Tadcaster Tadcaster, Tadcaster, Yorkshire, Yorkshire, England, York,  Calcaria, Calcaria, Calcaria

Elmet's

Tadcaster Page

"Tadcaster & Environs"

Harry Speight 1883

Chapter One

Tadcaster in Pre-Norman Times
All comparative evidence on the early settlement of our country points clearly to the importance of Tadcaster
in prehistoric ages. Century after century, dynasty after dynasty, have come and gone and left us with but the husk of all their achievements, out of which— the scattered record, the lost relic and forgotten tomb—we must try and construe local life in the distant past. When the old Brigantian cities of York and Aldborough were in their prime—at a period dating back at least two thousand years - Tadcaster, too, like Ilkley in the Upper Dale I have elsewhere described, was a place of great esteem; both Ilkley and Tadcaster being, no doubt, important vanguards in the approaches to those cities. Between each of these places lay well-beaten trackways over the natural earth, for the Britons did not learn the art of paving until the Romans came, and these old British foot-roads were, when laid between important stations, utilized by the Roman conquerors as the lines of their wonderfully - constructed highways throughout the realm. Unlike the Saxons, the Romans too, conquered the British strong holds, appropriated the sites and raised their camps upon the older settlements.

The Saxons and Angles rarely appropriated British or Roman sites, but preferred to stake.out tons or enclosures of their own, yet in Yorkshire there are several proven instances, as at Aldborough and Ilkley, where Saxon churches have been raised within the areas of Roman camps. At Tadcaster, I opine, the original church was erected outside the area of the camp, probably for the reason that the site had been a pre-existing burial-ground, and so was chosen for its sacred associations, as we know was the case for the same reason in other places. Else there could have’ been no motive for erecting the church in such a low-lying position beside the river (unless, as I have explained elsewhere, the river was venerated), rendering the building liable to inundations, when higher and drier sites could have been got close at hand.  The Roman town at Tadcaster no doubt extended, as at Ilkley and other places, beyond the walls of the camp.
It can, therefore, as I have said, hardly be doubted that Tadcaster was a British outpost to York, connected with that city by an unpaved road, and as such an outpost it continued during the Roman occupa tion. It has been conjectured that it was the Calatum of Ptolemy, though this is not confirmed by Nennius, no very reliable authority, however, who flourished in late Saxon times. Nennius mentions 33 British cities, on the authority of “Mark, the anchorite,” a British Bishop. Amongst those named in the north are Caer Ebrauc (York), Caer Dazue (Doncaster), Cacr Caratauc (Catterick), and Cue Luilid (Carlisle), but singularly there is no mention or suggestion of Aldborough, in Yorkshire, which was beyond all question one of the most important Brigantian strongholds. Some, indeed, hold it to have been the capital settlement of the Brigantes, taking even precedence of York.
Moreover, there is other evidence that Tadcaster was a British city. I concur with Mr. Boyle in believing that its Roman name of Calcaria was but a Latinised form of a pre-existing Celtic name; exactly as we know was the case with the majority of the Roman towns mentioned in the Antonine Itinerary. In the first portion of the word there is a marked suggestion of the Celtic catch, lime, indicative of the character of the ground upon which the station is built. Kelso, in Scotland, anciently Calkou, has a precisely similar meaning, and so has Cealchythe, in Kent, where the great council of Bishops was held in 816 and where the interesting enactment took place that all new churches should have inscribed on the wall or upon a tablet or else on the altar, the name of the holy person to whom the church was dedicated. Again a trace of the Celt may possibly be referred to the circumstance that about 1886 a human skeleton was discovered in the neighbourhood of the Applegarth, though the period to which it belonged cannot be stated with certainty. It was unearthed in the vicinage of the Civil War entrenchments, but as a stone adze or axe-head was found in the skull, the interment may possibly belong to the Stone Age. The discovery was made in the course of excavations at the extension of Braime’s (Victoria) brewery. Dr. Tordoff, who examined the remains, informs me that the skeleton was that of an adult male person, but as the wisdom teeth were not cut, the unfortunate victim of the blow would not be more than 20 years of age. The weapon is formed of a hard bluish stone.
From the era of Antoninus (A.D. 138—161)- to the time of the Venerable Bede, who died in 734, we have no mention of Tadcaster; then we learn from this famous northern historian that the pious lady St. Heiv, after she had established a monastery at Hartlepool, Ca. 649, retired to the city of Calcaria, which he states is called by the English (Angle) people Kaelcacaestir (quae a  gente Anglorum Kalcacaestir),  where she founded another monastery (mansio). (See HEALAUGH.) This is the only allusion to Tadcaster in Saxon times, but it plainly shews that the place was known by its Roman-British name in the 7 century; Bede merely adding the A.-S. ceaster or ccaster, meaning a city or site, “applied from tile first to any place that bore signs of Roman building or fortification.” Camden, who appears to have derived some portion of his local information from a Mr. Robert Marshall, of Bickerton, also observes that an eminence near the town is called Kelcbar, which retained in his time (1551— 1623) something of the old name of Calcaria. This Kelcbar is at Smaws, on the road to Newton, where is a very old quarry of limestone. Bishop Gibson, the 18th century editor of Camden’s Britannia, refers to Newton Kyme as a probable site of the Roman Calcaria, in which, however, he is not supported by modern authorities. At Newton, he tells us, many Roman coins have been ploughed up, particularly of Constantius, Helena, and Constantine; also an urn or box of alabaster with only ashes in it ; melted lead and rings one of which had a key of the same piece joined with it. The road to York, he says, is firmer ground than that from Tadcaster, which would hardly be passable were it not for the causey made over the common between Tadcaster and Bilbrough, and he further adds that Newton was so called by the Saxons because they erected new buildings upon the foundations of the Roman town. But this I hold to be highly improbable for the reasons already stated; the Anglian settlers having chosen this site and named it Newton (new town) in contradistinction to the old town of Calcaria, about a mile lower down the river. Some have even suggested that the old caster or station at Tadcaster was called “T’aud caster,” which gave Calcaria its later name; the dialectal form of the A.-S. cold (old) being aud. This rendering, however, is one which might be shortest described as a good joke but a bad guess!
Our next probable reference to Tadcaster is in 1066, when, according to one of the latest contributors to the Saxon Chronicle, King Harold advanced towards York with his army to oppose the invasion of Tostig and Harald Hardrada. On Sunday, the 2 September, he is stated to have reached “Tatha,” and the next day marched to York, and afterwards to Stamford Bridge, eight miles further east, where a great battle was fought. This “Tatha” is presumed to be either Tadcaster or Pontefract, but as the former is only 9 miles from York and as Pontefract is 22 miles from York, it certainly seems more likely to be Tadcaster than the ha’, hall or abode of one Tata at Pontefract, the Tateshalle of Domesday. - But this Tatha, if it be Tadcaster, is a great stumbling block in the derivation of the Domesday name of Tatecastre (Tadcaster). If Tadcaster were actually known by the name of Tatha so soon before the Conquest (which I very much doubt), then the prefix Tate cannot be a personal name, although I hold this Tatha as the place Tadcaster not proven. I contend that in the prefix Tate is the name of the pre-Conquest owner of the caster or camp at Tadcaster, equally with the belief that Ebchester was Ebba’s chester, and Godmanchester Godmurid’s chester, or that Tatham in Amounderness was the obvious home or abode of one Tata or Tate. Thus we find in 1083-6 the old names of Calcaria and Kaelcacaster as completely changed as were those of Isurium to Aldburgh and Streaneschalch to Whitby in the Domesday survey.

It is now almost needless to contend for Tadcaster as the Roman Calcaria, in opposition to the opinion formerly advanced in favour of Newton Kyme. There is no Roman road from Newton Kyme to York. Newton Kyme lay on Watling Street, one of the four royal highways called in the Norman laws Quatuor Chirnini, which traversed the country from south to north, and which from Doncaster lay through Aberford across the Wharfe at Newton Kyme direct north
to Aldborough (Isurium). Tadcaster was on Ermyn Street, which crossed Watling Street in the neighbourhood of Stutton, near to Headley Bar; the latter highway going due north by the road known here still as Rudgate to St. Helen’s ford. On the other side of the river the name of Rudgate is also retained for the old road by Wharton Lodge, east of Bickerton, which runs northwards through Chapel Hill to Aldborough. Tadcaster consequently lay more than
a mile east of Watling Street, and this is confirmed by Leland, the State topographer (cii. 1540), who remarks “Tadcaster standeth a mile from Watling Street, that tendeth more toward Cairivel (Carlisle) and crosseth over Wherf at a place called St. Helensford, a mile and a half above Tadcaster, and on the other ripe (bank) is
St. Helen’s Chapel.” Speaking of the situation of Tadcaster he observes “it standeth on the hither ripe of Wharf river and is a good thoroughfare. The bridge over Wharfe bath eight fair arches of stone. Some say that it was last made of part of the ruins of the old castle of Tadcaster. A mighty great hill, dykes, and garth of this castle on Wharfe be yet seen a little above the bridge. It seemeth by the plot that it was a right stately thing.”
“The mighty great hill” mentioned by Henry VIII.’s observant antiquary, has been unfortunately since his time so much destroyed, altered, and encroached upon by the growth of the town that it is at this day a matter of impossibility to define the precise extent and appearance of the old Roman camp. It seems to have been utilized by the Danes and converted into moated mounds, though originally it may have extended about 100 yards north and south from the
river, a short distance above the bridge, but it is difficult to define its limits east and west, as it has been destroyed on the east side, but there is little doubt that the old Grammar School stands on its eastern verge, and that the school-playground has been excavated out of it. Judging from actual remains the camp or mounds do not
appear to have extended more than 140 to 160 yards to the eastwards and not more than 100 yards towards the south: of similar extent, in fact, to the camp at Ilkley, and in all probability from its small size built at the same time, on the first Roman invasion of Yorkshire by Agricola in A.D. 79.
Whether the Tadcaster camp was re-constructed in stone in the time of the Emperor Severus, as was the case at Ilkley and other stations in Yorkshire, cannot now be determined. Every vestige of foundation or of stone walling has disappeared, and the only evidence of the existence of an ancient wall I have heard of is the discovery some forty years ago of a strong and rudely-constructed wall, four feet thick, bordering the river on the east side of the churchyard. But this wall I judge was merely a staith erected in later times to resist encroachments of the river upon the burial-ground. The present so-called “Castle Hill” extends from the north side of the church parallel with the river, and a good section of it is exposed behind the Castle Terrace. It is a thrown-up bank or earth-work, 20 to 30 feet high, composed of soil mixed with angular fragments of local stone, and there are no indications of its having been raised on an old glacial-mound as is the case in some places. It is wholly artificial. I learn that many Roman coins, urns, pottery, and other relics of early occupation have been found upon or near the site from time to time, but these have been dispersed. This is much to be deplored, as a single local collection possesses not only an antiquarian interest, but has historic value. But Tadcaster is not the only place that has failed to realize the importance of this, though doubtless here as elsewhere were local museums formed, many private collectors would be willing to part with their treasures to the care of places where they were found. About a century ago a very perfect bronze celt was found near the town, and is now, I understand, in the British Museum.

It possessed the peculiarity of having a ring of the same metal inserted through the handle of the celt, to which was
also attached a small bead of jet. The appended engraving shews the combined objects exactly as found. It is hardly possible that the celt could have been worn as a charm; indeed Mr. Geo. Du Noyer
thinks the bronze ring which was looped to the ear of the celt, might have assisted in fastening it, while the second ring might be appliedto either of two purposes, (i) as a catch for a string-guard to be fastened to the wrist, or (2) to render the tying of the larger ring to the handle more easy and direct. Single coins, but no hoards, I understand, have been turned up at different times, particularly in the churchyard while digging graves. One of these, in possession of the vicar, I have seen. Though much defaced I read it as follows
Obv. IMP. c. M. CL [ Marcus Claudius] TACITVS P. [ F. [
AVG. (Head of Emperor).
Rev. TEMPORVM FELICITAS. (Standing figure ho!ding an ensign in right
hand and a cornucopia in the left).
This is an interesting coin of the senator Tacitus, who traced his descent from the great historian of the same name. The senate elected him Emperor in 276, at the age of 75, but he reigned only 6 months and 20 days. His short reign, however, was one of great activity, and though little historic value .can be adjudged to the
record of a single coin, it proves however that Tadcaster was occupied after the reign of this Emperor, and doubtless continued a stronghold of the Romans until the evacuation ca. A.D. 418.
Furthermore a Roman wine or water-jug was found in Jan.,. 1893, by Mr. Wm. Dyson, of the Britannia inn, Tadcaster, while dredging for sand and gravel close to an island about 40 yards below Tadcaster Bridge. Its greatest circumference is 38 inches, and height 18 inches. The jar is enamelled a dark green colour, the enamel being almost
perfect, and there are looped handles on two sides. This relic is now in possession of Dr. H. A. Allbutt, Leeds. In March, 1895, some men in the employ of Mr. C. Hodgson, were also getting sand from the river when they unearthed a similar kind of jar, but this was made of rough earthenware, unglazed, and is 14 inches high, and
37 inches round its widest part. Mr. Hodgson also possesses a smaller enamelled jar obtained from the same spot in I897.

I may also add while discussing the subject of antiquities, that I have seen an ancient anchor, also dredged out of the Wharfe at Tadcaster. It is made of wrought-iron, much decayed; the bow of the anchor between its two extremities measuring 35 inches, and the shaft of oak being 57 inches long. It is evidently mediaeval.
It is very probable, for the reasons stated, that the site of the parish churchyard was a burial-ground of the Romans, and of their successors the Saxons and Danes, although many interments in Roman times were made beside the highway leading between Tadcaster and York. So plentiful have been such discoveries on this road that it has been called the “Street of Tombs.” In 1897 a stone- coffin was dug up in the grounds attached to the residence of Mr. E. P. Brett, on this road. It is fashioned out of a single block, and has a roof-shaped lid, and is now in the Museum at York. A complete skeleton was found in it. Another tomb, no doubt containing coeval remains, lies undisturbed beneath one of the houses in the Mount, close beside the last A tomb, 7- feet 6 inches long, composed of 18 ridged tiles, was also discovered in 1833 on the same road near Dringhouses. The tiles bore the impress of the Sixth Legion.
The direction of this road, I may further point out, affords proof of the position of the Roman Calcaria at Tadcaster and not at Newton Kyme. The road came down Garnett Lane, Station Road, and along the north side of the Parish Church, across the Wharfe, where I am told remains of an old pavement have been observed, and up Rosemary Lane on to the York Road, which it leaves at Tadcaster Bar. Thence it continues in a straight line by the Old Street, passing Street Houses, where it leaves the highway again, and continues through fields to the north of Copmanthorpe, joining the highway again at the inn known as the old Ginger Beer House, and so into York by Miciclegate Bar, and crossing the Ouse by a bridge near the present Guild Hall enters Westgate, York. All about Stutton and Hazeiwood are very ancient quarries, whence no doubt much of the material was obtained for building Roman York.

I shall refrain from any lengthy reflections on the Saxon and
Danish occupation of the neighbourhood of Tadcaster, as at best the
evidence is obscure. Coins of Olaf, who reigned in Northumbria
between the years 940 and 951, have been found bearing the name
“T0D ;“ the place where they were coined. One such bears the
legend: ANLAF REX T0D; the moneyers being RADULF and WADTER.
The late Rev. Daniel Haigh thought that owing to the frequent
interchange of the letters A and o on these coins (cf. Anlaf, Onlaf,
Onlof) there could be little difficulty in recognizing in the name TOD
the old city of Tadcaster. In this case the city having a mint proves
it to have been a royal residence, for the moneyers invariably
accompanied the King from place to place. A relic of Olaf or Anlaf,
I may observe, was discovered some years ago in the Leeds Parish
Church. It is part of a Runic cross bearing his name, and it would
appear that much of the time of this Danish monarch had been
passed between York and Tadcaster and Leeds.
Mr. Geo. T. Clark, the well-known writer on military architecture
in England, observes that at Tadcaster there are a group of earth
works, which he refers to the same Danish period. I will quote at
once what he says:
These earthworks are of considerable size and extent, and occupy a portion
of rather low land on the right bank of the Wharfe, a little above the town and
close to the parish church. The group contains three isolated conical mounds,
about 30 to 40 feet high, and about o feet in diameter on the flat top. The most
western of the three is very distinctly a moated mound, but it has been much
mutilated to supply materials for banking out the river. From the other mounds
it is divided by a very deep and broad ditch, which evidently was filled from the
river, and is still (1880), when the river is full, flooded by water which rises
through the gravelly bottom.
The other two mounds are also separated by a very formidable ditch. Of these
the one nearest to the river is the most considerable, and probably bore the shell
keep of the castle, of which, however, no traces are now visible. In the skirts
of the third mound, that nearest to the church, are two vaults, entered through a
sort of pigstye or shed. Upon a very superficial view they did not appear to be
very old, but they may have been the receptacles beneath a garderobe.”
Finally Mr. Clarke concludes that the earthworks are not British,
and notwithstanding the Roman history and name of Tadcaster, can
scarcely be attributed to that people. They are more likely, he says,
to be of northern origin and not improbably the work of Danish
settlers, “of whom Anlaf or Olaf seems to have had a residence here
towards the middle of the 10th century.”

