Wighill 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 authority ...

in the

Harrogate district The Borough of Harrogate is a local government district with borough status in North Yorkshire, England. Its population at the census of 2011 was 157,869. Its council is based in the town of Harrogate, but it also includes surrounding towns and v ...

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 near the

River Wharfe The River Wharfe ( ) is a river in Yorkshire, England originating within the Yorkshire Dales National Park. For much of its middle course it is the county boundary between West Yorkshire and North Yorkshire. Its valley is known as Wharfedale. ...

and east of

Wetherby Wetherby () is a market town and civil parish in the City of Leeds district, West Yorkshire, England, close to West Yorkshire county's border with North Yorkshire, and lies approximately from Leeds City Centre, from York and from Harrogat ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

. The village has one public house, the White Swan Inn, which reopened in 2009 after a two-year closure.

Uhtred the Bold Uhtred of Bamburgh (sometimes Uchtred); died c. 1016), was ruler of Bamburgh and from 1006 to 1016 the ealdorman of Northumbria. He was the son of Waltheof I, ruler of Bamburgh (Bebbanburg), whose family the Eadwulfings had ruled the surrou ...

was murdered here in 1016.

History

In 1016, Uhtred was slain at a place called ''Wicheal'' by Cnut and a band of several men who had lain in wait for Uhtred. Several people have suggested that Wicheal is wighill. The village is mentioned 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 manusc ...

as belonging to

Geoffrey Alselin ''Geoffrey Alselin'' was an Anglo-Norman, who at some time after the Norman conquest of England received Elvaston, Derbyshire and Laxton, Nottinghamshire. Alselin began the construction of the motte-and-bailey castle that stood at Laxton, Nottingh ...

, and having 18 villagers and nine ploughlands. The name of the village is recorded as deriving from the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

''wic-halh'', a ''nook of land with a dairy farm''. The south end of the parish borders a meander of the River Wharfe. The old township was sometimes referred to as ''Wighill-cum-Esedyke'', a reference to a place called Easdyke just west of the village, which had a drain into the river. One of the descendants of the Stapleton family recorded his belief that the name could be derived from ''Battle-hill'', but that it was more likely to have meant ''a village set on a hill overlooking the windings'' f the River Wharfe The village was historically in 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, C ...

of Ainsty, and formerly it was in 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 ...

. It was moved into North Yorkshire with the 1974 county boundary changes. Wighill Park, to the north-west of the village, was historically the county seat of the Stapleton family, but by the 19th century, it had been sold on. The Church of All Saints, the

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

place of worship in the village, is a

grade I listed 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 ...

building which has 12th and 15th century origins. A vicarage and tithes were first recorded for Al Saints in the year 1288. The pub in the village was closed in 2007, and re-opened in 2009. It also serves as the local polling station on various voting days.

Governance

The village is now in the Harrogate District of North Yorkshire, and is in the Selby and Ainsty for national government purposes.

Notable people

* John Dawson (1871–1948), cricketer *

Thomas de Mowbray, 4th Earl of Norfolk Thomas de Mowbray, 4th Earl of Norfolk, 2nd Earl of Nottingham, 8th Baron Segrave, 7th Baron Mowbray (17 September 1385 – 8 June 1405), English nobleman and rebel, was the son of Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk, and Lady Elizabeth Fi ...

, lord of Wighill in the late 14th century, beheaded in York in 1405 *

Bryan Stapleton Sir Bryan Stapleton KG (c. 1322 – 1394) was an English medieval knight from Yorkshire. Life He was the younger brother of Sir Miles Stapleton and the third son of Sir Gilbert Stapleton (died 1321) and his wife, Agnes (or Matilda; 1297/8–1 ...

, a knight who bought the estate at Wighill in 1376 *

Philip Stapleton Sir Philip Stapleton of Wighill and of Warter-on-the-Wolds, Yorkshire (1603 – 18 August 1647) was an English Member of Parliament, a supporter of the Parliamentary cause during the English Civil War. His surname is also sometimes spelt Stapylton ...

(1603–1647),

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

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 England's governance and issues of re ...

*Rev.

George Walker George Walker may refer to: Arts and letters * George Walker (chess player) (1803–1879), English chess player and writer *George Walker (composer) (1922–2018), American composer * George Walker (illustrator) (1781–1856), author of ''The Co ...

, 1618–1690, fought in the

Battle of the Boyne The Battle of the Boyne ( ga, Cath na Bóinne ) was a battle in 1690 between the forces of the deposed King James II of England and Ireland, VII of Scotland, and those of King William III who, with his wife Queen Mary II (his cousin and ...

in Ireland, and died on the battlefield.

Location grid

References

Sources

* *

External links

* {{authority control Villages in North Yorkshire Civil parishes in North Yorkshire