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Slingsby (All Saints)

SLINGSBY (All Saints), a parish, in the union of Malton, wapentake of Ryedale, N. riding of York, 6 miles (N.) from Whitewell, and 6 (W. N. W.) from Malton; containing 609 inhabitants. This place, at the time of the Conquest, belonged to the Lacy family; and afterwards to the Mowbrays, who had a castle here. The Wyville family, the Knights Templars, and others, held lands under the Mowbrays; and the castle subsequently became the property of the noble family of Hastings, who are supposed to have rebuilt it. William, the great Lord Hastings, was beheaded by Richard III., and was succeeded here by his son Edward, who by will in 1497 directed Slingsby to be sold. The castle and manor were purchased, some time previously to 1619, by Sir Charles Cavendish, whose son took down the castle, and in 1643 erected on its site a large and elegant mansion of quadrangular form, with towers on the eastern and western sides, in the style of Inigo Jones. This mansion afterwards became the property of the poet, Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham. Not being inhabited, however, it fell into decay; and after the death of the duke, was purchased, along with the estate, in 1735, by an ancestor of the Earl of Carlisle, the present proprietor, by whom the dilapidated remains are carefully preserved.

The parish comprises by measurement 2300 acres, of which 1850 are arable, 400 pasture, and 50 wood. The southern portion is chiefly a moorland valley in the bosom of the Howardian hills; advancing northward, the surface abruptly rises to an elevated natural terrace, forming a portion of the boundary of those fine hills, flanked on the east and west with ancient woods of stately oak. Towards the south, the terrace commands a view of Castle-Howard, with its princely domain; towards the north, a view of the whole range of the eastern moors from Whitestone cliff to Seamer Beacon, with the richly-cultivated vale of the river Rye in the foreground. The soil in the middle part of the parish is a rich hazel loam, producing turnips, oats, and barley; and in the northern portions, which are marshy, a strong clay, well adapted for wheat. The hills are of the oolite limestone formation, and in the lower grounds are extensive beds of fine blue clay: the stone is quarried for building, for burning into lime, and for the roads; and some kilns have been established for the manufacture of bricks and tiles from the clay. The village is spacious and well built, pleasantly situated at the base, and partly on the acclivity, of the northern ridge of the Howardian hills, and watered by the Wathbeck rivulet. It is one of three villages in Yorkshire that retain their rustic maypole. The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £12. 1. 10½., and in the patronage of the Earl of Carlisle, with a net income of £548: there are 100 acres of glebe. The church is a neat structure, partly Norman, and partly in the later English style; it contains several ancient monuments, including one of a templar in the full costume of a Norman knight, recorded by Dodsworth to be a member of the Wyville family. Here is a place of worship for Wesleyans.


Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.

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