The term “castle hill” applied to pre-historic earthworks, where no castle of masonry has ever stood, is not uncommon in this county and elsewhere. But in the case of the Tadcaster earthworks there are just grounds for assuming the existence, at some time, of a stone- built castle on these thrown-up mounds. A tradition of this kind seems always to have prevailed in the neighbourhood, and Leland, whom I have quoted a page or two back, refers to it in the 16th century. It is very probable that the castle was of pre-Norman date, but no documentary proof of a castle after the Conquest, nor any evidence of a license to crenellate is forthcoming, though it is not unlikely the Percies resided here before their local strongholds were built at Spofforth and Bolton Percy. William de Percy’s famous grant to the monks of Sallay, before 1168, was made in magno lacito apud Tadecastre, while King John, with his court, was at Tadcaster in 1209. Also in a grant by Edward II. of certain lands to the Priory of Knaresbro’, in the year 1318, the document is signed by the King at Tadcaster (Teste rege apud Tadcastre), which certainly supports the idea of a strong house or castle here at that time. Certain plants, now wild, also favour the idea that there were cultivated gardens about the old Castle Hill. The green hellebore, particularly, is said to be very partial to old ruins, and used at one time to grow very plentifully on this land.

Chapter Two

Records of Eight Centuries

Whether the Percies still maintained the old castle at Tadcaster is problematical, but on April 14-15th, 1209, the town was visited by King John, and there must have been a house of importance to accommodate the monarch and his retinue. At this time the Norman Barons were actually, if not in name, the greatest power in the land, and they resented the grinding imposts laid upon them by the despotic King. John’s visit to Tadcaster would be countenanced but not welcomed, and there is small doubt he would be received with mock joy. The Barons were shortly afterwards in open rebellion, and the King was compelled to acknowledge their power and many common grievances, by publicly signing Magna Charta (1215), which restored and confirmed the liberties of his subjects in all cities, towns, and ports in the kingdom. Suitors were no longer, by this grand concession, compelled to follow the King in his progresses; assizes were to be taken in authorised places, and justice by fair trial, brought home to every man’s door. In 1206 the King’s Court was at Doncaster and William de Percy was one of the six justices who sat there. In 1208 the Court was held again at Doncaster and also at York, and among the eight justices present was Robert de Percy. This Robert was not lord of Tadcaster, as according to the Red Book of the Exchequer giving Knight’s Fees in 12th and 13th John (1210-11),  William de Percy is declared to be then seized of 15 Knight’s Fees (a very large and remarkable holding) of the Honour of Tadcaster.
There was a Robert de Percy living at Bolton Percy in 1276, and he it was who granted to Archbishop John Rornanus free passage for the transport of stone from the quarries at Tadcaster to York. The charter is printed in the Monasticon (iii., 163), and though undated, must have been written before 1290-I, when Archbishop Romanu began the building of the noble nave of York Minster. But long before this date the old quarry in Thevedale had been granted to the Chapter by William de Percy for material to erect the Minster, that is the south transept, begun early in the pontificate of Archbishop Gray (1215-1255). A right of free passage along an ancient cart-road to the quarry, was also granted to the Chapter by Robert le Vavasour, about the same time. This William de Percy, who was the justice, above mentioned, died in 1244, and his son Henry, who died and was buried at Sallay Abbey in 1272, obtained a charter from King Henry III. in 1270, to hold a market and fair at his nianor of Tadcaster. The charter, preserved in the Public Record Office, is so much stained and in such bad condition, that I am unable to present a transcript of it. It is, however, ratified to be held weekly, on Tuesday.
Henry, son of Henry de Percy, in 1295 obtained a further royal concession, in that he had granted the right of free warren, that is to take conies, pheasants, woodcock, and other game in his demesne lands at Tadcaster. So jealous were the feudal monarchs of encroaêhments upon the royal forests, that a Crown license was necessary before any man could take as much as a rabbit off his own land.
I have just mentioned the old quarries at Huddleston, which have, doubtless, been worked, as already explained, from Roman times. When the Minster was commenced, traffic along the old Roman road, between these places, would be considerably increased, and a bridge over the Wharfe at Tadcaster would be a necessity. Although the bridge did exist, I find from the Fabric Rolls of the Minster that the stone was conveyed in wains from the quarries in Thevedale to the water-side at Tadcaster, and thence transported by boat to York (per navem a Tadcastre nsque Ebor). In 1419 I find the large sum of £6 paid for the transport by boat of 200 measures of stone from Tadcaster to York. In the will of William Barker, of Tadcaster, dated Oct. 22nd, 1403, a bequest is made to the fabric of the Minster for “caryyng unius shypfull petrarum per aquam;” a curious admixture of English and Latin, by the way; but the statement shews that the river and not the road was the common highway of goods traffic in those days.
The quarries named had a wide reputation, and stone from them was sent to many other places in England besides York. Sculptured fragments of the Tadcaster stone may be found here and there in Yorkshire, built into church and monastic walls of millstone-grit and other stone. In the gritstone walls of Bingley Church, in Airedale, are several such odd pieces. In 1281 the canons of the church of Howden had a quarry “in Tevesdale, adjoining the King’s quarry”. In 1291 the Abbot and Convent of Selby obtained a charter, entitled Carta de Quareva, from the Prior of Marton, in the Forest of Galtres, granting them permission to work three acres of a quarry in Theves dale, near Tadcaster, between the quarry of the Abbot and Convent of Thornton and that of’ the Prior and Convent of Drax. We have here evidence that at this time the quarries were being worked\by at least three monasteries, in addition to the Canons of Howden and the Chapter of York. That Drax Abbey was one of them is interesting because it shews that the fragments in Bingley Church, above alluded to, came from these quarries, as the church, down to the Dissolution, was a possession of that Priory.
But while discussing the subject of these quarries and the transport of material, let me once more turn to the bridge. William de Percy, I have observed, was lord of Tadcaster in 1272, and in the following year, I find from the records in the Hundred Rolls, that upon a commission issued 2nd Edward II., it was found that toll was taken by John le Vavasour, at his lime-mill at Sutton (?Stutton), near Tadcaster; also by Baldwin Wake at Kirkehy (Wharfe); while the bailiff of the lady the Queen took toll at the bridge of Tadcaster, but by what warrant the jurors know not. The bridge had, doubtless, been erected by one of the early Percies, and on the death of Henry de Percy, Queen Eleanor became the guardian of his heir, who was a minor. But Magna Charta had, by one of its clauses, expressly prohibited the erection of new bridges so as to burden and oppress the neighbourhood, and it would appear that Tadcaster Bridge had then existed “time out of memory,” for the jurors, in 1273, were ignorant as to the origin of the toll that was then levied upon those who used it. It was not until 1530 that the first statute was passed relegating the custody of the principal highways and bridges to the county. Many of the old roads and bridges had been constructed by private bounty, and their owners exacted tolls, which in some cases have been maintained irrespective of successive statutes regulating the conduct of more recent public highways. Thoresby, in his Diary, says that he “returned by Scholes over another part of Winmoor,” where he “observed the toll-gatherer’s booth, where the agents of Sir Thomas Gascoigne are ready to receive toll of the carriages, which at a penny a pair of wheels, amounts to a considerable sum.”
But to continue the story of Tadcaster from the prosperous reign of Edward I. An enquiry had been held in 1258 to ascertain the extent and value of the manor, from which it would appear that many of the tenants had been enfranchised, and that a large part of the estate had been disposed of. In 1284 the Percies held only four carucates of land in Tadcaster, where ten carucates make a knight’s fee, which they held of the King in capite, paying 4s. annually to the Sheriff’s fine. When King Edward’s eldest daughter was married, in 1290, Henry de Percy contributed 16s., being his quota for Tadcaster, of the levy of 40s. on every knight’s fee in the kingdom. Thus the Percies had been well disposed towards their Tadeaster tenantry, giving them every encouragement, and they now owned only half the quantity of land here which they did in 1083. There seems to have been no local grants to the monasteries.
It is interesting to note that in 1258 there were three water-mills here (two mills had sufficed for the population in 1083), which with fishing, yielded to the lord 8 marks annually. He had also a court with garden, let out to farm, which produced 50s. yearly. Though no hail, manor-house or castle, is specified by name, the reference to a manor-court and garden, suggests the existence, past or present, of a capital-mansion, perhaps then in decay, and worth nothing beyond reprises. Six of the tenants were bond in body and goods to the lord, just as the dog and his kennel are to his master at the present day, to be destroyed or disposed of as the master pleaseth. The lord had also an oven or bakehouse in the town, where the tenants were obliged to bake their bread and pay for so doing. Many of these old feudal bakehouses can still be traced, as at Leeds and Skipton.

Chapter Three

Records of Eight Centuries Part II

The accession of the hapless Edward II. brought the serpent out of his lair, and for a long period it hung
relentlessly upon mart and cross. The disasters of this reign brought misery and poverty to the town. The
victory at Bannockburn in 1314 brought the marauding Scots like locusts into the district, who ate up the best they could find, carried off the cattle, and brutally ill-treated the inhabitants, many of the stronger of whom fled for their lives, conveying as much corn away as they could. The Scots also entered the church, sacked, and nearly destroyed it; the manor-house, with its chapel, in Tadcaster East also went, as the pre-existing castle or manor-seat of the Percies,
near the church, would appear to have been not then in existence. This was in 1318, when the Percies had already, ten years before, built and strongly fortified their castles at Spofforth and Leckonfield. In the year of Bannockburn an inquisition had been made touching the possessions of the Yorkshire lordships, when it was found that Percy held Tadcaster of the King in caftite by knight service. The Percies were in the thick of the campaigns that followed, but the
English army, under the weak direction of Edward II., was unable to stem the ever-flowing devastation of the stalwart Highland invaders into north England. “The condition of Northumberland,” observes Mr. Cadwallader J. Bates, “was terrible in the extreme. For fifteen years after 1316 the whole country remained waste, no one daring to live in it except under the shadow of a castle or walled town.” The church at Tadcaster, which had been valued in 1290 at £43. 6s. 8d., was reduced to £28. 6s. 8d. in 1318, while the annual value of the vicarage was worth only £6. 13s. 4 Owing to the ravages of the Scots the inhabitants could not pay their accustomed tithes and taxes. Old Froissart relates in graphic detail, the sorry plight of Edward’s army during its expeditions in vainly endeavouring to allay the waste caused by the marauders. Men and horses were often without food or drink for days together, or they carried but one ill-baked loaf strapped to their back. In the rage of hunger, men in their madness fought and killed those who had been the companions of their long and miserable marches. Nobles and knights fared little better, and the whole country was in a state of despair and anarchy. Such were the fruits of the second Edward’s government.
The misery caused by all this loss was accentuated by an outbreak of murrain among cattle; the land had become soured by excessive rains and the want of proper tillage. This had its effect upon the people, and the annals of the next thirty or forty years abound with the horrors of famine and pestilence, which carried off thousands of the struggling poor. A special and new form of disease known as the Black Death, which I have previously mentioned, was the means of still further reducing the population, sparing neither rich nor poor; it being especially fatal to the Yorkshire clergy. An extended dissertation might be written on the social and economic changes that took place in the i century in parts of Yorkshire compared with Tadcaster. I find it evident from certain hitherto unpublished Lay Subsidies for Tadcaster at this period, that the town and district had enjoyed a high degree of prosperity down to the beginning of the 14th century. Even the depredations caused by the incursions of the Scots in 1318-19 did not leave the neighbourhood of Tadcaster in that state of cruel bankruptcy so observable in many other places. The tenths and fifteenths, which were the temporary aids issuing out of personal property, continued to be paid by the people of Tadcaster with surprising regularity. The tenths are said to have been first granted in the reign of Henry II. in order to defray the religious expeditions against Saladine, Emperor of the pagan Saracens, whence it was at first denominated the Saladine tenth. Subsequently a ninth was imposed by the Crown on all cities and boroughs, that is to say the ninth part of all their goods and chattels were to be taken

and levied by lawful and reasonable assessment, “in aid of the good
keeping of this realm as well by land as by sea.” “Poor boraile
people,” that is those who like the boors or farmers and labourers
had to live by the sweat of their brows, were exempt from the tax,
but all those who make profit by trade, as merchants, and “such
who dwell in forests and wastes,” were to be taxed at afifteenth.
Originally, says Blackstone, the amount of these taxes was
uncertain, being levied by assessments new made at every fresh
grant of the Commons, a commission for which (A.D. 1232) is
preserved by Matthew Paris. This at length was reduced to a
certainty, when by virtue of the King’s commission, dated 8th
Edward III. (1334), new taxations were made of every township,
borough, and city in the kingdom and recorded in the Exchequer.
This rate was at the time the fifteenth part of the value of every
township, the whole for the kingdom amounting to about £29,000,
and therefore it still kept up the name of a fifteenth, when, by the
alteration of the value of money and the increase of personal property,
things came to be in a very different situation. So that when of
later years, the Commons granted the King a fifteenth, every parish
in England immediately knew its proportion; that is the identical
sum that was assessed by the same aid in 1334, was raised by a rate
among themselves and returned it into the royal Exchequer.
The rateable value of Tadcaster was then, about fifteen years after
the Scottish ravages, 45s.5d made up of a fifteenth of all taxable
property. The following unpublished particulars give the names of
the inhabitants of Tadcaster who contributed to the levy, with the
amounts:
Rad’ de Normanville, 4s. 1d.; Will Call, 5s.; Thom. Ayr, 3s. 6d.; Simon
Hardicors, 3s. ; Ad. Borcher, 5s. 1d. ; Thom. Frer, 3S. ; Will. Wynter, 3s. 6d.
Walt’ de Batherton, 2s. 6d. ; Joh’ Pollard, 2s. 6d. ; Marg’. his wife, 3s. 6d.; Thom’
le Barker, 3s. 6d.; Robert Pistor, 3s. 6d. ; Rog’ fabro, 2s. 6d. Sum’ 45s. 5d.
Assessors and venditors were appointed for every district to assess and sell the movable goods; and this came very hard in times of scarcity or when great sickness prevailed. People in our own day can hardly realize the severity of life, hard fare and impoverishment which these constant drains on the goods of a township meant to its
upholders. Many sank under the burden, and famine and disease followed. There had been great mortality amongst the poor throughout the reign of Edward II., and from the next assessments
I meet with concerning Tadcaster, it is apparent that the parish had a hard struggle to maintain its credit when the Bailiffs called upon the town to deliver its quota of taxes in the 18th or 20th Edward III. ( the exact year is doubtful). William de Scargill and John de Burton were appointed collectors, and this is their report for Tadcaster:
Rad’ de Normanvill, 5s. 4d ; Thoma ffrere, 3s. ; Marg’ wife of Ad’ Barcar, 6s. 4d. Thom. Bercar, 4s. Robert le Bakester, 3s. ; Simone Hardicors, 4s. Richard de Kirkeby, 3s. Marg’ wife of Joh 3s.; Ad’ fabro’, 3s. Will’ de Ledes, 3s. ; Joh. Cokesford, 16d. Summa, 38s. rod.
The amount thus paid in 1344-6 was 6s. 7 or about one-seventh less than was raised about a dozen years earlier. It undoubtedly indicates a diminution of population or a reduction of the trading- class in the town to the condition of farm labourers. The status of the town had unmistakably suffered. It exhibits, however, a very different state of affairs from that which prevailed even four or five years previously, when according to the Inquisitiones Nonarurn of , Edward III. (i there were only two men in the parish able to pay above 1s. towards the fifteenth of movable property. One was Simon Hardicors, whose goods were worth 5 marks ( 6s. 8d), and he contributed to the imperial taxes the fifteenth value of them, or 4s. 5d.; the other was Benedicto de Grymeston, who paid 20d. The eleven others contributed sums from 3 to 10d. each. It will be observed that the above Simon Hardicors contributed 4s. in 1344-6; and there were ten other taxpayers. Everybody else in the parish was either a farmer or a labourer, and thought too poor to contribute to the imperial levy.
Then four or five years afterwards there broke out the terrible Black Death, and our records of Tadcaster for many years following are ominously silent. Three successive pestilences followed in this century, but they were not so destructive as that of 1348-9; for one reason the population was so much reduced there were fewer left to destroy. One Tadcaster vicar, Richard de Sourby, died in December, 1349, no doubt of this fell pestilence. The records of York shew a terrible mortality among the local clergy at this time. In the city of York it must have been a difficult matter to find people to bury the dead, as more than half the population is recorded to have succumbed. No Parliament assembled between January, 1349, and the same time in 1352, and many peers were absent owing to the plaga pestilenci mortalis. When the plague was over the Government made a serious drain on the able-bodied men of the country, who were called out to serve in the wars. As a consequence the land suffered greatly, men were scarce, and the price of labour rose enormously. In places like Tadcaster where there was a large number of freeholders, besides
villein-tenants who had their services to the lord commuted for a fixed quit-rent, these warlike times were certainly in favour of such freeholders and copyholders, as the fixed money payments did not represent even a sixth part of the value of such services due to the landlords, who had therefore good reason to complain. When the Poll-Tax was levied in 1378, which is the next record we have of Tadcaster, it is obvious that the contracted population had profited
by the scarcity of the preceding years, and many of the inhabitants formerly in the position of mere labourers, were now tradesmen or merchants of moderate standing in the town. It is not likely, however, they were silent or neglected to demur to the oppressive taxation which that warlike monarch imposed on his subjects. When the tax
was raised from a groat to three groats (equivalent to about 20s. of present currency), on all able persons above 15 years of age, there was a loud cry of resentment which ended in open rebellion; and when at length the insurrection was crushed the inhabitants of York had to pay 1000 marks before a pardon was granted to them.
These Poll Tax returns of 1378, when compared with the subsidies already cited, shew, that while Tadcaster had not escaped the terrible ordeals of famine and pestilence of the preceding generation, it was then, if not one of the most influential, at any rate one of the most populous and opulent towns in the county. There were 6o married
couples then living in the town, besides 23 single adults; and allowing for absentees in war, &c., the total population would be not less than 400. This enumeration includes the township of Tadcaster and possibly Oxton and Catterton, which are not separately specified, and their population may have been annihilated by the Black Death.
But Toulston is mentioned as having 11 married couples and 8 single above the age of 16 ; likewise Huddleston-cum-Lumby had 12 married couples and 4 single adults, and Stutton had 24 married
couples and 5 single adults. It is interesting to observe that the town, situated on a great
highway, was at this time (1378), famous for its brewhouses and good inns, there being two breweries, mentioned in 1341, and no fewer than five married hostilers, each rated at 18d., in the town, and
one other at Toulston, but these hostilers were not exactly innkeepers as the term is understood to day. There were also three merchants, a draper, four wrights and blacksmiths, a walker or fuller, and a dyer,
a tailor, a mason, and two shoemakers. The rest were employed in agriculture, and paid 4d each to the war tax. One can understand the presence of four blacksmiths on such a busy thoroughfare, but
these smiths also obtained a good deal of outside work, in the manufacture of iron fittings for ox-wains, ploughs, chains, &c. In

