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Embsay and Eastby Village History
Our two villages inevitably derive their character from the past -– their own past as a community, the past of the wider world they live in, and the individual pasts of the people who have come to live here. This page is intended to provide an interesting overview and pertinent information about those pasts.
Location
The location of the parish of Embsay-with-Eastby, close to a crossing point in the Pennine Hills known as the Aire Gap, means that people are likely to have travelled, and lived here, for millennia. Burial mounds from the Bronze Age have been found on the hills in the neighbouring parish of Bolton Abbey, and at Rylstone, implying there was settlement in the area at this time. A bronze torc found on Embsay Moor could have been deposited in the Bronze Age or Iron Age. There are no recorded Roman remains in the parish, but it is likely that farming in this area continued throughout. In the period often known as the Dark Ages, Embsay and Eastby were populated by native “British” people, descended from the Iron Age Brigantian tribes which dominated the north of England. The later influence of the Anglian settlers in the Vale of York, and then Scandinavians, are hinted at in the names given to the two townships in this parish. The name Embsay is derived from Old English, meaning “Embe’s enclosure” (or possibly “Embe’s Island”).
Embsay – 1st recorded mention
The first recorded mention of Embsay is in the Domesday Book in 1089. This reveals that before the Norman Conquest, Embsay was part of a multi-village estate based around a centre of power at a place called Bodeltone, which was where Bolton Abbey is today. This pre-Conquest estate was controlled by the Earls of Yorkshire and was strategically important, as it controlled access through the Aire Gap. This location continued to be important after the Norman Conquest, when Robert de Romille built a castle at Skipton.
In 1120 Robert de Romille’s daughter, Cecily, established a small Augustinian Priory at Embsay dedicated to St Cuthbert. The civil war between King Stephen and Empress Matilda left a power vacuum in the North of England and the Scots army invaded, capturing Skipton, along with Cecily and her daughters. One of her daughters, Alice, married the nephew of David I, King of Scotland, meaning that her children were of royal blood. When the civil war was over, Alice, now a widow, moved the Priory from Embsay to Bolton (now Bolton Abbey), where she erected buildings more in keeping with her, and her children’s, royal status. The old Embsay Priory, however, remained as a working church, and possibly as a shrine to its founder, Cecily.
Eastby – 1st recorded mention
The first documentary reference to Eastby was in 1241, when the village was gifted to Bolton Priory, together with all rights of chase on Eastby Moor. The history of Eastby at this time is difficult to ascertain as it is rarely mentioned in documents, which may indicate that it remained a small settlement centred around the farmstead.
Early layout
The layout of Embsay village, with houses running along Main Street and Pasture Road, was probably defined in the Norman period. Strip fields were established to the north of these roads, extending eastwards to Rowton Beck, in Eastby. Hay meadows were established close to Haw Beck, on the southern boundary of both villages. Further strip fields were established either side of the trackway which would later become Brackenley Lane. The remains of the ridges and furrows formed by these strip fields can still be seen across the villages today.
14th Century
By the start of the 14th century, Embsay and Eastby were successful arable farming communities, growing mainly oats, with some wheat, rye, and barley. The two communities were successful enough to leave the feudal system based on serfdom, and become part of the increasing trend towards tenancies paying cash rent to the lord of the manor (Bolton Priory). Embsay also ran its own annual fair for three days at the festival of St Cuthbert each autumn.
Scottish Invasion
A significant event in the history of Embsay and Eastby occurred in the early 14th century. The defeat of the English armies by Robert the Bruce at Bannockburn in 1314 meant that the Scots were free to attack the North of England. The suffering which resulted was compounded by a nationwide famine caused by two successive wet summers. Embsay and Eastby suffered greatly when the Scots invaders reached the Skipton area in 1318 and 1319. It is highly probable that many residents were killed or taken as slaves to Scotland. Livestock that could not be driven off was slaughtered. It is recorded that, after 1319, the rents on land in Eastby and Embsay fell to about 20 to 25% of that paid just a few years before. Farming methods had to change, and Embsay in particular, became a sheep farming village, an indication that there were insufficient people in the village to cultivate crops.
