Guisbrough, Kent
Historical Description
Guisbrough (more properly Gisborough), a market and union town, a township, and a parish in the N.R. Yorkshire. The town stands in a narrow but fertile valley in the most beautiful part of Cleveland, 5 miles from the coast at Marske, 8½ ESE of Middlesborough, and 25 NE of Northallerton, and has a station on the N.E.R. It is thought to occupy the site of a Roman settlement; was known at Domesday as Ghigesburgh, and came into the possession of Robert dc Brus, Lord of Skelton, and ancestor of the Bruces. Camden says respecting it-"The place is really fine, and may, for pleasantness, a curious variety, and its natural advantages, compare with Puteoli, in Italy; and, for a healthful and agreeable situation, it certainly far surpasses it." A priory was founded here in 1129 by Robert de Bros; was dedicated to the Virgin Mary and occupied by Augustinians; suffered disaster at various times from fire and pirates; rose at each time into new prosperity, and at one time gave support to all the inhabitants of the town, comprising about 500 householders; and had, at the dissolution, a gross yearly Kental of £712. The ruins of it stand near the eastern extremity of the town; have been very greatly curtailed, but still present a stately appearance, and include a Norman gateway, and the E end of the church, 98 feet high and 100 feet wide, with a window of Decorated English date, 60 feet by 24. The Norman gateway was erected in Richard II.'s reign, when the whole of the monastery was fortified. Ralph de Ireton, bishop of Carlisle, was a prior; Pursglove, mentioned by Isaac Walton as a brother angler, afterwards bishop of Hull, also was a prior, and Walter de Hemingford the chronicler, who died in 1347, was a canon. Prior Pursglove founded the Hospital of Jesus. Robert de Brus and many of his descendants were buried in the priory, and a beautiful monument of him, in blue marble, with effigies of knights, is preserved. " Quenched is the golden statue's ray; The breath of heaven has blown away What toiling earth had piled; Scattering -wise heart and crafty hand, As breezes strew on ocean's sand The fabric of a child."
The town consists of one long, well-built main street, with several streets branching from the main one, and has of late years been much enlarged. It is governed by a local board of twelve members. The town-hall stands in the marketplace, occupies the site of an ancient tolbooth, and was built in 1821. The mechanics' institute occupies an edifice founded in 1861. The parish church was partly rebuilt in 1791, and additions were made to it in 1890; it includes some portions of an ancient structure, and has a fine E window. The monument in the W porch is a memorial tomb in honour of the De Bros family. There are Congregational, Reformed Wesleyan, and Primitive Methodist chapels, a Friends½ meeting-house, a grammar school and hospital founded in 1561-the present buildings for the school were erected in 1887-88-and a workhouse with accommodation for over 100 inmates. The town has a post, money order, and telegraph office, two banks, two hotels, a temperance hall, and a theatre, and is a seat of petty sessions and a polling-place. A market is held on Tuesday and Saturday, and fairs ar& held in May and Nov. Sir Thomas Chaloner, to whom much of the property of the priory was given by Queen Mary, observed indications of alum here, and brought skilled persons. from Italy to work it, and the alum works which he established were the earliest in England, and were long carried on with complete success, but have now been discontinued. The mining of ironstone, and the extraction of iron in blast furnaces, are carried on on a large scale in the neighbourhood, and have occasioned much change in both the trade and th& appearance of the town. Leather-working is also carried on. A sulphurous spring, of medicinal value in cutaneous, rheumatic, and bilious complaints, is about a mile SE of the-town, but has been buried in shale.
The township includes the town, and extends considerably into the country. Acreage, 7014; population, 5623. The parish contains also the townships of Pinchingthorpe, Hutton Lowcross, Tocketts, and Commondale. Acreage, 13, 166; population, 6138. The living is a rectory in the diocese of York; net value, £280 with residence. Patron, the Archbishop of York.
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Kent newspapers online:
- Kent & Sussex Courier
- Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald
- Dover Express
- Kentish Gazette
- Folkestone, Hythe, Sandgate & Cheriton Herald
- Kentish Chronicle
- Maidstone Telegraph
Visitations Heraldic
The Visitation of Kent, 1619 is available on the Heraldry page, as is also The Visitation of Kent, 1663-68.