1404, for example, I find William Marshall, of Tadcaster, was paid
6s. 2d. by the Chapter of York for 20 iron wedges for service in the quarries, probably at Thevedale. It may be noted that there is no suggestion of a castle or manor-house existing at Tadcaster at this
era.
The disaster of 1314, it has been said, put back the dial-hand of civilisation fully two centuries, and during the whole of this period, and even longer, the annals of Tadcaster are full of the records of war and alarm, poverty and heavy taxation. It was hardly possible to obtain more than the barest existence, so constant and oppressive were the levies made upon the people during this long and troubled era. Contrasting life at that time with events at present, well may the English people rejoice at the wise counsels that have prevailed during the era of our late Sovereign Lady Victoria, the close of whose glorious reign found them in a condition of security and comfort never equalled in the nation’s history.
The close of the 14th century found Tadcaster again plunged in the excitement caused by the downfall of Richard II. The Bloody Assize, following the rebellions of Wat Tyler and Jack Straw, was scarcely over, when the ill-starred King was thrown into Pontefract Castle, and there, in the language of Shakespeare, he was “hacked to death.” Henry of Lancaster had landed in Yorkshire, and from Ravenspur, he reached London at the head of 6o,ooo men. The Earl Marshal, Thomas Mowbray, who was lord of Wighill, near Tadcaster, together with Archbishop Scrope, raised a rebellion in 1405, but through the strategy of the Earl of Westmorland, they were taken prisoners, and both soon afterwards were beheaded at York. The execution of these nobles created much ferment. Never before had an English prelate died by the axe of the public headsman. Hot with rage the Earl of Northumberland, old Henry Percy, mustered what men he could, and donning them in his livery marched through Wetherby to Tadcaster, where he added to his ranks, and thence on to Bramham Moor. Here he was met by the King’s troops in command of the High Sheriff, Sir Thos. Rokeby, when a sharp battle followed, and the Earl was slain, 19th February,1408.  His lands were all confiscated, together with those of at least one of his Tadcaster tenants, who had joined the Earl on his last march. The following particulars relating to this disaster have not before been printed
ATTAINDER OF ROBERT ESYNGWOLD, OF LANDS IN TADCASTER, 1408.
INQUISITION indented taken ex officio at Tadcaster xxvii. day of the month of ffebruary the eighth year of the reign of King Henry the fourth after the conquest (1408) before Thomas Egmanton Escheator of the lord King in the county of York. By the oath of Robert Dryffeld of Tadcaster, William Parson of the same, William Skelton, William Marshall, Richard Ednel, John Colingham, John Warde, William Walker, John Wryglye, John Bolton, John Warde, junr., and William Banaster, jurors, who present that Robert Esyngwold traitor was in arms against the lord King and his allegiance in company of Sir Henry Percy late Earl of Northumberland the viijth day of the month of May the sixth year of the reign of the Kiug above-said in the County of Northumberland and afterward the said Robert about the feast of St. John Baptist the sixth year of the said King was an adherent of the Scots enemies of the lord King against his allegeance which said Robert Esyngwold was seized on the day aforesaid on which he as a traitor rebelled against his King, of one waste piece of land, thirty acres of land, two shillings of rent, three acres and three roods of meadow with their appurtenances in the township of Tadcaster in the County of York which piece of land, thirty acres of land, two shillings rent, three acres and three roods of meadow, with their appurtenances in Tadcaster aforesaid by occasion of the rebellion and treason of Robert Esyngwold aforesaid belong and are forfeit to the lord King. Also they present that aforesaid waste piece of land, xxx. acres of land, ijs. rent, three acres three roods of meadow, are held of aforesaid Henry late Earl as of his manor of Spoford by the service of paying to the said manor per ann. vijd. ob. for all services and worth per ann. according to the true value of the same beyond reprises xiijs. iiijd. Also they present that aforesaid piece of waste land, xxx. acres of land, ijs. rent, three acres and three roods of meadow with appurtenances from the day of rebellion and treason of aforesaid Robert to the day of this Inquisition have laid waste and are held in default useless and uncultivated. In witness whereof to this Inquisition the jurors above-said have set their seals. Given the day place and year above-said.
The old Earl’s valorous and famous son, young Harry Hotspur, had fallen in the same cause at Shrewsbury in 1403; while his younger brother, Sir Ralph Percy, had also been slain in battle with the Saracens two years before. The great House of Percy was therefore now all but extinct; there being but one male heir left, namely, Henry, son of Hotspur, who was restored to his grandfather’s honours and became Earl of Northumberland in 1414. He fell at St. Albans in 1455, leaving a son and heir, Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, who as already related, died with his brother, Sir Richard Percy, on the bloody field of Towton in 1461.   

Never was excitement so high at Tadcaster as on the memorable
day of this terrible conflict between the White Rose and the Red.
The inhabitants of the town were kept in a state of supreme suspense,
awaiting the issue of this mighty battle, for the noble and valorous
Percy, who sided with Lancaster, was their lord, and many must
have thought that if the day was lost to him, their own lives would
be in peril. What was their consternation, then, on witnessing at
the close of that dreadful Palm Sunday, thousands of flying
.Lancastrians swarming wildly into the town, many unarmed and
capless and covered with wounds, leaving trails of their blood in the
streets, crowding on to the bridge, then a much narrower structure
than it is now, and falling a prey to the savage onslaught of the
Yorkists. No quarter was given, it was useless crying for mercy.
Many of the oppressed, however, managed to reach York, others
shut themselves up in the old Priory at Helaugh. The Stapletons
at Wighill, being like many of their neighbours, staunch Lancastrians,
it is supposed took refuge in Cumnberland. Henry Percy, who was
a minor at his father’s death in 1461, was restored in blood and
honours by Edward IV. He died in 1489 and was buried at
Beverley. He must have had a residence or strong-house at
Tadcaster, for after the Yorkshire and Lincolnshire rising, instigated
by Warwick, the King came to York, and, says Stowe, reached
Tadcaster on 19th March, 1471, and next day proceeded to Wakefield.
Within a month of this time fell the great Earl of Warwick, the
king-maker, “ last of the Barons,” by whose death was extinguished
the stirring age of feudal chivalry.
Tadcaster, though crushed with heavy taxation during most of the
life-time of the above Earl Percy, seems to have felt something of
the effects of returning prosperity in the intervals of peace. Henry
Tudor was now on the throne (1485), and he decided to make a grand
tour through his dominions, with the object of conciliating the people.
He rode in great state, attended by numerous nobles and followers,
all glittering in scarlet and gold. What impression the ceremony
made upon the people of Tadcaster, as the lately-crowned King
and his retinue passed through the town, history does not relate,
The Earl Percy met his Highness on the road, as old Leland quaintly
describes it : “ By the way in Barnesdale, a little beyond Robin
Hudde stone, th’erle of Northumberland with a right great and noble
company, mete an gave his attendance upon the King, with 38 knyghts of his fee’d men, besides esquires and yeomen At ‘radcastel the King, richly besene in a gowne of clothe of gold furred with ernlyn, took his courser. His hensheman and folowers also in goldsmythes work were richly besene. And so to York.”
Tadcaster has, indeed, had a large share of royal visits, for as we have seen, monarchs and princes were here before the Conquest, and for many centuries afterwards it continued to be a royal highway to and from York. In the summer of 1503 the Princess Margaret, wife of James IV-, of Scotland, passed through the town with much pomp. She was attended by the young Earl of Northumberland, “with many lords, ladies, knights, esquires, tnd gentlemen,” all finely mounted and richly caparisoned, to the number of full five hundred. The party dined at Tadcaster and then went on to York.
Tadcaster was also destined to occupy a prominent place in the great religious rebellions known as the Pilgrimage of Grace and the Rising in the North. The monasteries were threatened with immediate destruction, when Sir Robert Aske, of Aughton, near Howden, who was in the company that attended the Princess Margaret, at Tadcaster, I have just mentioned, resolved to organize a stout resistance to such a cruel and high-handed desecration as that which the King’s measure implied. It had also got noised abroad that some of the parish churches were to be put down, so that no two should be nearer than five miles apart. Either• Tadcaster or Bolton Percy was to be retained, but Wighill, Walton, and Thorp Arch would have to be given up. A commissioner appearing at Tadcaster and requiring the churchwardens to render an account of
the church-plate, awakened a suspicion that it was going to be seized and chalices of copper substituted for those of gold.
Sir Thomas Percy, younger brother of the Earl of Northumberland, in common with most of the Yorkshire gentry, joined Aske in this futile attempt to stem the tide of the Reformation. Speed says the
rebellious were all “rustics,” but the castles of Scarborough. and
Skipton alone in this county held out for the King, so universal and
bitter was the resentment of such an outrage on men’s consciences.
Aske took York, and also Pontefract, while Skipton, too, appears to
have temporarily fallen into the hands of the rebels. Their success,
however, was of short duration, for within a few months resistance
became useless, and the leaders of th rebellion were taken; the
Abbots of Whalley, Sawley, Jervaux and Fountains were all

executed; Aske was hanged at York; Sir Thomas Percy, Sir John Hamrnerton, and Sir John Bulmer suffered at Tyburn; Lady Bulmer was burnt; Lord Darcy, of Templehurst, was hanged on Tower Hill ; Sir Nicholas Tempest was hanged at York; and Sir Robert Constable, of Flamborough, suffered at Hull.
But the rancour was still in men’s hearts; their bodies might be smitten, but the spirit of old creeds could not be crushed. Again they rose in rebellion ; this time Percy’s son, Thomas, created in 1557 Earl of Northumberland, and Charles Neville, Earl of West morland, were in the forefront of the rising. At the very outset of the campaign Earl Percy had been nearly taken unawares while sleeping at his manor of Topcliffe, near Thirsk, but he escaped by a stratagem. This was in the autumn of 1569. A large number of brave, willing, and determined followers were soon gathered under the banners of the two Earls. Their standard-bearer was old Richard Norton, of the ancient family of Norton Conyers and Rilston in Craven, to whom, in the words of an old ballad, Earl Percy addressed a letter soliciting his assistance,— Come thou hither, my little foot-page,
Come thou hither unto mee,
To maister Norton thou must goe,
In all the haste that ever may bee.
The letter is successful, for not only does the head of the house decide to assist the Earl, but he is joined in his resolve by “his eight good sons.” The story of this family is full of tragic romance, and their unhappy fate forms the theme of Wordsworth’s beautiful poem, The White Doe of Rylsion.
Many of the incidents of this unfortunate rebellion took place about Wetherby and Tadcaster, and many a local man paid dearly for his temerity. The prime object of the movement was the irrevocable restoration of the Catholic religion, and the placing of Mary of Scotland on the English throne. Setting out with this determination, they besprinkled their faithful army with holy-water, as had confirmed and encouraged their forefathers in the brave days of the monasteries. Then they marched triumphantly to Darlington and Richmond and back to Ripon, where mass was said in the Cathedral. Picking up fresh adherents as they went along, by ,the time they reached Wetherby they were several thousand strong. There they heard that a detachment of footmen was on the way to assist the Queen’s forces at York, soa strong, armed party set out from Wetherby and intercepted the Protesta at Tadcaster, taking 200 of them prisoners. Next day they mustered on Clifford Moor and their

numbers were found to consist of 1600 horse and 4000 foot. But they were not yet able enough to attack York, so they waited about Tadcaster, gathering recruits, and Sir Thomas Wentworth writing on Dec. 3 1569, to the Marquis of Winchester, says they were “lying between York and Tadcaster for a week or upwards.” Their object was eventually to capture York, which was then held for the Queen by Lord Sussex, and they also sent out spies along the roads towards Selby and Ferrybridge to intercept, if possible, the strengthening of the York garrison by any fresh supplies from the south. On Dec. 4 however, Lord Darcy and Sir Thomas Gargrave agreed to convey treasure and ammunition from Doncaster to York, and within the next few days they succeeded in reaching that city.
The Papist army now retired northwards and laid siege to Barnard Castle, which capitulated after a gallant stand made by Sir George Bowes and his brother, Robert Bowes. Sir George could have held out possibly until the arrival of reinforcements from York, but the bulk of his men were at heart for the old faith, and owing to the daily desertion of the garrison over the walls, he was obliged to evacuate the place; thence he proceeded with the remnant of his supporters to York. Here a Council of War was held, and on Dec.15th the Earl of Sussex and Sir George Bowes returned with a well-equipped army to Barnard Castle. The Catholics were then put to flight, and their two leaders, with old Richard Norton, fled into Scotland, leaving their disconsolate adherents to make the best escape they could. Earl Percy was afterwards captured and brought to the scaffold at York 22nd August, 1572. Thus he died, leaving four daughters, co-heiresses, but no male issue.
By the end of the year every spark of the rebellion had been extinguished, and many hundreds of its unhappy partisans were thrown into foul gaols. Wetherby, like Cawood and Sherburn, had been a garrison of the Queen for some time, and on Jan. 6th, 1569- 70, Lord Admiral Clynton writes from there that “all the army is discharged excepting 1500 men.” On Feb. 1st, Captain Thomas Leighton begs for allowance of conduct-money and other charges for the officers and 500 common soldiers on a march from Wetherby to London. Meanwhile the unfortunate victims of the rebellion were sadly awaiting their doom. Sir George Bowes, who had charge of “this business,” now ordered gibbets to be erected in nearly every market-town and public place between Newcastle and Tadcaster. He gave out warrants to the constables of the several townships where gibbets were erected, and ere many weeks were spent, crowds of anxious onlookers witnessed the sickening sight of hundreds of

