Aiskew Explained

Country:England
Static Image Name:Aiskew Methodist Church - geograph.org.uk - 139454.jpg
Static Image Caption:Aiskew Methodist Church
Coordinates:54.2931°N -1.5817°W
Official Name:Aiskew
Population:2,427
Population Ref:(2011 Census)
Civil Parish:Aiskew and Leeming Bar
Unitary England:North Yorkshire
Lieutenancy England:North Yorkshire
Region:Yorkshire and the Humber
Constituency Westminster:Richmond
Post Town:BEDALE
Postcode District:DL8
Postcode Area:DL
Dial Code:01677
Os Grid Reference:SE271885

Aiskew is a village in the civil parish of Aiskew and Leeming Bar,[1] [2] in North Yorkshire, England.[3] [4] The village is situated to the immediate north-east of Bedale and separated from it by Bedale Beck.

History

Remains of a Roman villa were unearthed in 2015 north of Sand Hill. The building is thought to have been two storeys high with a hypocaust on the ground floor. Animal remains were found extensively across the site. It is thought the site dated from the third to fourth century AD and would have been situated along Dere Street. The site was covered as part of the construction of the Bedale, Aiskew and Leeming Bar bypass, which opened on 11 August 2016 as part of the upgrade to the A1(M).[5]

The village was known as Echescol in Domesday Book in the Hundred of Count Alan of Brittany, the previous Lord having been Gospatric. The village had 7 ploughlands. The Lordship of the Manor followed that of neighbouring Bedale.[6] The name is derived from Old Norse words eik (oak) and skógr (wood) and thus means Oak wood.[7] Robert Hird, Bedale poet and diarist, noted that in late 18th Century the village name was spelled Ascough - he credits "Mr. Edward Strangeways, near Fencote" with the introduction of the modern spelling "by writing it Aiskew on his cartboard".[8]

In 2013 Masons Gin established a distillery in the village.[9]

Governance

The village lies within the Bedale ward and the Bedale Electoral Division of North Yorkshire County Council. Aiskew Civil Parish includes the village of Leeming Bar.[10] Until 2023, it was part of the Richmond (Yorks) parliamentary constituency. It was removed and added to the expanded Thirsk and Malton Constituency, in part due to areas from that constituency being created into a new seat of Wetherby and Easingwold.[11] [12] [13]

Demography

According to the 2001 UK Census, the population was 2,163 living in 863 dwellings. The 2011 UK Census showed this had increased to 2,427 in 985 dwellings.

Community

The village is in the Primary Education Catchment Area of Bedale Church of England Primary School, though it is also close to Aiskew, Leeming Bar Church of England Primary School, in Leeming Bar.[14] It is within the Secondary Education Catchment Area of Bedale High School.[15]

The Wensleydale Railway, a tourist and heritage line, includes station on the Aiskew side of Bedale Beck at the edge of the village.[16] The signal box opposite Park House is a Grade II listed building.

In the village is the 18th-century Grade II listed Aiskew Mill with all its original wooden machinery. There is also an 18th-century Leech House next to the beck.

Religion

St Mary and St Joseph's Church, Bedale lies in the village. It was built in 1878, designed by Mr George Goldie of London, after the original chapel became too small for the congregation.[6]

There had been both a Baptist church and Primitive Methodist Chapel in the village.[6]

The Methodist Church in Aiskew, which was part of the Ripon & Lower Dales Methodist Circuit, has closed and the congregation merged with the Bedale & District Methodist Church.[17]

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Aiskew and Leeming Bar. Mapit. 5 July 2019.
  2. Web site: Change of Name Request Aiskew Parish. Hambleton District Council. 5 July 2019.
  3. Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 99 Northallerton & Ripon (Pateley Bridge & Leyburn). 9780319231593 . Ordnance Survey. 2013.
  4. Web site: Ordnance Survey: 1:50,000 Scale Gazetteer. csv (download). 1 January 2016. Ordnance Survey. www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk. 30 January 2016.
  5. Web site: Bedale, Aiskew and Leeming Bar bypass. North Yorkshire County Council. 11 December 2016.
  6. Book: Bulmer's Topography, History and Directory (Private and Commercial) of North Yorkshire 1890 . 364. 1890 . S&N Publishing. 1-86150-299-0.
  7. Book: Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-names. Watts. 5. Cambridge University Press (2011).
  8. Book: Hird, Robert . Hird's Annals of Bedale . North Yorkshire County Record Office . 1975 . Lewis . Lesley . Northallerton . 98.
  9. News: Major blaze damages gin distillery . 8 April 2019 . BBC News . 2 April 2019.
  10. Web site: Election Maps Aiskew & Leeming Bar . www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk . 1 April 2023 . Make sure that the Civil Parish and Westminster Constituencies are the only two options elected using the Boundary Function on the left of the screen.
  11. Web site: Boundary Commission for England - Revised Proposals for the Yorkshire and Humber Region . boundarycommissionforengland.independent.gov.uk . 30 June 2024.
  12. News: Gleeson . Janet . 'How stupid' protest over moving Bedale out of Richmond . 30 June 2024 . Darlington and Stockton Times . 9 July 2023.
  13. News: Darley . Karen . New Conservative Association created to reflect boundary change . 30 June 2024 . Gazette & Herald . 15 September 2023.
  14. Web site: Primary Education Catchment Area. 11 December 2016.
  15. Web site: Secondary Education Area. 11 December 2016.
  16. Web site: Wensleydale Railway. 11 December 2016.
  17. Web site: Methodist Church Closure. 11 December 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20161220182045/http://www.riponlowerdalesmethodists.org.uk/our-churches/aiskew.html. 20 December 2016. dead.