Field Enclosures
Both the villages would have suffered during the Black Death, but there are no records to show the extent of its effects on local village life here. Assuming that in Embsay and Eastby, as with many other villages across the country, the availability of tenants was greatly reduced, forcing a final abandonment of centuries-old feudal practices, it is probable that some of the strip fields were consolidated into enclosed fields at this time. Piece-meal, ad hoc, enclosure of more fields continued to take place until the mid-18th century, creating a social structure of landowners, tenant farmers and wage labourers.
The Dissolution of the monasteries
At the Dissolution of the monasteries in 1538, the Lords Clifford, of Skipton Castle, bought the lands confiscated from Bolton Priory. At the start of the 17th century, the Cliffords sold land with 2,000 to 3,000-year leases, which enabled some Embsay and Eastby residents to develop substantial landholdings. With their increased wealth some of them were able to build grander houses in stone. Old wooden cottages, housing the farm workers, and barns on Main Street in Embsay, were also gradually replaced with stone constructions. Eastby was developed in the 17th and 18th century with new and replacement stone buildings, although there were fewer built than in Embsay. Some of these 17th and 18th century stone houses remain in both villages to this day, often, as can best be seen in Eastby, with some walls re-built in the 18th century.
The 1733 fire
The full extent of the original 17th century village of Embsay is not clear because of a devastating fire in 1733, which consumed 46 houses as well as many barns, stables and out-houses. The fire was reported in newspapers as far afield as Newcastle, with a plea for donations to help the people of the village who had lost their winter supply of hay and cattle feed as well as their homes.
Until the end of the 18th century Embsay and Eastby were mainly agricultural, although, as in much of Yorkshire, cottage industries (spinning, weaving) were also an important part of the local economy. This was to change as the Industrial Revolution brought factories to both villages.
Mills
The water flowing from Embsay Moor had driven a water mill, probably grinding grain, from at least the 14th century. The earliest mill in the village was probably situated at Millholme, near to where the Cavendish Pub is today. This was replaced by a more efficient mill in Mill Gill, just below the ‘Manor House’ on Pasture Road, this being fed by the upper mill-pond on Pasture Road. In 1792, or thereabouts, William Baynes, who had just re-built the mansion at Embsay Kirk (replacing a Tudor Hall house which had been built over the site of the medieval priory), built a cotton spinning mill using, and probably extending, the same mill-pond. A further two mills using the water from Embsay Beck were quickly built by other entrepreneurs, together with three other mills using water from tributaries feeding Embsay Beck. A large mill was also built on Rowton Beck, in Eastby. All the mills started with spinning but later weaving also took place, and one manufactured spindles for the weaving industry. Whilst most of the mills eventually converted to steam power, it proved impossible to compete with the larger Skipton mills, and by the end of the 19th century only two of the seven mills remained in operation.
Expansion
The demand for mill workers had driven the rapid expansion of Embsay and Eastby. Many of the 17th century barns in the centre of Embsay were converted into cottages, and new housing built around them. Housing also developed for people working in Skipton, including large houses for captains of Skipton industry, at Laurel Bank, and Rockville. But residential properties were still centred around Main Street and Pasture Road and slowly developing along East Lane. However, it was not until the 1920s and 1930s that the development extended much beyond Main Road, Pasture Road and East Lane. During the inter-war period housing was built in the Millholme area of the village, extending along, and to the west of, Brackenley Lane. Following World War Two, as demand increased, further housing estates were developed in Dalacres field, at the east of Main Street, and at Rockville Drive.
Today
Embsay still retains much of its historic character in the village centre, especially along the Main Road and Pasture Road. Eastby maintains the character of an agricultural village even with the conversion of many roadside barns to housing.
Author – Chris Lunnon, Embsay-with-Eastby Historical Research Group, April 2021
Please follow the links below to access an archive of village history articles published by the Embsay with Eastby Historical Research Group.
All posts:
theembsayeastbypost.com/category/history
Eastby
Repairing-eastbys-roads
Christmas-at-the-masons-arms-eastby-1875
Eastby-sanatorium-part-1-tuberculosis
Eastby-sanatorium-part-2-the-early-years
Eastby-sanatorium-part-3-the-later-years