ill-starred men and youths “swinging for their religion.” There is an enclosure on the York road, just out of Tadcaster, called Gallows Field, which in all probability marks the site of some such gibbet.
During the month of February, Queen Elizabeth issued a Declaration “to all her loving subjects,” setting forth the malicious libels both from abroad and at home, which led to the rebellion in the North. The principles on which her government had been conducted were pointed out, and the “ unexampled prosperity” enjoyed by England since her accession, as also her determination to continue in support of the true Christian religion, and to administer the laws with moderation, but at the same time with severity against disturbers of the public tranquillity. She appealed to all classes to continue in loyalty and obedience to the Throne and the laws of the realm. It is needless here to dwell upon the troubles that followed, although England under the laws passed in the reign of Elizabeth, was, no doubt, all the better for the new constitution.
To the able and steadfast Duke of Somerset, Baron Seymour of Hacke, must be attributed a large measure of the difficult work of promoting the Reformation. The government needed a “strong man,” who brooked no gainsay, and in his Protector Somerset the King found a staunch and even destructive partisan. The great Duke was ancestor of Charles Seymour, sixth Duke of Somerset, who married in 1682 Elizabeth, only surviving child and heiress of Joceline Percy, Earl of Northumberland, by whom he had Algernon, seventh Duke of Somerset, whose only surviving child, Elizabeth, wife of Sir Hugh Smithson, Bart., was mother of Algernon, fifth Duke of Northumberland. By the above marriage of Charles, Duke of Somerset, with the heiress of the Percies (who was twice a widow before the age of 16), the manor of Tadcaster came to this noble House. The Duke of Somerset’s daughter, Elizabeth, having married Henry, 8th Earl of Thomond, and Viscount Tadcaster, the property in Tadcaster passed to him. He died in i without issue, and was succeeded by his nephew, Percy, son of the eminent statesman, the Rt. Hon. Sir Wm. Wyndham, Chancellor of the Exchequer. He assumed the name of O’Brien, and in 1756 was created Earl of Thomond, but dying in unmarried, the Earldom expired. The Tadcaster estates came to Col. George Wyndham, of Petworth, Sussex, who in 1859 was created Lord Leconfleid, and he sold the manor, with lands, together with the advowson of the church, to the first Lord Londesborough, who died in 1860. In 1873 the manor of Tadcaster, with its royalties, fines, quit-rents, and privileges, together with the advowson of the church of Tadcaster, was purchased by Colonel Fairfax, of Bilbrough, for £23,000.
The trustees of the late Samuel Varley, Esq., are the present lords of the manor as well as patrons of the church, but the land is held by various owners.
In the 17th century Tadcaster was again one of the head-quarters in the broil of Civil War. Century after century, era after era, her peace had been destroyed and her progress impeded by entanglement in war; the ancient town—on the highroad to York—having always been regarded as a place of great strategical importance. Here in November, 1642, was begun that fateful campaign which led to the extinction of the English monarchy in 1649. Ferdinando, Lord Fairfax, commander of the Parliamentary forces, “with an eye on York,” had entrenched himself on the west side of the bridge, while his gallant son, Sir Thomas, afterwards the “great Lord Fairfax,” was sent with 40 horse and 300 foot to hold the bridge at Wetherby. The Earl of Newcastle set out from York with a force of about 8000 men, of whom 2000 were horse and dragooners, and marching along the old Roman road by Street Houses, approached with seven pieces of cannon the old bridge at Tadcaster. Lord Fairfax had been obliged to relegate a considerable part of his force to Selby and Cawood, and when the Royalists came in sight he had not 800 men in his caIl. Nevertheless he resolutely commanded his little army to stick to the trenches, and when the battle began in the morning of Dec.7th they maintained their ground till sunset with deadly purpose, counting many dead in the fields on the opposite side of the Wharfe. A sortie was then made by the Royalists to take the bridge by storm, but in this they were repulsed, though in the struggle, Captain Lister, one of Lord Fairfax’s most gallant officers, was shot through the head. Henry Calverley, Esq., head of the house of Calverley Hall, near Leeds, a staunch Royalist, who had to compound for his estates, was probably captured in this engagement, as we find him shortly afterwards a prisoner at Cawood Castle. Eventually the troops of the Parliament were obliged to withdraw from sheer disparity in numbers, leaving the town in undisputed possession of the Royalists.
Evidences of these past events are not wanting in the remains and traditions of the fight existing at Tadcaster at the present day. The  agricultural development, which had its effect on the material well being of the people. One of the last local acts of the Percies I have noted, appears under the date, 18th Dec., 1647, when the Earl of Northumberland demised to Phineas, son of the Rev. Nathaniel Jackson, M.A., a messuage and certain lands in Tadcaster, which afterwards descended to the Hallows, of Norton, Co. Derby. The father of this Nathaniel Jackson was, I may add, John Jackson, rector of Melsonby, near Richmond, and one of his sons married a daughter of Ralph Bowes, descended from the family of Aske, whom I have lately mentioned in connection with the troubles of the Reformation.
These troubles were not yet at an end, for in spite of the show of joy and the ringing of church bells on the accession of James II., there were many in this neighbourhood, and notably the Fairfaxes, who feared a religious re-action, and had many and grave misgivings as to the future of the Protestant cause in theit midst. Roman Catholicism was now practically non-existent in the parish, and the inhabitants in consequence looked with no great favour on a monarch of such avowed Catholic bias as was King James. Down to this time in the century under review I can discover but the smallest trace of Catholic allegiance in the parish. In the return of Papists in 1604, certified by the Mayor and Aldermen of York, there were but 27 avowed Papists in the whole Ainsty, not one was in Tadcaster, though they were more numerous in Barkston Ash, but Lady Catherine Fairfax is mentioned among the recusants, and it is somewhat singular that one, Thomas Tailor, gent., is also certified as an unflinching Catholic. He is stated to be steward to the Earl of Cumberland, whose family were staunch Protestants, and had ever from the Dissolution of monasteries exerted themselves in promoting the Reformation. A family of the same name, consisting of four members, all living in Tadcaster, were also returned as recusants in 1637 and again in 1691, “Ann, ye wife of Thomas Taylor, gent.,” was reported as a Papist.
As Duke of York, the King had visited Tadcaster, with his amiable wife, who was a daughter of Lord Clarendon, in 1665, while on his way to pass a few months at York, during the terrible prevalence of the plague in London. On Tadcaster Bridge he was met by the Sheriffs, but at York neither the Lord Mayor nor Aldermen received him at the gate of the city, a significant lack of honour which drew on the magistrates the resentment of the King and a reprimand signed by the Home Secretary.

But as King his rule was not destined to live long. He had been greatly influenced by reading Dr. Heylin’s powerful History of the Reformation, a work of much note at that time, which was the means of winning many back to Rome, and the King now felt it his duty to further in every possible way the interests of the Catholic religion. He proceeded to convert one of the larger rooms in the old Manor House at York into a Chapel, in which Roman Catholic services continued to be celebrated for some time, and in other ways he endeavoured to promote the amenities of Catholics in the district. But the men of York and Tadcaster were not slow to resent such an intrusion upon their growing liberties, and when the news arrived that William, Prince of Orange, was about to land in this country, in order to champion the Protestant cause, the soldiers of York and Tadcaster were called out, and the cry went forth “A free Parliament, the Protestant religion, and no Popery!” Great was the rejoicing when William, with his Princess Mary, was proclaimed at York on Feb. 17th  1688-9. Bonfires blazed from many a Yorkshire hill-top, and high festival prevailed in town and country, many a place in the land being known to this day as Orange Hill, William’s Hill, Orange Rock, &c.
Shortly after the accession of William and Mary a readjustment was made in the rating of the inhabitants of Tadcaster. They had no doubt suffered greatly through the inclemencies of war, and in 1653 the old rod. rate, based upon a statute of 44th Elizabeth, was reduced to 6d., and the 4d thus taken off was put on other places, which had been less affected and had developed proportionately more than had Tadcaster. Indeed there seems to have been no extension of agriculture, in point of acreage, within the parish since the time of the war, while a number of other places had sped on wonderfully. This was the case at Drax, which had been all “tied land,” that is held by the Priory of Drax, and after the dissolution of the house, developed its resources amazingly. About 1690, Drax was stated to he worth £I500 annually. In the parish of Burne, again, it was stated that there had been 200 acres of common lately improved, which remained unassessed. So of other places. The West Riding authorities therefore decided to make the following readjustment, and Tadcaster was to continue a 6d. town. Drax was raised from 11d. to 111/2d Cawood 9d to 91/2d Wistow 9d to 91/2d, Barlow 3d to 4d, Burne 4d. to 5d, Carleton with Camblesworth 71/2d to 8d.; while Selby was reduced from 12d. to 11d.
The wars of the Succession kept the country in a state of ferment
for many years, and with the land and property tax now at 4s. in the  pound, public progress was during this time Thwarted. The cry that Queen Anne was dead, and had left no heirs, once more gave the Catholics their opportunity. Had any of the Queen’s children lived to be able to succeed to the throne (she had 18 children and all died young), it is very probable that neither of the Jacobite rebellions, with their terrible consequences, would have taken place. The people of Tadcaster, whose town had always been imposed upon for military purposes, and suffered accordingly, more than most other places, were prevented from carrying ont many needed improvements. Wearied with war and heavy taxation, public indifference grew into culpable neglect. The roads about Tadcaster at the commencement of the 18th century, appear to have been left to take care of themselves and in 1704 I find that 20 was estreated upon the inhabitants for the repair of Tadcaster Lane. When in 1715 the spirit of religious rebellion broke out, and James, “the Pretender,” hoped to achieve what the Pilgrims of the 16th century had failed in, the people of Tadcaster were called upon to provide foot-soldiers for the militia to serve in the King’s service. Their names are enrolled in the contemporary register of Sir Henry Goodricke, now at Bolton Abbey, which I have previously alluded to.
During the second Jacobite rising of 1745 the army of Marshal Wade appears to have passed through Tadcaster, or what seems more likely, to have taken either the road from Leeds through Harewood to Ripon, or the North Road through Wetherhy to Boroughbridge, where the forces arrived on Dec. 2 en route for Newcastle. Wade, however, despatched a flying column under General Oglethorpe from Wetherby, via Leeds and Bradford in order to intercept, if possible, Prince Charles’s northward retreat. An old woman named Betty Jackson, who died at Holbeck, near Leeds, in 1828, aged 106, used to relate that when she was a young woman she accompanied the pack-horses with rations to Marshal Wade’s army, lying about Tadcaster. The squadron, on arriving at Leeds, was billeted upon the able inhabitants, and it is said that the General was the guest of the Wades at the house now known as Kirkstall Grange.

A firm and wise-dealing government, led by Sir Robert Walpole, gave much security to the country under the House of Hanover, and many public works were now begun. Yet the bulk of the people felt little concern in these measures, and having begun to taste the fruits of prosperity, were loth to part with that which they were now reaping, on the improvement of roads and water-ways, and other notable and important works. Roads were still in a wretched state, and had we all the records of disasters on the great way to and from Tadcaster at this time, a sorry tale it would be. The establish ment of coaches in the latter years of the reign of George II. led to a widening and amending of the highways, to which, however, there was so much opposition that gangs of violent men and youths, not realizing the ultimate value of such improvements, destroyed the new roads in many places, and wrecked the toll-bars.
But the new roads were certainly not “all loss,” as many had foolishly imagined. It was found that the cost of transport was very considerably lessened, and that trade and public business were greatly facilitated. Tadcaster was one of the oldest post-towns in the country, and when the coaches started running, its business greatly increased. The town also obtained such renown that many persons were tempted to settle here and in the neighbourhood, and build houses for themselves, especially the gentry. Arthur Young, in describing his six months’ tour in the North of England in 1768, speaks of the Tadcaster road as excellent. In the hey-day of the coaches there were nearly fifty stage-coaches passing through and more than thirty of them changing horses in the town daily; the old White Horse, now the Londesborough Hotel, the A ngel, and Rose and Crown being the three great coaching-houses. But this number, as Mr. Bradley tells us, was greatly augmented “by the usual contingent. of post-chaises and private chariots,” while at Assize times, as was the custom, “the Lord Mayor of York and his attendant aldermen and councillors, met the Judges at the boundary of the city, whilst outriders were sent forward as far as Tadcaster to herald their approach, and their lordships in their State carriages passed through the town and over the old bridge, whilst the long, straggling street would be literally lined on both sides from end to end with chaises bearing barristers, lawyers and their clients, witnesses, constables, and numerous other concomitants natural to crime and litigation.”
The subsequent development of the woollen industries in such towns as Leeds, Bradford, Halifax, and Huddersfield, and the introduction of railways, left the old historic town of Tadcaster behind in the race for wealth. Of its later history and position I will speak in the chapter on the TOWN AND TRADE OF TADCASTER,

Chapter Four

The Parish Church

MEMORIES of unnumbered centuries gather round the Church of Christ in the old parish of Tadcaster. I
have elsewhere given evidence of the prevalence of Christianity in York and in Wharfedale during the
Roman occupation. Situated on the great military way between Chester and York, and beside a river sacred to the gods, as the Wharfe is known to have been, it is more than likely that a temple in honour of pagan deities would be very early erected here, and that this temple would he superseded by a Christian structure before the Roman evacuation of Tadcaster in the fifth century. I have said that the Roman town embraced the site of the existing church and churchyard in Tadcaster, where in all probability burials had taken place, if not in Roman, at any rate during the Saxon or Danish hierarchy, though burials within the precincts of the church
are certainly as old as the 4th century. This would also form another motive for the erection of the subsequent Norman church on such a low-lying site beside the river.
This church owed its foundation to the benevolence of William de Percy, or to his son, the great Alan, at the close of the 11th or early in the 12th century, as existing remains prove. The extent and importance of the parish also led to the foundation of other chapels and oratories in after times, and the discovery, in 1881 of a 15th century piscina, while digging in the cellar of the old Manor House, in Tadcaster East, belonging to Mr. Varley, leads me to believe that a chapel was also attached to a later manor-hall of the Percies, pulled down when the present house was built. The value of this sacred object does not appear to have been sufficiently ascertained, but I find it bears three shields of arms sculptured on three of its four sides, the fourth being plain, from its having been erected against a pillar or a wall. One of the coats is the Neville saltire displaying a crescent for difference (both Henry Percy, first Earl of Northumber land, who fell at Bramham in 1408, and Henry, the second Earl, slain at St. Albans in 1455, married daughters of the house of Neville), another, the chequy shield of Warren (also a Percy match), while the third bears the lion rampant of the Percies, a charge shewn in the Roll of Arms to have been first borne by Henry de Percy, who died in 1318. The Scottish ravages after Bannockburn were the probable cause of the wreck of this chapel; the Scots almost levelled the church. But the Percies, after 1309-10, resided at Spofforth, where a chapel was attached to the castle.
Owing to the bad state of the roads in early times, and in low- lying districts to the prevalence of floods, there were frequent petitions for the erection of convenient oratories or new chapels, so that the inhabitants might attend such places dry-shod in bad weather or when the waters were out. One such chapel is mentioned at Catterton,

and another chantry was built by private bounty at “Todecaster Townesende, distaunt from the parysshe churche a quarter of a myle.” It was dedicated to St. John the Baptist, and seems to have been much needed, as it became very popular. In 1414 licence had been granted to the Abbot and Convent of Sallay to have the dedication of Tadcaster Church translated from the 28th August, upon which the feast was held, over to the Sunday next after the feast of St. John the Baptist’s decollation, then to be solemnly celebrated every year, because of harvest time, in which it happened before. This chantry of St. John the Baptist was not, however, built and endowed until 1504. through the piety of William Vavasour of Cudsworth and William Cleveland, clerk, of Tadcaster. The necessity for it arose from “that there is a great water between the said parysshe and the chauntery, so that when it cresit with waters, the people there cannot come to the said parysshe churche.”
• The unfortunate situation of the church so close beside the river has always rendered it liable to inundations, and the damp and vapours arising from frequent incursions of water must have been the cause of many pains and rheums to those worshipping there. It must be remembered that our Catholic forefathers used their parish churches not on Sundays only, but every day of the week, and the old chantry-chapel at Tadcaster town-end had services performed in it four days in the week.
I cannot trace any serious flood in the church previous to the Reformation, though undoubtedly inundations must have been not infrequent in early times. Among the West Riding Sessions Rolls I have found the following record of an alarming state of the church arising from these floods in 1758. As will be seen water occasionally lay in the church to a depth of three feet or more.
PETITION REsPEcTING INUNDATIONS OF TADCASTER CHURCH.
(Pontefract Sessions, 3rd April, 1758.)
Upon the Petition of the Vicar, Churchwardens, and others, the Inhabitants within the Parish of Tadcaster, in the said Riding, setting forth that the Parish Church of Tadcaster aforesaid is situated very nigh the River Wharf, which very often overflows its banks and frequently the Church yard, and breaks into the said Church and makes such a depth of water therein that the petitioners cannot assemble to Divine Service therein without imminent danger of their lives, the water sometimes rising in the said Church to the height of three feet & upwards, and breaks down, removes and displaces the Closets, Seats and Pews within the said Church, and leaves so much wreck & dirt therein that the petitioners cannot assemble therein sometimes for near a month after such overflowing, and that the replacing the said Closets, Seats & Pews, and cleansing the said Church from

