Aysgarth, North Riding of Yorkshire

Historical Description

Aysgarth, a township, a parish, and a village in the N.R. Yorkshire. The township lies on the river Yore, at the junction of Wensleydale and Bishopdale, 7½ miles WSW of Leyburn, and has a station on the N.E.R. It has a post and money order office under Bedale; telegraph office at station. Acreage, 1214; population, 235. At the village of Aysgarth a fair is held on 30 October. There is a Wesleyan chapel. The falls of the Yore, called Aysgarth Force, are remarkably fine. The river flows in a narrow channel over a rugged bed of limestone, between picturesquely wooded banks, and makes a series of cascades which are variously grand or beautiful according to the fluctuations of its volume. "In floods it is a great, a mighty river, bursting with a prodigious effect through magnificent rocks; but in droughts, only a few gentle rills, the tears of the Naiads, run over the ledges of limestone." The parish church, an ancient structure, restored in 1536 by the last Abbot of Jervaulx, and again in 1866, and containing a splendid carved wooden screen which belonged to Jervaulx Abbey, occupies a noble and picturesque site above the rapids. A bridge of a single arch, 71 feet in span, stands immediately above the falls, and commands a fine view of the church and the river. Other beautiful waterfalls are found at West Burton and in Bishopdale. The living is a discharged vicarage in the diocese of Ripon; net value, £175 with residence. Patron, Trinity College, Cambridge. The ancient parish is very extensive, covering an area of 81,012 acres, and contains the townships of Aysgarth, High and Low Abbotside, Askrigg, Bainbridge, Bishopdale, Burton-cum-Walden, Newbiggin, Carperby-cum-Thoresby, Thoralby, Thomton, Rust, and Hawes. Seven of these townships, with an area of 40 square miles, are still under the supervision of the vicar of Aysgarth. The population of these is 1419.

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.

Church Records

Findmypast, in conjunction with various Archives, Local Studies, and Family History Societies have the following parish records online for Aysgarth:

Civil Registration

For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Aysgarth from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Aysgarth (St. Andrew))

Land and Property

The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for the North Riding of Yorkshire is available to browse.

Maps

Online maps of Aysgarth are available from a number of sites:

• Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• Google Streetview.
• National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
• OpenStreetMap.
• old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
• Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)

Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following North Riding newspapers online:

• York Herald
• Daily Gazette for Middlesbrough
• Yorkshire Gazette
• Yorkshire Evening Press
• Whitby Gazette