridge partially collapsed on 29 December 2015, following flooding.
The collapse fractured a
gas main and prompted the evacuation of hundreds of residents and divided the town in two. In early 2016, Historic England carried out an assessment of the significance of the Grade-II listed bridge to inform its restoration. The bridge was then repaired and widened, and re-opened to traffic on 3 February 2017. The area around the bridge, including the north end of the High Street, the bus station and the Medical Centre were flooded once again in February 2022.
Tadcaster Mere
To the south east of the town centre, towards the village of Oxton, lies Tadcaster Mere. Designated a
Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in 1987, the
mere is at the centre of a former lake basin that extended over an area of about . It was formed during the most recent or
Devensian ice age
An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gre ...
, which ended 10,000 years ago, when Tadcaster was at the southernmost limit of glaciation, by the long, low embankment of debris known as the
Escrick Moraine
A moraine is any accumulation of unconsolidated debris ( regolith and rock), sometimes referred to as glacial till, that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions, and that has been previously carried along by a glacier or ice sh ...
, which is composed of debris left behind by the
Vale of York Glacier. The mere is a site of current palaeontological interest, as it is believed to be the site of the earliest discovery of the
plesiosaur; while unproven, the skeletal fragments found in Tadcaster match the age of those found elsewhere.
Scientific analysis of the mere, in particular
sediment
Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sa ...
ary
pollen
Pollen is a powdery substance produced by seed plants. It consists of pollen grains (highly reduced microgametophytes), which produce male gametes (sperm cells). Pollen grains have a hard coat made of sporopollenin that protects the gametop ...
studies, provides insight into the geological history and makeup of the local environment and allows accurate dating of events before, during and after the Devensian ice age.
Religion
St Mary's Church, on the banks of the Wharfe, was founded around 1150. A wooden building existed before the current church . It was destroyed by the Scots in one of many incursions after the
Battle of Bannockburn
The Battle of Bannockburn ( gd, Blàr Allt nam Bànag or ) fought on June 23–24, 1314, was a victory of the army of King of Scots Robert the Bruce over the army of King Edward II of England in the First War of Scottish Independence. It was ...
in 1318. St Mary's was rebuilt between about 1380 and 1480. Due to repeated flooding a it was dismantled and reconstructed between 1875 and 1877 on foundations raised by , though the tower was left untouched. £8,426 4s 6½d was raised by public subscription for this renovation. In 1897 a new north aisle was added.
Transport
Tadcaster is served by local bus services operating from
Leeds City bus station. The town is a stop on the
Yorkshire Coastliner service, which accesses the Yorkshire Coast. Buses also run to
Wetherby and
Harrogate
Harrogate ( ) is a spa town and the administrative centre of the Borough of Harrogate in North Yorkshire, England. Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the town is a tourist destination and its visitor attractions include its spa wate ...
and to
Sherburn-in-Elmet. On Mondays a bus service runs to and from Selby.
Tadcaster railway station
Tadcaster railway station was on the Harrogate to Church Fenton Line in Tadcaster, North Yorkshire, England.
History
The station opened in 1848 as part of the Harrogate to Church Fenton Line of the York and North Midland Railway. Another lin ...
on the
Church Fenton to Harrogate line
Church may refer to:
Religion
* Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities
* Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination
* Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship
* Chris ...
closed to passengers in January 1964. The nearest railway stations are
Ulleskelf,
Church Fenton and
York railway station which has a wider range of services and is connected to Tadcaster by the Yorkshire Coastliner bus service.
Tadcaster lies on the A64, A659 and A162 main roads, and is about 3 miles east of the A1(M) (Junction 44).
Education
Tadcaster has three
primary school
A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...
s (serving ages 5–11) and a
secondary school (ages 11–18). In the summer 1999 league tables,
Tadcaster Grammar School students obtained the best A Level results in the country for a state comprehensive school. The adult education centre is located in the Grammar School.
Sport
Tadcaster has two main football teams,
Tadcaster Albion and Tadcaster Magnets, Tadcaster Rugby Football Club, Tadcaster Harriers running club and Cyclesense Cycling Club. Tadcaster Tornadoes Basketball Team play in the Leeds Basketball League (Men's). Tadcaster has a swimming team for young people up to the age of 18. (Tadcaster Swim Squad).
References
External links
Town Council and general Tadcaster siteA Vision of Britain through Time: TadcasterTadcaster - community spirit after the floods* ''Considered as part of the Ainsty of York''
* ''Considered as part of the West Riding: the ancient parish was partly in the Ainsty and partly in the West Riding.''
{{authority control
Market towns in North Yorkshire
Civil parishes in North Yorkshire
Populated places established in the 1st millennium
Towns in North Yorkshire