dirt & wreck has frequently lost the petitioners large sums of money. That in order to prevent the said river from overflowing and breaking into the said Church it will be necessary to raise the floor, walls & roof of the said Church three feet higher or more than the same are at present. That the walls of the said Church, by reason of the overflowing of the said river, are decayed, marked and shattered to such a degree that they are quite irreparable, and the roof so much shattered that the same must entirely be taken down & rebuilt, & that the pulling down, rebuilding & raising the said Church will cost upon a moderate computation the sum of one thousand & eighty-nine pounds over & besides the old materials, which sum the petitioners cannot raise amongst themselves without the assistance of charitable & well-disposed persons. The Truth of the allegations in which petition being proved to the satisfaction of this Court, jr is ORDERED that a Certificate be made thereof from this Court to the Lord Keeper of the great Seal of Great Britain, in order to procure for the said petitioners His Majesty’s most gra&ous letters patent to enable them to ask, collect & receive the contributions of religiously and charitably disposed people for the encourage ment & carrying on of so pious a work.
The Brief referred to in this petition was granted, and the church was restored, but to what extent is not stated. In 1776 a faculty was also granted to erect a gallery, and in 1802 another gallery was erected. A barrel-organ, at that time, stood in the chancel.
But before I describe the church, let me briefly review events connected with its early history. The church, as I have stated, was granted to Sallay Abbey by Matilda or Maude, Countess of Warwick, ca. 1180, and confirmed by charter of Agnes, her sister. That monastery had been founded by William de Percy, their father, who died in 1168, and in the chapter-house of the Abbey many of the family were buried with all the pomp and solemnity of ritual befitting their high station. As one stands within the ruins of that once great and stately monastery, and looks upon the place where neither stone nor brass remains to mark their long-revered burial-place, how the reflection is forced upon one of the vanity of all things human. The deeds of the mighty great are often buried with them; and well may we see in graven brass or sculptured tomb the hands uplifted towards Him who is their surest trust
The grantee of Tadcaster Church to Sallay Abbey had also by charter endowed the same and the Chapel at Hazlewood, with a carucate of land in Catton, where the Lady Matilda was born; likewise a yearly pension for perpetual masses for the souls of her husband and family “by the advice of the Lord Vavasour and other of our faithful lieges, and of the whole court.” Had we but a full catalogue of the magnificent series of Papal Regesta preserved in

the Vatican at Rome doubtless much of value and interest would be
forthcoming respecting our ancient churches in Yorkshire, and
particularly of those appropriated to the monasteries. There is at
Rome an almost unbroken series of contemporary letters, orders and
instructions of the Papal Court from the time of Innocent III.
(A.D. 1198), contained in upwards of 2000 volumes. This vast mine
of arch treasure has only partially been searched, and
through recent investigations I am enabled to present the following
interesting transcript relating to Tadcaster from one of the early
Papal Letters contained among the Vatican archives, and not before
published. It is a somewhat serious reflection on the depravity of the
times during the troubled era of King John. The clergy, it seems,
who ought to have been the guardians of public morals, were often
as bad or worse than the common people. Polygamy, to which the
paper alludes, had been strictly forbidden by canon-law at a remote
period, and in the early ages of Christianity, as we gather from
Tacitus (Dc mor Germ. 18), it is plain that a plurality of wives was
then considered repulsive and incompatible with a well-ordered
State. He says, ,brope soli brrbarorurn singulis uxoribus contenti sunt,
being strictly accordant with the divine fiat at the Creation. And
upon this doctrine that a man must be content with one wife the
marriage laws of this and other countries were ratified at a very early
date, and he who broke this law was in some states punishable by
death. But let us see what our Tadcaster parson had done.
DECREE 3RD H0N0RIUS III. A.D. 1218.
Mandate to the Abbot of Fountains, the Prior of Marton, in the Diocese of
York, and Master J. Romanus, Canon of York, to take proceedings on the showing
of the Abbot and monks of Sawley against Robert de Lelleia, clerk, of the Diocese
of York, who has had three wives and has publicly pleaded cases of bloodshedding
in the secular Courts, taking no notice of church censures, and presuming
unlawfully to hold the Church of Tadcaster, and many others, with cure of souls.
The document concludes by stating that the Pope had already
ordered them to report on the case, but his letters having been stolen
or lost in transit (a not uncommon occurrence at this time) they were
unable to act, and thus at the date of this order nothing had been
done. Whether the parson had been kept in prison in the interval,
or what was the ultimate verdict upon him, there are no present
records to show.
Among the same Vatican archives there is an order from Pope
Gregory IX., dated the 13th year of his pontificate (1239), authorizing
the Abbot and Convent of Sallay, in the diocese of York, to enter
into possession of, and hold to their uses, the church at Tadcaster, of

which the right of patronage had been granted to them by Matilda, Countess of Warwick, and William de Percy, patrons of the same, the indult to take effect on the death or resignation of the rector. A vicar’s portion to be reserved enough to support all charges of the Bishop, Archdeacon, and their officials. This hitherto unrecorded testimony to the ordination of a vicarage is important. Lawton says the vicarage was ordained 7 Ides August, 1290, but this refers to the Apostolic grant of certain tithes hereafter mentioned.
The living of the church was at this era very valuable, and in the Taxation of Pope Nicholas IV. (ca. 1292) it is set down as worth by the year 65 marks (£43. 6s. 8d.) ; the grant of a tenth of the possessions of the Church in England having been made to King Edward I. towards the expenses of an expedition to the Holy Land. In the New Taxation of his unfortunate son and successor, Edward II., made in 1318, the annual value of the church was reduced to £28 6s. 8d., and the vicarage was worth £6 13s. 4d or about
£120 of present money. Hammer and torch had made a wreck of
Tadcaster; the church was “demolished and laid waste,” these being the words of Archbishop Melton to the King in 1318. At the Reformation the vicarage was worth only £8 4s. 7 per annum; such was the capacious maw of the monasteries, which left to the oft half-starved vicars but the crumbs of their rich gains.
The reduction of the living in 1318 indicates the extent of the Scottish forays into the affluent domains of the old parish of Tadcaster. But despite this great havoc, the industry of the inhabitants soon made the fertile lands yield their wonted stores; and though many districts in Yorkshire continued in a state of terrible poverty almost all through this century, Tadcaster suffered less from the effects of intermittent plagues and heavy taxation than most other places. The Nonarurn lnquisitiones of 14th-15th Edward III. (1340-41) exhibit in the clearest manner the state of the parish before the irruption of the Black Death. The commission directed by statute at this time for a subsidy of the ninth lamb, the ninth fleece, and the ninth sheaf, to be levied on the goods of all prelates, earls, and barons in the realm, shews us that the value of the church had improved somewhat since 1318. A jury composed of the best men of the district was empanelled, their names being John Pollard, William Calle, William Vint, Hugo flu Sym (Simpson), Thomas Person, William de Ledes, William fil Thom (Thompson) de Strutton (sic), Richard fil William (Williamson) of the same, Hugh fil William de Heslewood, Henry Grayne of the same, Adam fil Ivonies de Oxton, and William Chapman of the same, who affirm on their oath that the ninth of
corn, wool, and lambs of the whole parish is worth this year £30. 3s. 4d and no more, because the profits of the church are in glebe-rents of the tenants. The tithe of mills was set down as worth 3os.; tithe of hay 60s.; in oblations, Lent tithes, and other small tithes £6. I3s. 4d.
The vicars of Tadcaster enjoyed the fruits of some peculiar and special tithes, such as servants in Lent, viz., “ of mercenaries, merchants, bakers, carpenters, stone-diggers or quarrymen, masons, cupars, and lime burners, within the parish.” Also by later grant the tithe of malt-makers, together with bread offered at the altar, with the tithes of the consecrated bread; also the sirage and candles offered on the feast of the Purification, with mortuaries, espousals, fishings, and the annual rent of 12d. in the chapel of Catterton. Also the vicars had the tithe hay of Smaws, Scotton and Haslewood, with the tithe meadow of Wm. le Vavasour in his meadow of Tadcaster; and the tithe hay of the “oxgang meadows on that side of the water whereon the church is situated, but of the demesne meadows and the meadow of the Grange he shall have nothing.” The vicars were also to have free use “of that mansion for which the Abbot and Convent of Sallay were wont to receive half-a-mark yearly without pension.” These concessions were made by Apostolic authority in 1290.
In the Parliamentary Survey (ca. 1654) the living is returned as worth [ per annum, including a rent of 16s. 8d. out of Haslewood. The Commissioners say that Mr. William Warren was then vicar, “a constant preaching minister.” There is a curious indictment contained among the Depositions from York Castle, concerning this vicar. George Barker, innholder, of Tadcaster, said that on 25th July, 1654, being a Sunday, Barbara Siddall interrupted Mr. Warren whilst preaching in Tadcaster Church, “utteringe speeches of her owne, soe much that the said Mr. Warren was forced to forbeare preachinge, and to come out of the pulpit; at whose comeinge forth she told him that the Bible was not the Word of God, but onely a dead letter.” The incident, doubtless, refers to the difference that existed at this period between the Evangelical party and the growing influence of Puritanism. Evidently they were not all Puritans in Tadcaster. The Puritan parson had probably been preaching on the exclusive authority of the Bible as a guide to faith, whereas the old church of the Episcopacy, which the woman thus boldly stood up for, relied largely on the teachings and traditions of the Fathers.

The floor of the church, as I have remarked, has been several times raised, with the object of placing it above the reach of floods. But this was not rendered perfectly effectual until the church was rebuilt so recently as 1875-6. Inundations from the Wharfe have been in past times not infrequent, and down almost to the year of rebuilding, the floor of the church has been covered to a depth of five or six inches. At the time named the whole of the building was taken down, and re-erected on the same site, with the same material and in the same style as before. By this arrangement the floor was raised nearly five feet, and the original level may be gauged by the position of the capitals of two piers near the tower-arch in the church. These columns were not disturbed at the rebuilding.
Originally the church was built in the form of a cross, but in 1398 a chantry was added xvhich filled up the south-east recess, and in 1343 (? 1477)) the north-east angle had been similarly taken up with the chantry of St. Catherine. There were also indications of a parvise having been over the porch, which in pre-Reformation times had doubtless been used as a school. The tower is high and massive, rising in three tiers, and has double belfry-windows. The parapet is handsomely embattled, with crocketed pinnacles at the four angles,
and the tops of the buttresses are also elegantly pinnacled, likewise
the buttresses round the church. On the south side of the tower, at
the intersection of the first and second stages, is a handsome canopied
niche.’ The church is dedicated to St. Mary. It is rather unfortunate
that the ancient south doorway (Norman) was not restored to its
original position at the rebuilding in 1875. This doorway has been
patched up from an old doorway and other stones found in the walls,
and built up against the west wall of the south aisle, covering a
modern window fitted with fragments of old glass. It bears chevron
mouldings, and the shafts have square abaci supporting a semi-
circular arch. This doorway is doubtless in great part a relic of the
first building after the Conquest.
The interior also presents some other features of good antiquity.
On the north side the piers separating the nave from the aisle are
massive and circular; those on the south side being octagonal, but
all the arches are pointed. The north aisle was enlarged four years
ago, by pulling down and setting back the out-wall to the extent of
eight feet. A beautiful five-light window was likewise inserted at
the west-end, and a leaden roof, with open oak rafters, was substituted
for the old slated roof. The two vestries were also enlarged, and
have now oaken doors, on which is carved a representation of the
Wise and Foolish Virgins, with traceried panels, designed by
Mr. Thorman and executed by Mr. G. W. Milburn, of York. The
cost of these improvements, about I300, was defrayed by sub
scription. A neat brass plate has been placed at the east end of this
aisle, commemorating the auspicious event. It reads:
This Aisle was extended by the Parishioners fork the Service of God in the
Sixtieth year of the reign of Queen Victoria, 1897.
Near it has been fixed a very small and beautifully-incised 14th
century cross-slab; its measurement being 27 inches by 10 inches.
The chance! is reported in 1623 to be in a state of “great decay.” It was subsequently amended, and it is now in excellent repair. The large east window of five lights, which occupies almost the whole width of the chancel, is filled with a very beautiful design in stained
glass. The subject of the window is the worship of Christ as King,
while the background is made up of foliage work symbolical of
Paradise. A brass beneath states that it was erected as a memorial
to Anna Elizabeth, wife of Alfred Harris, of Oxton Hall. She died
18th December, 1876. This handsome window is the work of
Morris & Co., and a framed description of it is kept in the vestry.

In the chancel there are also a number of monuments of interest, (i) a tablet inscribed to the memory of the Rev. Wm. Rhodes, B.D., who was 27 years curate of ‘I’adcaster, 18 years vicar, and 38 years master of the Grammar School. He died 3 Dec., 1829, aged 67 years. Also to Ann, his widow, who died 2nd March, 1848, aged 91; (2) a tablet dedicated to the memory of Honor Shann, wife of Thomas Shann, of Tadcaster, who died 3 June, 1814, in her 40th year; also of the above Thomas Shann, who died 9 Feb., 1852, in his 84th year ; ( an elegant brass plate placed to the memory of the Rev. Theophilus Clarke, B.A., curate of this parish 15 years, and vicar 22 years. He died 2 July, 1893, aged 82 years.
The east end of the south aisle, behind the choir screen, has been a chantry-chapel, dedicated, like the chapel in Roman Ilkley, to St. Nicholas. Upon the east wall is a curious old bracket, which no doubt at one time supported an image of this saint. The chantry was founded in 1399 by William Baker (?Barker*) and Agnes, his wife, and before the Dissolution it was held of the King by reason of the purchase of tile late Earl of Northumberland, whose ancestors had obtained it on the demise of the founders, temp. Henry VI. It was endowed with certain lands and tenements in Tadcaster in the holding of divers persons, one of the messuages being called the “ Sign of the George,” with nine acres of arable land, five acres of meadow, and one close called St. John’s Close, containing six acres of ground, with appurtenances, “within the town and fields of Tadcaster,” in the holding of Ottwell Warderope, paying by the year to the incumbent of the chantry 76s. 8d. The total amount of the endowment was £6. 16s. 8d., out of which was payable 18s. 6d., including a charge of 5s. 4d to the township of Tadcaster for the above- mentioned close, called St. John’s Close.

LIST OF CHAPLAINS OF St. NICH0LAS’s CHANTRY, TADCASTER CHURCH.
12th Feb.1400   Henry Tumor (presented by Win. Barker).
25 Aug., 1418 Joh. Martyll (resigned) (Agnes Barker).
9 Nov., 1424. Tho. Gaynesburgh (resigned), Eaden
23 Dec., 1437 Joh. Acastre (resigned), (Hon. B. of Northd.).
14 Nov., 1474  Job. Atkynson (resigned), (Idem)
26 Jan.,1482. John Esingwald (resigned for a chantry in York Cathedral), (Idem.)
1 Apr.1483.  Tho. Copley (resigned), (Idem).
27 May, 1486  Tho. Diconson (died), (Idem.)
24 May,1505.  Will. Warter, (died), (Idem).
6 June,1523. Rad. Norham (resigned), (Idem)
28 July,1534. Job. Heworth, (Assignees of Hen. E. of Northd.)

