Burton Fleming Parish information from Bulmers' 1892.

BURTON FLEMING:
Geographical and Historical information from the year 1892.

Wapentake and Petty Sessional Division of Dickering - County Council Electoral Division of Hunmanby - Poor Law Union and County Court District of Bridlington - Rural Deanery of Scarborough - Archdeaconry of the East Riding - Diocese of York.

This parish, also known as NORTH BURTON, is circumscribed by the parishes of Hunmanby, Argam, Rudston, Thwing, and Wold Newton, and contains 3,909 acres. The extent of land under assessment is 3,682½ acres of which the rateable value is £3,657. The population in 1891 was 425. The soil is various, the subsoil chalk and gravel ; and the chief crops are wheat, barley, oats, peas, and turnips. Henry Strickland Constable, Esq., B.A., J.P., Wassand, near Hull, is lord of the manor and principal landowner. The other proprietors are Lieut.- Col. J. P. Osbaldeston Mitford, Mitford Castle, Northumberland; Sir Charles Legard, Bart. Ganton Hall; the Exors. of the late Mr. Robert Holtby; A. W. M. Bosville, Esq., J.P., Thorpe Hall, Bridlington; Mr. Jeffrey Bouch, North Burton; Mr. William Kirby Coleman, North Burton; Mrs. Jane Barugh, Bridlington Quay; the Exors. of the late Mr. John Burdass, North Burton, and the Vicar in right of his glebe.

The village of North Burton, distant three miles from Hunmanby, is pleasantly situated on the banks of the Gipsey Race - one of those intermittent streams peculiar to the Wolds they flow at certain periods, particularly after long rains, when they issue from the unbroken ground, sometimes so copiously as to inundate the adjacent country; at other times they are perfectly dry, except where drainage water collects in some stagnant pool. Their name Gipsey, in which "g" has the hard sound as in give, is supposed to be derived from the Norse word gypa, signifying a whirlpool or sudden rush of waters. Hone, in his "Table Book," tells us that the young people of North Burton were formerly wont to "meet the Gipsey" on her first approach. The custom has long been abandoned, and its origin is a matter of speculation.

The church of St. Cuthbert is an ancient edifice, originally erected in the Early English period, but subsequently restored and partially rebuilt of brick. It consists of chancel, nave, south porch, and western tower containing two bells. There was formerly a south aisle, but this has been taken down, and the arcade which separated it from the nave filled up with masonry. The original chancel arch is gone, but the piers remain, as also do the columns of the Early English doorway, with capitals once richly carved. The church was repaired in 1887, at a cost of £75, and at the same time a small turret clock, with two dials, was placed in the tower in commemoration of Her Majesty's jubilee. The organ was presented by the vicar and his family in 1883. The font is ancient, and consists of a circular bowl and shaft, resting on a base bearing sculptured heads, now scarcely recognisable. The windows, Gothic on one side and square wooden framed ones on the other, are filled with plain glass. The interior is furnished with old-fashioned pews for 150 worshippers. This church was formerly a chapel to the mother church of Hunmanby, but became parochial before the Reformation. The living is a new vicarage, with which is united the chapelry of Fordon, in the gift of Col. J. P. Osbaldeston-Mitford, and held by the Rev. John Clarke, M.A., St. John's College, Cambridge. In the Liber Regis it is valued at £10 6s. 8d., and is now worth £210 nett, derived chiefly from 234 acres of glebe. The small tithes, amounting to £15, are paid to the vicar; the great tithes belong to Messrs. Holtby and Bosville. The vicarage house is a neat brick structure, erected in 1884, at a cost of £1,250, of which £850 was borrowed from the governors of Queen Anne's Bounty Fund.

There are chapels in the village belonging to the Wesloyan and Primitive Methodists. The former is a handsome structure of red brick relieved with yellow, erected in 1869, to supersede an older one, built in 1806. The total cost was £1,200, which was raised by subscription. It is in the Norman style, well lighted, and seated with open benches for 240 persons. An organ was added in 1881, at a cost of £60. The chapel is in the Filey Circuit. The Primitive Methodist chapel is a plain brick building, erected in 1838, at a cost of £180. It will accommodate 100 persons, and is in the Bridlington Circuit.

A school board, of five members, was formed in 1873, and a school, with teacher's residence, was erected the following year at a cost of £1,150. It is a well-designed structure of red brick, consisting of schoolroom and class-room, both well lighted and ventilated, capable of accommodating 116 children. The present average attendance is 90.

The only event of historic interest connected with the parish occurred during the civil war, in the reign of Charles I. Henrietta Maria, the queen of that unfortunate monarch, spent one night here along with her little army, when on her way from Bridlington to York. She is said to have occupied a suite of rooms in the old Manor House. The following entry occurs in the parish register : - " The Queen's Majesty did lie at North Burton with her army the 5th of March 1642."

Thomas Sawden, in 1773, left £80 for the benefit of the poor, the interest of which is distributed every Sunday in bread.

FORDON is a township and chapelry containing 1,464 acres of land and 57 inhabitants, formerly under Hunmanby, but consolidated with Burton Fleming in 1865, though still in the former parish for all civil purposes. Its rateable value is £615. The soil is chalk and wold land, with chalk and flint for subsoil, and produces good crops of barley, oats, and turnips. Col. J. P. Osbaldeston-Mitford is lord of the manor and owner of a large portion of the township; the remainder, excepting 56 acres of glebe, belongs to the Rev. B. Hemsworth, of Monk Fryston. The church, which is dedicated to St. James, is a small plain building, consisting of chancel and nave, with a western bell turret. It was restored and reseated with open benches in 1876, at a cost of £200, raised by subscription. In the north and south walls of the sacrarium are portions of two pillars which appear to have once supported an arch. The font is large and circular, and rests on a prettily-carved base that long lay in a garden at Low Fordon. The register dates from 1584. The living is a vicarage, in the same patronage and incumbency as Burton Fleming. Service is performed once a fortnight.

[Description(s) from Bulmer's History and Directory of East Yorkshire (1892)]

Directories

• Transcript of the entry for the Post Office, professions and trades in Bulmer's Directory of 1892.

Scan, OCR and html by Colin Hinson. Checking and correction by Peter Nelson.