Ebberston

The Ancient Parish of EBBERSTON

[Transcribed information mainly from the early 1820s]

"EBBERSTON, a parish in the wapentake and liberty of Pickering Lythe; 6½ miles E. of Pickering. The church is dedicated to St. Mary (see Churches for photograph). The living is a vicarage, in the patronage of the Dean of York. Incumbent, the Rev. Thomas Simpson. Here is a very neat Methodist chapel. Population, 505.

Ebberston is adorned with a small but elegant country seat, constructed on the plan of a Roman villa, by one of the Hotham family, but now occupied by George Osbaldeston, Esq. It is situated about a mile to the north of the York road, at the foot of a fine eminence, decorated with an amphitheatre of plantations, and a small sheet of water rushing down the declivity and falling in cascades behind the house, round which it is conveyed by an aqueduct.

On the hill, north-east of the house, beyond the plantations, are some vestiges of a cave, called by the country people, Elfwin's or Elfrid's Hole, now almost filled up, over which was once placed, (as some old people now living can recollect) a stone, and afterwards a board, with an inscription to the following purport.- " Alfrid, King of Northumberland, was wounded in a bloody battle nigh this place, and was hid in a cave; and from thence he was removed to Little Driffield, where he died," The battle, it is said, was fought on the west side of the village, now called the Bloody Field -Young."

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"BICKLEY, a farm house in the township and parish of Ebberston; 6 miles NNE. of Ebberston, 9 miles from Scarborough."

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"SNAINTON, in the parishes of Brompton by Sawdon and Ebberston, wapentake and liberty of Pickering Lythe; 1½ miles E. of Ebberston, 8 miles E. of Pickering. About a quarter of a mile from the village is Stainton New Inn, a large posting house. Pop. 603. (see also Churches)"

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"WELDALE, a farm house in the parish of Ebberston, wapentake and liberty of Pickering Lythe; 1 mile E. of Ebberston, 7 miles ESE. of Pickering."