An altar and piscina were placed in this chantry, the piscina being
now in the wall of the south aisle. Prior to the re-erection of the
church in 1875-6, the floor of this chapel was covered with memorials
of the founder’s family, and these are now in the baptistery. Also
adjoining the chapel was a very rich carved oak pew, upon the frieze
of which was this inscription: “This pew belongeth to their Graces
the Duke and Duchess of Somerset.” The screen is now at the
west end of the church, and the escutcheon, which was fixed to the
wall at the east end of the pew, is now in the belfry. There were
also some fragments of ancient glass in one of the windows, which
have been placed in the new window near the south entrance. In
this chapel the east window is of stained glass, being a memorial of
the Rev. William Rhodes, B.D., who died 3 Dec., 1829, aged 67
years, and of his widow, Ann Rhodes, who died 2nd March, 1848,
aged 91 years; also of John Bromet, who died 9 March, 1850
aged 60, and of his widow, Elizabeth, daughter of the above William
and Ann Rhodes, who died 13th March, 1861, aged 73. Near this
window is a brass inscribed to the memory of Wm. Rhodes Bromet,
born 28th Nov., 1824, died 2 Aug., 1886. Another stained window
of three lights is dedicated to the memory of (i) Frederick H.
Ramsden, Captain Coldstream Guards, died 5 Nov., I854; (2)
Frederica Selina Ramsden, died 16th April, 1879; ( Rev. Henry
James Ramsden, M.A., died 8th December, 1862.
On the north side was the chapel of St. Catherine, founded by
John Twybell, 17th Edward IV. (1477), to the intent to say masses
for the soul of the founder and Monden, his wife, and all Christian
souls. It was endowed with lands and tenements to the yearly value
of £6 5s. 4d which was “put in feoffment to divers persons to find
a priest.” The property was situated in Tadcaster and Ulleskelf,
and there was also a barn belonging to the chantry, likewise two
chambers, and a “mansion-house, with an orchard, of the said
incumbents.” A sum of 10s. 10d. was payable out of the revenues
of the chantry, including 3s. to the Archbishop of York, and 4d for
suit of court at Spofforth, the founder being a socage tenant of the
Percies. In the respond of the north pier of this chapel is a piscina,
a sure indication that an altar once stood there. The original
window here doubtless also contained the coloured representation of
St. Catherine, with black-letter inscription, which is now in the
window near the south doorway. For many years, I am told, this
interesting old fragment was preserved in one of the windows of the
dining-room at the vicarage, and was restored to its present position
in the church at the re-erection in 1876. St. Catherine was the
patron of linen-weavers, an industry anciently of some consequence
in the district, and the portraiture in Tadcaster church shews the
wheel symbolical of the martyr-saint. It appears on the seal of
old Nun Monkton Priory, which lay some nine miles to the north-
east of Tadcaster,
At the west end of this north aisle (rebuilt in 1897) is a stained
window, placed to the memory of Adelaide, wife of Edward Archibald
Ramsden, who died 20th Nov., 1879. Next to it is another memorial
window to the Rev. B. Maddock, who was nearly forty years vicar
of this parish, and who died 16th December, 1871, in his 90th year.
Another is dedicated to the memory of William Smith; and a fourth
is a memorial of James Bradley, who died 16th Feb., 1877, aged 61.
There are eight memorial tablets to the families of Dawson, Blaydes,
Taylor, &c., restored to their former positions upon the north side of
this aisle. In the south aisle there are also two stained memorial windows; (i) to James Upton, of Tadcaster, who died 14th  Feb., 1844, and to Mary, his wife, who died 7 Jan., 1845; (2) to Thomas and Sarah Farrer, of Tadcaster, and Ann, their eldest daughter, erected by their surviving children, 1877. Near the south door is a handsome marble mural monument erected to the memory of John Potter, of Tadcaster, who died in 1758, and of Ann, his wife, who died in 1762; also to their sons John, and Sir Thomas Potter, the latter of Manchester, and of his eldest son, Sir John Potter, who died in 1858 and was then M.P. for Manchester, and had been Mayor of Manchester three years in succession.
Built into the west wall of this south aisle are various fragments
of sculptured stone-work, some Norman, together with an early
Calvary cross, having a plain incised shaft with wheel head enclosing four obovate arms; an interesting survival of the Celtic style in Norman times. In the tower there is also a fragment of a later cross, and in the same place is a quaintly-worded old brass plate, which was formerly on the south side of the chancel-arch. It reads
Elizabeth, the relict of Edward Marshall of this town, gentleman, and daughter of W. Rowe, of Higham Hill, in Essex, esq, who died March 9 1788, aged 83. She could boast excellence of parts, when young she was beautiful; vhen young did I say, she was so till she was seventy-nine, and she was highly good,
There is a very beautiful font placed on the ground-floor of the tower, which was presented by John C. F. Ramsden, Esq., in 1877, in memory of his father, Henry J. Ramsden, late of Oxton Hall. The old font is a plain octagon. The tower is well-lighted by a handsome coloured window of five lights, which was erected in 1878 by the inhabitants of Tadcaster, as a deserving tribute to the many benefits conferred on the town by the late Thos. Shann, Esq., and his sons, the Rev. Thomas Shann, George Shann, M.D., and Charles Shann, J.P. There are also here two marble memorial tablets to members of this family; (i) to the Rev. Thomas Shann, 7 years curate of Wighill and 16 years vicar of Hampsthwaite; born
26th J 1807; died 4 March, 1869 at Boston Spa; 2) to George Shann, M.D., born 18th May, 1809; died 3 Oct., 1882. A brass in the tower records that the clock was erected in the Jubilee of Her Majesty the Queen, in 1887. There are six excellent bells, which came from Skipton in Craven in 1760, when the parish church of that town got a new peal. They were re-cast by Dalton, of York, in 1784. In the belfry there is the following rhyming injunction to ringers
He that a bell doth overthrow
Shall two-pence pay before he go,
And he that rings with spur or hat,
Shall four-pence pay, be sure of that.
And he that doth these fines refuse,
No less than six-pence shall him excuse.
The Registers of the church commence with the year 1570, but there are some breaks, notably, from 1625 to 1652, which are wholly missing. The first recorded vicar or chaplain is one Dom. Nicholas, “parson of Tatecaster,” who witnessed the charter of Agnes de Percy, confirming the gift of the church to Sallay Abbey, ca. A.D. 1200. Following this comes the nuncupative vicar, Robert de Lelleia, mentioned in the Roman archives for 1218, previously quoted. Then I find mention of a “Dom. Petro de Thadcaster, capellano,” who was witness to a charter, dated 1254, of his nephew Thomas, son of William son of Gregory of Hunsingore, concerning lands, &c., in Hunsingore belonging to the Knights Templars. Torte supplies a catalogue of the vicars from 1290 to 1662, and it will be seen that there was a Roger de Hunsinghorne (sic), who was instituted vicar in 1291.
At the dissolution and attainder of Sallay Abbey the rectorial tithes fell to the Crown, and in 1542 they were granted out to Sir Arthur Darcy, Kt., the same fine including the manors of Leeds and Holbeck (parcel of the Duchy of Lancaster), and other properties. The rectory of Tadcaster was next farmed by the family of Hungate, of Saxton, and in the reign of James I., Francis Wood, of Tadcaster, gent., was lessee of the rectory. Subsequently the Duke of Somerset became possessed of the advowson, through whom it descended to the Earls of Egremont, and in the middle of the igth century it came to the first Lord Leconfield, as related in the history of the manor.
LIST  OF VICARS OF TADCASTER.
Date of Inst.         Name of Vicar            Patron.                   How vacated.
28 May, 1290. .Roger de Saxton Abbot and Convent of Sallay       Resig.
24 Dec. 1291. . Roger de Hunsinghorne    Do.
22 April, 1317.. Gaif. de Hoveton Do.
• Joh. de Patrington Do.    . . Resig. for the vicar-age of Wistow
15 Nov., 1341. .Will de Shireburn Do.
• .Joh. de Pathorne Do.    . . Died
23 Dec., 1349 .Ric. de Sourby •.    Do.    ..
18 Jan., 1366. . Will de Kaberry          Do.
• . Will de Pulhowe Do.    . . Resig. for the church of Marton
6 Sept., 1381. .Ric. Rae de Blaktoft    Do.
• . Tho. de Popilton Do.    . . Resig. for the church of Berwyk
4 Feb., 1392.. Rog. de Pykering ..    Do.
4 June, 1394. . Robt. Bramley Do.    . . Died
23 Feb., 1411. .Joh. Montford Do,    . .Resig. for the church of Adel
7th Nov., 1426. .Will. Catelyn, L.B    Do.    • . Resig. for the church of Gerford
14 May, 1434.. Robert Bedale Do.    . . Resig.
23 Jan., 1442. .Joh. Raper Do.
Joh. de Redeburne •    Do.    . . Died

Date of Inst.    Name of Vicar.     Patron      How Vacated
              9 May, 1467.   Will Ricroft        Do.         Died                           
22 Aug., 1467.. Ric. Lancaster    Do.   Resigned
52 June, 1469. .Will Clyveland, MA.   Do.    Died
23 Dec., 1504. Will Radclyff     Do.       Died
23 Feb., 1527. .Tho. Parke  Henry Earl of Northumberland 
14 Sept., 1557. .Tho. Swayne  Phillip & Mary

Edw. Stampe                                 Died
6 Aug., 1575.. Roger Stowyng  Henry Earl of Northumberland      Died
Aug., 1609. .Henry Grene, M.A.                        Resigned

31 Dec., 1613 .Tho. Clyfton, MA.     Do.                             
             Will Toyer                          Died
19 Nov., 1660. .Joh. Holte   Algernon Earl of Northumberland            
Ric. Crossdale..               Do          Died
John Greenfield    Duke of Somerset    Died 1702
— Gyrling          Do
— Simcoe    Earl of Thomond   Died in 1704
1734. .John Wickens, D.D.       Do             Died in 1744

One might lingerlong in that sacred “God’s acre,” where through unnumbered centuries the fathers of the old town and parish have found their last resting-place. Many of the head-stones unfortunately have been carved from friable local limestone, and their inscriptions are now in many instances illegible. One such memorial of a bygone worthy formerly stood near the church porch. Miss Ann Bellhouse, daughter of a former master of the adjoining Grammar School, tells me that she well remembers the quaint and interesting lines that appeared on this old sexton’s tomb. They were as follows:
Beneath this Stone lies Thomas Wood,
Who Sexton here hath been,
And without tears, sixty-six years,
That awful trade bath seen.
At last grim Death did him assail,
And thus to him did say:
Forsake thy Trade, lay down thy Spade,
Make haste and come away!
Without reply, or asking why,
The summons he obeyed,
And aged eighty-eight resigned
His shuttle and his spade.
The parish, in gratitude for his long services,
Erected this stone at his death in 1804.
He was by trade a weaver, and few sextons, long-lived as those ancient patriarchs of the churchyard usually have been, can compare with him in length of service. Old Scarlett, who died at the wonderful age of 98, and was sexton at Peterborough Cathedral, and where his effigy and epitaph may be seen, may possibly be the only rival of our venerable Tadcaster sexton.
About fifty years ago the churchyard was enlarged and enclosed with a wall and iron palisades, and a substantial entrance-gate was erected. Before that time part of the old burial-yard was open. The cost of these improvements was about £350.

         Chapter Five

Noncomformist and Other Institutions

(To be added soon)

Chapter Six

Tadcaster Old Families

FOLLOWING the famous Norman record of the local possessions of the great house of Percy, we have mention of a family of some consequence who took their name from the town. This was the family of Tadcaster. In 1295 a Peter de Tadcaster occurs in an action against Walter de Wessington and other members of the same family for trespass. A William de Tadcaster, shipman, was a freeman of the city of York in 1310. In 1321 William, son of John de Tadcaster, of Bubwith, gave 15 acres in Gunby to Selby Abbey. There does not appear to be any evidence of the family having at any time held lands in Tadcaster; they were no doubt originally vassals of the Percies, some of whom would appear to have settled at a subsequent period on the Percies’ estates in Northumberland. In the Hexham Court Rolls for 1547 there occurs among the copy- holders in that manor the name of Gilbert de Tadcaster, who with two others, holds two tenements called Netherley, Spetell and Watthouse. The family-name has long been extinct at Tadcaster, but the town gave title in 1714 to Henry O’Brien, the last Earl of Thomond, in Ireland, who was created Baron and Viscount Tadcaster. He died in 1742, without issue, when the title became extinct. He was succeeded in his estates by his nephew, Percy, youngest son of Sir Win. Wyndharn, by Catherine, his wife, second daughter of Charles, sixth Duke of Somerset, and who in 1756 was created Earl of Thomond, but dying unmarried in 1772, the Earidom expired. The Barony of Tadcaster was again conferred by patent, 3 July, 1826, on William, second Marquis of Thomond, but he died without male issue, 21st August, 1846, when the dignity expired, but his Irish honours devolved upon his brother, James, third Marquis of Thomond, who dying without issue in 1855, the Marquisate also became extinct.

Most of the old families of Tadcaster took their patronyms from the places whence they sprung, or from the occupations they or their ancestors had followed. In the time of Edward III. we have such names at Tadcaster as Thomas of the Brewhouse, Richard of the Brewhouse, William the Carter, Robert the miller, William son of the smith, Thomas the Chapman of Sutton, William the Chapman of Oxton, Benedicto de Grymeston, &c. In 1378 we have the names of two Tadcaster merchants, Wm. Dryffeld and Wm. Hardy, each of whom paid 2s. to King Richard’s war-tax, and they were the highest taxed in the town. Before this time the Normanvilles appear to have settled at Tadcaster. I have already mehtioned them in the Lay Subsidies of Edward III. They were of an old Yorkshire family, long seated at Kilnwick Percy and Little Haughton. John Normanville lived at Smaws Hall, and made his will 13th Oct., 1408, desiring his body to be interred in the church of the Blessed Mary at Tadcaster, nigh unto the tomb of Brian Normanville, his father. The family were benefactors to Appleton Nunnery. The Hardys were also important folks at Tadcaster in the 13th and 14th centuries. One Robert Hardy, master carpenter, was buried in the middle of the nave of Tadcaster church in 1428.
The Barkers were also settled at Tadcaster at an early period. Thoma’ le Barker of Tadcaster, occurs in the Lay Subsidies of Edward 111., and Wm. Barker and his wife were hostilers in Tadcaster in 1378. It was William Barker and his wife, Agnes, who founded the chantry of St. Nicholas in Tadcaster church in 1399. He died in 1403 and the Fabric Rolls of York Minster record a payment by his widow in 1415 of 2s. 11 1/2d to the Dean and Chapter for one tenement in Tadcaster. The family continued amongst the most prominent in the town for several centuries. The following hitherto unpublished will is of one John Barker, of Tadcaster, dated 7th Nov., 1680
WILL OF JOHN BARKER, OF TADCASTER, 1680.
In the name of God Amen. I John Barker of Tadcaster in the County of York
husbandman being sick and weake of body but in perfect memory blessed be God
revoakeing all former wills and deedes doe hereby make & ordaine this my last will and testament in manner and forme as followeth first I give and bequeath my soule into the handes of Jesus Christ my onely Saviour and Redeemer and my body to be buried in the parish Church yeard of Tadcaster aforesaid. Item I give and bequeath unto my sister Isabell Rawson ten shillings a yeare to be paid her yearly and every yeare dureing her life out of the rent of my house in the back lane in Tadcaster aforesaid. Item. I give unto Anne and Mary daughters of my aforesaid (sister) Isabell Rawson either of them twelve pound. Item. I give unto George Barker sonne of my sister Mary Barker twelve pound. Item. I give unto Grace Parkinson five shillings. Item. I give unto Francis Saintor twenty shillings which he oweth me upon bond. I give and bequeath unto my sister Jane Barker one Cottage house or tenement in Tadcaster aforesaid now in the tenure and occupation of Richard Young with all the premises and appurtenances whatsoever thereunto belonging and to her heires & assignes for ever onely paying ten shillings a yeare to my sister Isabell as before bequeathed. Item. All the rest of goods and Chattels moveable and unmoveable undisposed of my debts and funerall expenses discharged I give and bequeath unto my said sister Jane Barker and doe make her full and sole executrix of this my last will and testament. Witnesse my hand and seale the seaventh day of November in the 3 yeare of his ma’ties Raigne anno dom 1680 witnesse hereof John Barker his X Rob Ruddall his X Grace Parkinson her X Francis Saintor.
The testator would seem to have been piously attached to the “murdered monarch,” Charles I.; it is noteworthy he dates his will in accordance with the royal practice, “ in the 3 yeare of his ma’ties Raigne, anno dom’ 1680.” These Tadcaster Barkers were probably connected with the York and Otley family, from whom descends the present Viscount Halifax. Thomas Barker, Esq., of Otley, studied the law at Lincoins Inn, in the time of Charles II. He afterwards settled at York, where he practised successfully until his death in 1724
The Tukes and Battys were other old families in the district. The Tukes are well known for their many charitable works in connection with the Society of Friends. A John Tuk, taverner, was a freeman of York in 1323. The chief seat of the family was, however, at Keiham, near Newark, where, as well as at many other places in the county of Notts., they had held land from the time of Richard I. to that of Henry VI. A tabulated lineage of the family is given in Foster’s North and East Riding (Yorkshire) Pedigrees; likewise another of the Tukes of Thorner, near Leeds, and also of Stillingfleet, where they were resident in 1374; also one beginning with a Robert Tuke of Scotton, near Knaresborough, temp. Elizabeth, from whom descend the Darlington and Bradford Tukes. The annexed original pedigree has been kindly supplied by Mr. William Murray Tuke, of Saffron Walden.

