Category: History Posts

Articles and posts about the history of the parish and its people. An overview of the villages’ history can be found on the Village History page.

History Talk

A Visit To Bolton Abbey In 1875

An Embsay-with-Eastby History post from the diary of Annie Parker Greenwood of the Mason’s Arms, Eastby Annie Parker Greenwood lived at the Mason’s Arms, Eastby with her widowed mother Elizabeth, younger sister […]

Centenary of Embsay-with-Eastby War Memorial: 1921-2021

After all the Armistice commemorative events held in 2018 it may seem superfluous to return to the subject of the First World War. But it is important to remember that the war’s […]

Chasing Horses Up Eastby Bank

Eastby Pound sits at the bottom of Eastby Bank, where the road turns sharply into the village, adjacent to Bark Lane and Eastby Hall.  As all local residents know, Eastby Bank is […]

The Fight Against Smallpox & The Anti-Vaccination League

Distrust of new medical advances, the spread of fake news, conspiracy theories, and a distaste for State intervention in “personal liberty”, are nothing new.  In the 18th and 19th Centuries a variety […]

The Eastby Nonagenarians

The photograph below shows thirteen ladies from Eastby, and probably also Embsay, at some sort of gathering. I think the photograph may have been taken in the garden at Bridge End Cottage, […]

110 year old locomotive visits Embsay Railway

The Embsay & Bolton Abbey Railway is returning Gasworks No2 to Yorkshire, where it worked for several decades, for the first time in over 80 years. Gasworks No. 2 is a diminutive […]

Embsay and Eastby Feasts

Prior to the 20th century most villages in the old West Riding had annual feast days, all held at specific times in the summer months. Addingham Feast was held in the 1st […]

The Elm Tree Inn – Inquests, Auctions, Tar-barrels and Club-rooms

 The Elm Tree Inn has long been at the heart of life in Embsay, not only geographically, but also in terms of village life.  In the 18th and 19th centuries it was […]