Skipwith 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 ...

about north-east of

Selby 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 ...

and south-east of

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

in the

Selby District Selby District is a local government district of North Yorkshire, England. The local authority, Selby District Council, is based in the town of Selby. The Local Authority had a population of 83,449 at the 2011 Census. The southernmost distr ...

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. Until the 1974 local government reorganisation Skipwith was part of 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 ...

Manor

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 ...

records that by 1086 Robert de Stutville held a

carucate The carucate or carrucate ( lat-med, carrūcāta or ) was a medieval unit of land area approximating the land a plough team of eight oxen could till in a single annual season. It was known by different regional names and fell under different forms ...

of land at Skipwith. His family held a manor here until 1229, when it passed to Hugh Wake by his marriage to Joan de Stutville. In 1325 it passed to

Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent (5 August 130119 March 1330), whose seat was Arundel Castle in Sussex, was the sixth son of King Edward I of England, and the second by his second wife Margaret of France, and was a younger half-brother o ...

by his marriage to

Margaret Wake, 3rd Baroness Wake of Liddell Margaret Wake, ''suo jure'' 3rd Baroness Wake of Liddell and Countess of Kent (c. 1297 – 19 September 1349), was the wife of Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent, the youngest surviving son of Edward I of England and Margaret of France.Marsh ...

. It remained with his heirs until 1418, a decade after their line became extinct with the death of

Edmund Holland, 4th Earl of Kent Edmund Holland, 4th Earl of Kent, 5th Baron Holand, KG (6 January 1383 15 September 1408) was the Earl of Kent from 1400 to 1408. He was the 106th Knight of the Order of the Garter in 1403. Edmund was born in Brockenhurst, Hampshire, the second ...

in 1408.

Churches

Church of England

The oldest parts of the Church of England parish church of Saint Helen are Saxon. The west tower began as a porch, but in the 11th century upper stages were added to turn it into a tower. The tower is linked with the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

by a characteristic Saxon plain Romanesque round arch, so the

must also have originally been Saxon. A

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

north

aisle An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, certain types of buildings, such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, par ...

of two bays was added to the nave in about 1190, linked with the nave by an

arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware ** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board * Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games * ...

of pointed arches. This was followed by the south aisle, whose

has octagonal columns. The nave and aisles were then extended eastwards with the addition of a third bay. The present

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 ...

was built about 1300. It is lofty and has large, square-headed windows with

Decorated Gothic English Gothic is an architectural style that flourished from the late 12th until the mid-17th century. The style was most prominently used in the construction of cathedrals and churches. Gothic architecture's defining features are pointed ar ...

tracery. The chancel windows were glazed with

medieval stained glass Medieval stained glass is the coloured and painted glass of medieval Europe from the 10th century to the 16th century. For much of this period stained glass windows were the major pictorial art form, particularly in northern France, Germany and ...

, fragments of which survive. In the 15th century the tower was raised again with the addition of a new bell-stage above the 11th-century Saxon one. In the 16th century, possibly after the English Reformation, a clerestory was added to the nave and new square-headed windows were inserted in the north aisle. In 1821–22 the Gothic Revival south porch was added, and in 1877 the church was carefully restored under the direction of

John Loughborough Pearson John Loughborough Pearson (5 July 1817 – 11 December 1897) was a British Gothic Revival architect renowned for his work on churches and cathedrals. Pearson revived and practised largely the art of vaulting, and acquired in it a proficiency ...

. Notably, the south door was replaced but re-using its original 13th-century ironwork. St Helen's is now a

Grade I 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 ...

. St Helen's parish is now part of a joint benefice with the parish of

Bubwith Bubwith is a village and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The village is situated about north-east of Selby, and south-east of York. It is situated on the east bank of the River Derwent, west of which is the Selby Dis ...

with Ellerton and Aughton. The Methodist Church, York Road, Skipwith - geograph

Methodist

Two families in Skipwith were Methodists by 1764. The village's Methodists worshipped in each other's homes until 1833, when a Wesleyan Methodist chapel was built. In the 1860s the Vicar of St Helen's claimed that 300 or 400 of the villagers were Methodists. In 1876 the first chapel was replaced with a larger brick one next to the parish school. The chapel is now Skipwith Methodist Church. It is a member of the

Goole Goole is a port town and civil parish on the River Ouse in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The town's historic county is the West Riding of Yorkshire. According to the 2011 UK census, Goole parish had a population of 19,518, an increa ...

and

Methodist Circuit The organisation of the Methodist Church of Great Britain is based on the principle of connexionalism. This means that British Methodism, from its inception under John Wesley (1703–1791), has always laid strong emphasis on mutual support, in ...

Historic secular buildings

The Drovers' Arms, York Road, Skipwith - geograph

Skipwith Hall is early in the 18th century house of seven bays and two and a half storeys, flanked by a three-bay wing on each side. It 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 Ir ...

. A school and schoolmaster's house built in 1714, founded and endowed by the bequest of a Dorothy Wilson. In the 1851 its pupils included 11 boarders, and in the 1860s a separate classroom for girls was added. In 1871 the school had 54 pupils but in 1872 this fell to only 30. From the 1900s to the 1930s the school averaged 30–40 pupils, but in 1938 this had declined to 26. In 1957 the school was closed and its pupils were transferred to Thorganby. Since 1959 the school has served as the village hall. south-west of the village is the site of RAF Riccall, a training airfield that was a heavy bomber conversion unit in the Second World War. The site is now a national nature reserve known as Skipwith Common.

Amenities

Skipwith has a

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 ...

, the Drovers Arms, which is now a

gastropub A gastropub or gastro pub is a pub that serves gourmet comfort food. The term was coined in the 1990s, though similar brewpubs existed during the 1980s. Etymology The term ''gastropub'' (derived from gastronomy) was coined in 1991, when David ...

References

Sources and further reading

* *

External links

Skipwith Parish CouncilFriends of Skipwith Common
{{Authority control Civil parishes in North Yorkshire Selby District Villages in North Yorkshire