Perhaps the oldest local family continuously resident in Tadcaster is that of Marshall, who are deriving their patronym from the ancient and important vocation of smiths and forgemen, have been settled in the neighbourhood from near the time of the Norman Conquest. William Marshall, macschall, occurs in the Tadcaster Poll Tax for 1378. The family supplied many of the implements and iron-work required in the construction of York Minster, about this time. There are some late memorials of this family in the church; The Hartleys another old Tadcaster family, intermarried with the Marshalls, and were, in conjunction with the Backhouses, the real founders of the brewing trade in Tadcaster.   William Backhouse kept the White Horse inn, about 1820—1830, and he had about a dozen men employed in the yard for posting and like purposes. This inn was the principal coaching-house.
   Thomas, son of John Hartley, inn keeper, of Tadcaster, married (i) Jane Colbeck, who died in 1742, and (2) Margaret, daughter of Edward Marshall, gent., of Tadcaster. By the latter marriage, which was celebrated in York Minster, April 2 1743, there was an only child, Edward Marshall Hartley, born in 1744. John Hartley, innkeeper, brother of the above Thomas, died at Tadcaster in 1804, aged 93. He left a family of Sons and daughters; two of the sons, Stephen and Thomas, joined the old brewing business in Tadcaster, and grew very rich. Thomas, who died in 18o8, was Lord Mayor of York in 1789 and 1803, and he was Sheriff of York in 1791-2. His son held the same office in 1810-11.
The Fosters, too, were another respectable old stock, seated in the district in early times. They held land at Tadcaster in the time of Queen Elizabeth. Robert Foster, gent., of Tadcaster, was buried in the church there in 1567. He was living at Smaws, near Tadcaster, which estate he had purchased from the Normanvilles in 1560, and he also bought a messuage and land at Oxton the year before he died. By his will he left £5 “towardes the mending of the cawsey and hyeway from my house in Tadcaster unto Bowebrigge.” When the family left Smaws I have not learnt, but the following indenture, dated 1658 shews they were living there at that time.
SALE BY THE FOSTER FAMILY OF A COTTAGE AND PREMISES
IN TADCASTER, 1658.
This Indenture made the twelfth day of March in the year of our Lord God 1658 Between Thomas Foster of Smaws in the County of York gent. and Robert Foster sone and heire apparent of the Same Thomas Foster on the one ptie. and John Barker of Tadcaster in the County of York on ye other ptie. witnesseth that the said Thomas F. and Robert F. for & in consideratn. of the some of nine pounds of good & lawful money of England to them in hand paid by ye said
John -Barker his heirs ... by these present have granted sold . . and
. do sell . . unto ye said John Barker all that cottage or tenement situate
, . in Tadcaster in one Lame comonly called ye backe Layne comonly called
Flockton Cottage & now in ye tenure & occupn. of ye said Jn. Barker or his
assignes And all and every the houses orchards gardens and waiesides thereunto
belonginge . . . and all deeds writings wh. touch or concerne the said
premises    . . to be made at the coste .    of the said John Barker his
heirs . .    To have & to hold the said cottage    to the onely proper use
& behoofe of the said J. B. his heirs & assignes or ever Soe the
said Thomas Foster Elizabeth his wife and the said Robert Foster be not
compelled to travell further than the city of York or Castell of ye same for doeing
& executing of the same In witnesse wherof ye above said
• . have sette ther hands and seales the day and yeare first above written
Tho. FOSTER.    ROBERT FOSTER.
(seal)    (seal)
The Morleys of Tadcaster and York were no doubt of the same
stock as the Morleys of Wennington in Lonsdale, and Beamsley in
Upper Wharfedale, as both families bore the same arms : sable, a
leopard’s face, or, jessant-de-lis, argent, and the Newton-on-Ouse
family quartered (1665-6) gules, a fess between three catherine wheels,
argent, (Streete), though in the earlier Visitation Morley bore sable,
three catherine wheels, or. The first recorded of this family is
William de Wennington, lord of Wennington near Lancaster, about
A.D. 1260. A descendant of this early landowner was Francis Morley,
born at Wennington in 1588, and he married Cassandra, daughter
and co-heiress of Josias Lambert, Esq., of Calton-in-Craven, and
cousin to the celebrated John Lambert, Commander of the Parlia
mentary Forces in the great Civil War. His grandson Josias Morley,
settled at Scale House, Rilstone which in the 17th century became
an important centre and scene of one of the early General Meetings
of the newly-formed Society of Friends. This Josias Morley was
born in 1651, and purchased the manors of Beamsley and Clapharn,
co. York. He died in 1731, aged 8o. Robert Morley, of Tadcaster,
also took an active part in the religious revival in the middle of the
18th century, and I have already mentioned the family’s probable
connection with the “Ark” or “Morley Hall,” in Tadcaster, which
was licensed for a Dissenters’ preaching-place in 1672. Robert
Morley of Newton-upon-Ouse, was a famous barrister in his day,
and died in 1651, leaving four children; the eldest son, James, being
aged 38 when the family lineage was recorded by the Heralds in 1665. Robert Morley and Robert White, of Tadcaster, were among the score Wharfedale gentlemen who were appointed in 1657 under-conservators of the Wharfe for the protection of the fishing.
At this time the Taylors were people of some standing in the town,
and one John Taylor, was with the exception of Sir Walter Vavasour
of Haziewood, the only landed person in the neighbourhood of
Tadcaster, who was in arms against the Parliament in the great Civil
War. He had to compound for his estates, but prayed to he freed from
sequestrations as his whole property was declared to be not worth
£200. Some of this family, in the next century, were well-to-do
provision merchants in Tadcaster, and supplied groceries to lesser
shops for many miles round.
Another family of old standing in the district, was the Bellhouses,
Belihuses, or Bellars, as variously spelled. A William Bellars was
a freeman of York in 1413. In the Recusant Roll of 35 Elizabeth
(1592), John Belihouse and Jenetta, his wife, of Saxton, appear along
with William Bellhouse of the same place, among those who were
fined for non-attendance at the Parish Church. The family is
believed to derive its patronym from Bellhouse, in Essex, but a
branch of the family has been long settled in Yorkshire. A John de
Belhous was rector of Whiston, near Rotherham, from 1316 to
1318. Francis Bellhouse was the first Town Clerk of Leeds under
the charter of incorporation, granted to that town by Charles I. in
1626. The accompanying descents are derived from a larger pedigree
I have compiled of this family, and shew various connections of the
Woods of Tadcaster, together with the ancestors of the Rev. Wm.
Cocker Belihouse, who was educated at the Leeds Grammar School
and was for more than forty years Head Master of the Tadcaster
Grammar School. The Woods, I may add, were a very respectable
family, settled in Tadcaster before the Reformation. They were lay
proprietors of the rectory early in the 17th century.
Many other old Tadcaster families, such as the Chapmans, Carters,
Hillams, Aldersleys of Paper Mill Bar4 Milners, Ryders, Siddells,
&c., might be noticed at more or less length. Sarah Siddell, of
Tadcaster, who died in 1799, married Christopher Moorhouse,
surgeon, of Keighley, who inherited considerable property on the
death in 1780 of his brother, John Moorhouse, a wealthy lawyer.
According to the Marriage Bonds of the Archbishop of York,
15th  Nov., 1750, he is described as of Keighley, gent., bachelor,
licensed to be married at Hunslet to Susanna Fenton, of Hunslet,
spinster, then aged 23. He had an only son, Thomas, born 1752,

who married Mercy Fenton, and their only son, Fenton Moorhouse, died in 1809, leaving an only son, Thomas, who died an infant in 1809. Their extensive properties about Keighley and Utley by some means got into the hands of the Cravens, of Keighley, on the death of Stephen Moorhouse, who died an imbecile, without issue, at Tadcaster, in 1825, aged 75.
Other families of more recent connection with the parish are the Potters, Shanns, Smiths (of brewing fame), Bromets, Harrises, Varleys, &c. The last-named purchased the manor. The Potters have long been seated about York and in the Forest of Knaresbro’, and one Thomas Potter was a freeman and chamberlain of York in
1346-7. In recent times some of the family settled at Wingate Hill, near Tadcaster, and from them descend Sir Thomas Potter, of Manchester, and his son, Sir John Potter, M.P. for Manchester, who died in 1858. There was a John Potter, a native of Wakefield, born 1664, who became Archbishop of Canterbury, and died in 1747, but whether connected with this family I am unable to say. An account of the Manchester Potters will be found in Mr. H. R. Fox-Bourne’s English Merchants. The name of Shann is as a “household word” in Tadcaster, and I have already referred to the well-deserved tribute to this family in the church. They had a freehold near Tadcaster Bridge in 1755, and were sometime owners of the great tithes of Tadcaster. The Bromets are now among the principal landowners at Tadcaster, and in various capacities members of the family fill useful positions in the town. Mr. John Addinell Bromet is Clerk to the Rural District Council, and he has also been Clerk to the Board of Guardians for the long period of forty years.
The town does not appear to have produced many persons specially distinguished in the arts or sciences. But one may be mentioned, the celebrated Professor of Music in the University of Cambridge, Dr. Charles Hague, who was born here in 1769, and died in 1821. His eldest daughter, Harriet, also an accomplished pianist, died in 1816, aged 23. On page 16o of my Upper Wharfedale, I refer to “the Wharfedale poet, Charles Kirby,” about whom it is stated nothing is known. I gather, however, that he was a native of Tadcaster, and for many years, about 1840—50, lived with his parents in a cottage on the west side of the churchyard, where now stands the Parish Room. He afterwards removed to Leeds, and in addition to his Harp of Wharfedale (now a scarce little book) he wrote and published in 1874 a similar volume of verse, entitled Wayside Flowers, which was dedicated to the then Mayor of Leeds, H. Rowland Marsden Esq.

Chapter Seven

The Town, Trade, and Old Inns of Tadcaster

As at present constituted the parish of Tadcaster includes
Tadcaster West, Stutton-with-Hazle Tadcaster
East, and Oxton. West Tadcaster and Stutton are in the Parliamentary Division of Barkston Ash, while
Tadcaster East and Oxton lie within the Ainsty of York and Parliamentary Division of Thirsk and Malton. The centre of the Bridge over Wharfe forms the boundary of the two divisions.
This large and massive stone bridge, which has consumed, it is said, more material in its construction than any other bridge in the county, consists of nine arches, and was originally built in 1698-9. It was subsequently, through the increase of coaching traffic, widened, as appears by the difference of the masonry under the arches. Some early references to the bridge, which was originally of timber, have already been given. Subsequent to the Reformation the bridge of stone was maintained in repair, the east half by the Ainsty and the west half by the Riding. The expenses of the rebuilding at the end of the 17th century were raised by a general tax of 3d in the pound, laid by Act of Parliament on all lands, &c., within the city and Ainsty of York and the West Hiding. John Etty, of York, ancestor no doubt of the celebrated painter, was appointed superintendent of the work, and at the Pontefract Sessions, held in
April, 1699, the bill of costs was certified amounting to £1124. It
is doubtless the same John Etty whom I find commemorated in All Saints’ Church, North Street, York:
To JOHN ETTY, Carpenter, who died Jan. 28th, 1709, aged 75.
His Art was great, his Industry no less,
What one projected, th’other brought to pass.
Whether the Cockshott family had a hand in building any previous
bridge here, there are apparently no records to prove, but at least
one local member of the family had a reputation for this kind
of work. When Barden Bridge was swept down by the flood of
1674, Thomas Cockshott, of Tadcaster, agreed to rebuild it for
£660. There seems to have been some obstacles to the speedy
undertaking of this work, and whether Cockshott actually rebuilt
this bridge is not very clear. The Cockshotts are an old family
in the neighbourhood of York.
After the rebuilding of the Bridge extensive structural alterations
appear to have taken place in the town, and its old aspects changed.
Doubtless many of the antique half-timber dwellings and old thatches
surrounding the Market Place would be swept away and the existing
buildings erected on the site. There is every appearance that the
original Market Place was a large open square, extending some fifty
yards northwards from Bridge Street along Kirkgate, and the modern
character of the houses on this side of Bridge Street fully confirms
this. About half-way between the bottom of Kirkgate and the
Bridge, there is a narrow passage on the north side of Bridge Street
which runs parallel with Kirkgate about the breadth of four houses
or shops, and then becoming wider, turns at a sharp angle to the left
and comes out into Kirkgate, nearly opposite the ancient tenement
known as the Ark. All the buildings below there on the west side
of Kirkgate to Bridge Street are also of modern date, and the space
is still kept open opposite Askey’s shop. This was the ancient
Market Place where the markets were held weekly by charter
. Whether the old stone base now standing
in Westgate at a place called The Cross, is part of the original
market-cross no one now knows. But the old stone cross was
certainly existing little more than a century ago, and is referred to in
a scarce little book printed at Wakefield in 1782. Some lines in
rhyme, by “J. Fretwell, mercer, Tadcaster,” appear in the form of a
Letter from the Cross at Wingate Hill to the Cross at Tadcaster,
and begin as follows:

Dear Cousin Cross, my near relation,
I’m sorry for thy situation;
‘Mongst brawling fighting, yelping, clamouring,
And Vulcans at their horse-shoes hammering;
With haave,” gee-up,” and wo-a-aa,” stop,
But holy water not a drop
Thy steps heapt up with whins and sticks,
And scaling-rods and broken bricks,
Thy bonfires, too, of stolen wood,
Disturb me and the neighbourhood.
And so on for more than a half-a-hundred lines in like refrain. The old Gunpowder Plot anniversaries would appear to have been celebrated in the Market Place, near this old Cross. This venerable relic I find alluded to as far back as the time of Henry III. In an inquisition, dated 1260, of the properties of William de Kyme, of Newton Kyme, &c., one of the jurors was “Thoma’ ad Crucem” (Thomas at the Cross), of Tadcaster, shewing that a cross existed even before the markets were established by charter in 1270.
In the height of the coaching days, about 1820—30, there were no fewer than 24 registered inns and posting-houses in the town, and some of these are or were of high antiquity. The old Falcon, the most ancient building now remaining in Tadcaster. is a quaint pre Reformation structure, having its lower story built of stone while the upper portion is of timber and plaster. The antique wooden corbels projecting from the roof in front of the house are curiously carved with a male and female head. I give a view of this interesting old building. It is often irreverently called “ Noah’s Ark “ or the “Ark,” but formerly, when Mr. England owned it, he always spoke of it as “Morley Hall,” probably because the old Independents assembled here when Robert Morley had his house in Tadcaster licensed for public worship in 1672.
Another pre-Reformation inn was the George, which is probably now represented by the George and Dragon, opposite the Post Office. In one of the windows of this inn there is preserved a piece of old painted glass bearing a Tudor rose and a representation of cupids, &c., while below are the initials and date, “W. K., 1592.” This seems to be the “syne of the George” n in 1548 as belonging to the chantry of St. Nicholas in the Parish Church, previously mentioned.

The White Hart is another sign of uncertain antiquity at Tadcaster, but there can be little doubt that it, too, was existing before the Reformation. The White Hart was the favourite badge of Richard II., whose reputed mysterious end at Pontefract I have before alluded to. The sign is one of the oldest recorded in England, and its existence may be traced back to the days of ancient Rome. The legend of the White Hart, collared with gold, appertains to several districts in England and on the Continent. One is supposed to have been caught at Rothwell Haigh, an old park of the Lacies, about a dozen miles to the south-west of Tadcaster. I find the Hart at Tadcaster mentioned as apparently an old patrimony in the time of Queen

The Arc - a lovely 15th centurybuilding.

Elizabeth. In some unpublished Proceedings in Chancery it is recorded that Jane Bailey was seized in fee of “a messuage called the Hart in Tadcaster,” and other tenements there, and after her decease the premises came to one Francis Bailey, son and heir of the said Jane. But the deeds concerning the-same having come casually into the hands of one Thomas Belbroke, yeoman, he in 1569-70 had entered into the premises and refused to give them up. Litigation followed, and Thomas Bilbrough came forward and affirmed that one-third of the “ Hart” with the other premises which were divided, was rightfully possessed by Robert Blancherde, gent., who by his
deed enfeoffed the defendant thereof. And another third part the said defendant holds at will of one Leonard Foster, to whom the inheritance belongs, and the residue Robert Hudleese and his wife were seized of, and about St. Martin’s Day two years since demised the same to defendant for a term of years now enduring. How the matter ended is not stated, but Francis Bailey wholly repudiated the statements of the defendant.
As five innkeepers are mentioned in Tadcaster in 1378, it is more
than likely that the White Hart was one of the signs then in being.
But whether we are to refer the existence of this or any other
Tadcaster inn to the time when the Romans ruled here, as above
suggested, is highly problematical. It is, however, deserving of record
that a conspicuously Roman inn custom prevailed in the neighbour
hood of Tadcaster, at any rate down to the 17th century. This was
the hanging out of a bush or garlanded “ale-pole” over a house door
to indicate the sale of meat and drink; or the bush might be painted
or cut in wood and so portrayed above the entrance, as is recorded
to have been found in Rome, and also among the ruins of Pompeii.
Chaucer, writing in the 14th century, says:
A garlond hadde he sette upon his hede,
As gret as it were for an alestake.
I have mentioned this usage in Wharfedale elsewh but the following is the first record I have met with of its actual occurrence upon a Roman highway in Yorkshire. The reference to it will be found in the Depositions from York Castle wherein one Abraham Ibbitson, of Leeds, was charged in 1674-5 with feloniously taking away two geldings belonging to Wm. Hutchinson, Esq., and also one gelding the property of Joseph Ibbitson. gent. It appears that
a man named Bancroft persuaded him to turn highwayman, and they went together to a certain ale-house at Street Houses, “ in the way betwixt Tadcaster and York, where there was a bush as a signe.”
Although it is not distinctly stated that a green emblem was hung
out in front of the door, yet the wording of the indictment does not lead us to believe anything to the contrary. It does not say that the inn wa called the Sign of the Bush, but that a bush was used as a sign. This Roman bush, which was generally of ivy, no doubt originated the present name of the inn, the Wild Man. Nicholls in his Progresses of Queen Elizabeth (vol. i., page 494), says that when Queen Elizabeth was at Kenilworth Castle in 1574, “on the x. of Julee met her in the Forest as she came from hunting one clad like a savage man all in ivie.” who addressed Her Majesty in a neat speech. The man “clad like a savage in ivy,” was intended to typify the Roman Bacchus, to whom the ever-green ivy-plant was dedicated, hence our inn signs of the Bush and Wild Man are synonymous.
After the Wars of the Roses Henry Tudor visited Tadcaster, and perhaps left us the sign of the Rose and Crown as a consequence of that visit. It was the royal badge of the Tudors. The inn, an old coaching-house, previously referred to, is not now existing. The Roebuch was another good old inn, and it was here that Warburton, the antiquary, lodged during his Yorkshire tour in 1718. Other well-known hostelries were the Angel and White Horse, the latter sign being almost invariably associated with coaching in our old Yorkshire towns, and perhaps elsewhere. The White Horse at Tadcaster, which was the head posting-house in the town, has lost its famous sign, the inn having been transformed into the Londesborough Hotel, now the principal open house in the town.
Besides the White Horse and Rose and Crown there were other coaching-houses in Tadcaster, notably the Angel and White Swan. The latter was kept for many years by the late Mr. Jos. Middleton, who entered upon the premises during that busy era when licensed houses were kept open all night. Few Englishmen have been able to boast that they have lived in five reigns in this country. Mr. Middleton, however, claimed that distinction. He was born in 1815, a fortnight before the famous battle of Waterloo, and died at Wetherby Feb. 13th 1901, having therefore lived in the reigns of George III George IV., William IV., Victoria, and Edward VII. He was always very temperate in his habits, and, I am told, never smoked an ounce of tobacco in his life. The old coaching-houses needed steady managing men, who knew the wants of their customers, and were prompt and active in emergency. None of the old school of landlords possessed these qualities more than the late Mr. Matthew Kidd, who was born at the Angel in 1815, the same year as Mr. Middleton, and lived through the busiest era of Tadcaster coaching. Afterwards he became landlord of the Londesborough and remained there until about 1879, when he retired into private life. He was well-known to commercial travellers and others, almost through out the country, and was greatly respected, having filled various public offices, and for many years he had officiated as a sidesman at the Parish Church. Many another well deserved tribute might be penned about similar worthies of the old coaching times did space permit.

The old Post Office at Tadcaster, the house afterwards occupied by Dr. Ireland, was, says Mr. Bradley, almost as important as any of the coaching inns in the town, and there were large stables connected with the place. In 1786 the mails began to be transmitted by coach; before that time they were conveyed by mounted carriers to and from Tadcaster. The Post Office was on the east side of the Bridge, and the cost of letters from Tadcaster to Bradford or Doncaster, in 1820, was 6d. to Halifax the postage was 7d., and to Leeds 4d.
Tadcaster is a very old post-town, though it would not appear to have had a registered post office before the time of Charles I., when regular communication was established between London and York. The “running-post,” between London and Edinburgh, was inaugurated in 1635, but it was not until the accession of Charles II. that the General Post Office was established by Act of Parliament ( The earliest distinct reference to the Tadcaster Post Office I have met with, is in a letter of Robert Fairfax, dated Feb. 2 1685, and addressed to “My Honoured Mother, Mrs. Katherine Fairfax, at Newton, near Tadcaster, to be left with the Post Master of Tadcaster.’*
The first English postmaster, of whom there is any particular account, is one Sir Brian Tuke, but whether h is of the York and Tadcaster family I do not know, He is described in 1533 as
Magistex Nunciorum, Cursorurn, sive Postarurn ; “ though in the 13th century there are entries in the wardrobe accounts of the English sovereigns, of payments to royal messengers for conveying letters and packages to various parts of England. In the Rolls of the Exchequer for 7 Edward III. (1313), there is a record of a messenger who was despatched from Berwick to London, and performed the journey in nine days. He travelled by way of Newcastle, Darlington, and Poundsborough (sic), to Wetherby; thence to Rouford, Leicester, Northampton, and Dunstable. In 1319 the sum of 2050 marks was conveyed from London to York; ten days being occupied in the journey from Huntingdon to York. From London to Huntingdon eight horsemen acted as guard, but on reaching the town of “Robin
Hood,” or “Robert ye bolde Erie of Huntingdon,” the guard to York, through Doncaster and Tadcaster, was increased to eleven horsemen and twelve able archers on foot, all armed and equipped with tipped arrows. But for five or six miles out of Huntingdon a special guard of six score men was delegated to accompany the bearers of the royal treasure, with the object of overawing the desperate outlaws in those parts from following in pursuit. The whole journey was apparently performed without any serious encounter. Safe lodgings on journeys of this kind must have been a source of concern, hut no doubt two men, in turns, would act as watch through the night, while the others snored heedlessly in tavern or manor- house.
I have already mentioned the ancient Tadcaster inns. There were also two brew-houses in 1341 evidently doing a good business. One of them paid 8d. to the imperial taxes in that year, and the other 4d In some places the lord of the manor at this period imposed a fine or charge of 4d or 6d. upon every brewing of ale, according to its strength, but I cannot find that the Tadcaster brewers were ever subject to such a toll. At Tadcaster, however, the lord had mulcture of corn and furnage or toll on the bread obliged to be baked at the manorial oven.
There were also many kinds of artificers, at an early period, flourishing in the town. The weaving, fulling, and dyeing of woollen cloth was carried on in the town in the 14th century, as also at other places in Lower Wharfedale, particularly at Wetherby. There was usually in the principal towns a fulling-mill and a corn-mill, some times together or they might be a little distance apart. The Tadcaster mills are mentioned in 1245. Tallow-chandling was also an old local industry, which continued to flourish here down to the introduction of gas. The Mountain family were widely-known tallow-chandlers in Tadcaster in the middle of the 18th century. There were also other minor industries, such as the hat and cap trade, which for many years was carried on here by the families of Bean and Crossley, down to about the middle of the century just closed. At the same time a good many straw hats and bonnets were made in the town. The printing trade was also introduced here in 1855 and is still carried on. Bnt in an agricultural district there is little inducement to develope this industry, and the local newspaper, the Tadcaster News, has long been printed at Wetherby.
Of course the inhabitants have mostly lived by agriculture, and the weekly (Wednesday) markets at Tadcaster, for the sale of agricultural produce, at one time attracted large gatherings from the surrounding districts. About 1850 an attempt was made to revive the market, and the day was changed to Monday, but it did not continue very long. A fortnightly fair was established for all kinds of cattle, on alternate Mondays, and this is still kept up and is well attended.
With the passing of the coaching-days Tadcaster began to decline. One by one, old inns that once did a thriving business, had to close their doors, and many houses were without tenants. A great change came over the place, and for a time the town wore a slumberous and lethargic aspect that boded ill for the future. The last forty years, however, have witnessed a resnscitation of life and activity, and the old town of Roman and medi England appears again to be as flourishing as ever. Since the opening, on August 10th, 1847, of the North Eastern Company’s railway from Church Fenton through Tadcaster to Spofforth,” and between Leeds and Wetherby (opened May 1st, 1876), connecting Tadcaster with all the main arteries of railway traffic, the town has become accessible from every direction, and there is no reason why it should not have a very prosperous future.
But the chief incentive to local prosperity has been in the marked revival in the brewing and malting trades, for which Tadcaster was, as I have shown, famous in the Middle Ages. There are now four or five extensive breweries in the town, besides several malt-kilns and a large corn-mill. Though Messrs. Backhouse and Hartley had established a brewery in Tadcaster so long ago as 1758, it was not until the representatives of that firm disposed of the business, in 1847, to the late Mr. John Smith, that any headway was made in developing this great local industry. When Mr. John Smith died in 1879, he left the brewery to his brother William, who died in 1886. The business had then wonderfully developed, and has done so still more under the capable management of his two nephews, Messrs. Herbert H. Riley-Smith and Frank Riley-Smith, who are now the proprietors. New concerns have sprung into existence, and the total output of the Tadcaster breweries, I am informed, now amounts to about io,ooo barrels per week. ‘The great success of this important industry is no doubt largely due to the excellent and suitable quality of the water, of which the supply seems practically inexhaustible, and is derived from numerous wells sunk in the magnesian limestone strata. The water is naturally rich in sulphate of lime, and in point of hardness is said to be superior to that of Burton-on-Trent. Some of these springs come up very copiously at the surface, and for centuries have been the source of water supply to the town. The springs are locally known as “popple-wells,” and one of them, situated about fifty yards from the north side of the wall of the churchyard, and close to the river, had such repute, that in the coaching-days, the people at one or two of the principal inns would use no other than this “popple-water” for the table.
In our walks about Tadcaster certain odoriferous breezes make us conscious of the presence of these famous breweries. But if Tadcaster ozone is surcharged with the extract of malt it has certainly not proved prejudicial to either the animal or vegetable life of the district. On the contrary, few districts in England are more fertile, or have produced a larger number of instances of human longevity, For its size and population, Tadcaster has probably surpassed, for a long period, every other place in the broad-acred shire in the number of its octogenarians, Aberford not excepted. Many have also reached the century. Two of the most notable instances may be recorded, namely, John Shepherd, of Tadcaster, who died in 1757, aged 109, and William Hughes, of Tadcaster, who died in 1769, aged 127. The time and place of their birth or baptism I am unable to verify, the Tadcaster Registers for the Civil War period being missing. My authority for these cases is the Mirror for Dec. 11th., 1822.
But if the inhabitants of Tadcaster have been long-lived, they have also been, so far as past history sheds light on the subject, a right-lived, law-abiding people. They have rarely been charged with crimes of a serious nature, and in the space of nearly five centuries (1379 to 1862) there are but four recorded instances of persons resident within the parish having suffered the extreme penalty of the law. Perhaps the most memorable of these cases was that of George Foster, a young man of 25, who had been taken and tried for false coining at Tadcaster, and being found guilty, he was executed at Tyburn, without Micklegate Bar, York, April 8th, 1582. The circumstaiices excited considerable interest at the time, and it is said that fully io,ooo people were present to witness the culprit’s untimely end. There are, however, records of many highway and other robberies committed within the limits of the parish by “foreigners” who had followed in the wake of the coaches that daily passed through the town. For example, on the evening of November 10th, 1801, a Mr. Wm. Midgley, of Tadcaster, was riding home from Leeds Market, when he was stopped by two foot-pads at Bramham Lane End, about three miles from Tadcaster, and robbed of bills to the amount of £55. The rascals got clear off. This road had a had repute in the coaching times. A story is related of a Mr. Scott, an attorney, of Knottingley, who while on his way to York was attacked by two armed footpads on the London road about a mile out of Tadcaster. He at once gave them what money he had in his pockets, but knowing the evil character of the locality had taken the precaution to put a number of bank-notes, &c., into one of his boots. Happily in our days of pleasure-tours, and driving and cycling, the times, like the public roads, have greatly improved (about £8,000,000 per annum having been of late years expended on the maintenance of streets and roads in England and Wales), and there is little to fear from such marauders on our old rural turnpikes.
The subject of crime is not the most attractive to dwell upon, though it is unfortunately an element to be reckoned with in the life of most communities. But if we except the lawlessness consequent upon rebellion, political and religious (of common occurrence in former times), the parish of Tadcaster has in the past a good record. Even the dissolution of monasteries—that most corrupt of all revolutions
—does not seem to have inveigled the inhabitants into rebellion as in many other places, notwithstanding its always-unfortunate position as a gravitating centre of the opposing parties. Perhaps this may be owing in a large measure to the early enfranchisement and consequent independence of the bulk of the inhabitants, who declined submission to either cause, and were content to abide by the issues of the unhappy feud. There can, however, be no doubt that for a lengthened period this revolution fermented much poverty and distress in the district. The times, indeed, were long out of joint. Men, and women too, declined to follow any useful occupation, and the roads were full of rogues and idlers. Rewards were offered for the apprehension of all beggars, gipsies, fiddlers, pipers, tinkers, petty chapmen, and others wandering abroad. Indeed many such were sham-peddlers and freebooters, who went about in the disguise of strolling minstrels.
I may mention a very remarkable incident illustrative of these troubled times, which is related in the old chronicles of York Castle. It appears that a man named Bartendale, a piper or strolling musician, had been apprehended for felony, and was condemned to be hanged at the York gallows. The penalty was actually carried out on March 2 1634, and when the man had hung the better part of an hour, he was cut down and interred near the place of execution. A
short time afterwards one of the Vavasours, of Haziewood, near Tadcaster, while riding with an attendant to York, thought he saw the earth move at the spot. Both he and his man dismounted, and proceeding to remove the earth, they found to their dismay the unfortunate victim alive, and looking them in the face They conveyed him to the Castle, where he was tended, and at the next Assizes he obtained a reprieve. That eccentric rhymer, “ Drunken Barnaby,” alludes to the incident when he says
Half alive or dead he rises,
Got a pardon next assizes,
And in York continued blowing,
Yet a sense of goodness showing.
But the real facts seem to be that he discontinued “blowing,” but became a hostler at a local inn and lived honestly afterwards.
Much might be written on other local events, customs, stories and traditions of a neighbourhood boasting the antiquity of Tadcaster. These may sometime form the subject of a separate volume. One event of more than a century ago may, however, be recalled, as it helps to typify the strong democratic spirit of the people at a time when local Nonconformity was rousing the people to a right under standing of the national freedom. John Wilkes, the self-elected “champion of the people” had been outlawed for his libellous opposition to measures of the Government, but in 1768 he was reinstated and elected by a large majority member for Middlesex. But being again expelled, the indignation of the people rose to such a pitch that they returned him again and again, and in the House of Commons allowed him quietly to take his seat. The joy of a great many of the inhabitants of Tadcaster knew no bounds. A meeting was called, and afterwards a procession, with music, was formed at the old Cross. A “hymn of rejoicing,” specially composed for the occasion by a local poet, was sung to instrumental accompaniment, the crowd cheering at the conclusion of every verse. The verses are now rarely met with, but the following must suffice as a sample of the rest
Ye honest hearts of Tadcaster, Come hither, with us join,
And drink to Wilkes and liberty
In bumpers of good wine;
And merry we will be, will be,
We will, now Wilkes gains liberty
Come hither, Sons of Liberty, Here’s wine and punch and ale:
Come hither to number 45 In hopes the cause won’t fail!
And merry, &c.

St. Mary's Church.
The early wooden structure was rebuilt in stone around 1150. The church was burnt down by the Scots in 1318 when they ravaged the north of England. It was rebuilt about between 1380 and 1480. Subject, as it was, to frequent flooding it had to be improved so it was taken down stone by stone and rebuilt with the foundations raised by 5 feet between 1875 and 1877 ; only the tower was left as it was. The money to pay for this work, £8426.4s.6½d, was raised by public subscription. In 1897 a new north aisle was built.

The church in 2001 - from the riverside

Breweries

Sam Smith's
Samuel Smith's is a small, independent brewery, brewing at the oldest brewery in Yorkshire. The original well at the Old Brewery, sunk in 1758, is still in use. The brewing water for the ales and stouts is drawn from 85 feet underground.
The malt mixes with hard well water in copper mash-tuns. Fuggles and Goldings, the old fashioned varieties of hops that over the centuries have given the best British ales distinctive flavour are added later and boiled in 'coppers'.
Samuel Smith still ferments ale and stout in traditional Yorkshire stone 'squares' - roofed fermenting vessels made of solid blocks of slate. The yeast is of a strain that has been used at the Old Brewery continuously since the beginning of the last century, one of the oldest unchanged strains in the country, still as healthy and as active as ever frothing up into rich creamy heads.
The brewery cooper makes and repairs all the wooden casks used for the brewery's naturally conditioned 'Old Brewery Bitter'. Barrels, kilderkins and firkins are the traditional names used for the different sizes of casks, repaired with tools that have their names like 'patsy', 'chive' and 'adze'.
Grey shire horses weighing more than a ton each are kept in the stables at the Old Brewery making occasional deliveries of beer to a couple of pubs in the town.
Samuel Smith's Old Brewery is by far the smallest of the three breweries in Tadcaster.

Tower Brewery - Bass

The older buildings comprising of the Tower Brewery (famed for their Prize Medal bottled beer) were erected when Tadcaster Tower Brewery was founded in 1882. The Company was formed by a small group of 'honourable's', i.e. younger sons of baronets - hence the brewery became known locally as Snobs Brewery. The building site was bought from the (then) North Eastern Railway Company who had purchased the land from the local squire, Sir Edward Brooksbank, when Tadcaster was planned to be linked with the main network of railways in the North East. Sadly this project never came to fruition.

In 1946 Hammonds Bradford Brewery Co purchased the Tadcaster Tower Brewery Company. With more than 700 pubs the company was one of the largest brewing concerns in the country and it was decided to rename the company to Hammonds United Breweries Limited. In the late 1950's it was clear that the Tower Brewery was better placed for the expansion necessary to cope with increased demand, and it was decided to go ahead with the construction of a new bottling store. It was completed with 1959 together with a new administration block - this was the first substantial improvement since the brewery was built.

The 1960's saw the formation of Northern Breweries of Great Britain Limited by the merger of the Sheffield brewery Hope & Anchor (famed for its Jubilee Stout), H.U.B. and John Jeffrey & Co. Ltd, a much smaller company which operated the Heriot Brewery in Edinburgh. In 1962 United Breweries merged with Charrington's of London to form Charrington United Breweries making the company one of the largest brewing empires in Great Britain. The famous Toby Jug was taken as its emblem. 1967 the name changed above the door of Tadcaster Tower Brewery yet again when Charrington's merged with Bass, Mitchells and Butler, of the Midlands to form Bass Charrington.

John Smith's

John Smith 1823-1879
Smith's company bears the name of a remarkable man. Born the son of a tanner, John Smith built a brewing business based on his entrepreneurial skills and personal commitment to quality. His Tadcaster brewery, acquired in 1847, responded to the new market opportunities generated by rapid population growth in northern towns during the Industrial Revolution.
The excellence of his ales paved the way for what has become Britain's most popular ale brand. The success story continues: a recent major expansion programme at Tadcaster has doubled capacity to keep in pace with growing demand.

Steam Wagon 1918 - Foden 1937 - Atkinson 1988

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