Rowley - The Enclosure Act - Part 2 Bentley and Risby

In thinking about our parish history we have to appreciate it as a rural area where agriculture has been foremost in its growth. The ground has ruled us; its soil, its water, its weather. In these aspects two of our ‘manors’, Bentley and Risby, with their richer deep soil, and water, have been favoured over others higher on the Wolds.

If we look from the end of Park Lane on Risby/Dunflats Lane to west then east we see this difference; westwards rising land, treeless, open wold; eastwards almost parkland, with water and woods. Similarly Bentley has woods to north, west and east, and springs and ponds and beyond the A164 low-lying carrs of Beverley Parks. Rich lands indeed relative to Riplingham and Hunsley.

Of either manor we know little before 1086; Domesday Book says both were ‘waste’ following William’s ‘harrying of the north’. Domesday gives some help; Bentley 2 carucates (240 acres) taxable (i.e. under plough) belonging to the Archbishop of York and held by St John’s of Beverley, woodland pasture 1 league by 4 furlongs (about 480 acres), also Count of Mortain 240 acres taxable. Risby; Archbishop of York, held by St John’s, 720 acres; Gamall had 480 acres but Archbishop Thomas has the King’s writ. Relative to manorial acreages of 1040 for Bentley and 970 for Risby we can see they had had high usage of the land before 1066, and must have been well established townships.

After 1086 both manors remained with St John’s of Beverley, ‘of Archbishop Thomas’, who had a major programme of re/building our parish churches and monasteries so he wouldn’t have let rich properties such as Bentley and Risby stand idle–losing his tithes and rents. When the land returned to use is unknown but in Risby in 1275 Edward de Ryplingham bought land from Richard de Rinfield. The Stuteville’s of Cottingham, who were believed to have built a manor house in Risby disputed ownership in Risby. In Bentley a William Trussebut in 1153 had estate in Bentley and in 1316 the lord was Robert of Bentley. Enclosure dating in Bentley is helped by records of granting a free warren in 1281, and enclosure of woodland in 1280.

Re-occupation of the manors clearly moved fast, almost certainly using the old agricultural methods of crofts and garths for the villagers, open infields of strip working, and open common outfields for stock pasture. In Bentley common land must have been sparse–Bentley Moor or marshy carrs near Beverley, perhaps. In Risby we have a little more help from a 1448 deed of transfer of ‘a capital messuage (house) and 34 acres of land near Risby field; various pieces of herbage called Beatrix Garth, Apple-garth, Gray Connegarth, etc,’. In about 1470 John Ellerker gained a fenced close called Applegarth, 9 oxgangs in land called Woldflatt; a fenced close called Pighill, near to a road called Beverley Gate; a toft called Sharwyndcroft and 7 oxgangs of land in Risby field. In fact John Ellerker in 1401 had married the heiress of the Risby family, and he soon acquired the majority of the manor; the Ellerkers retained the land until 1775.

St John’s and the Archbishop still took the taxes and tithes until 1536-9 when for reasons of his own Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries, and put the takings into his own nearly empty coffers. The result for Bentley and Risby was that ownerships changed and the now unconstrained freedom to manage the land rested with their new owners. Henry granted Risby manor to his friend Sir Ralph Ellerker, and there would be little immediate change. Bentley initially passed to the Duke of Cumberland, John Dudley, but had several lords until a local interest was taken by (Sir) Michael Wharton, who kept it as a manor in the family until 1775.
Information on enclosure is scarce for both manors since, in effect it was day-to-day progressive change. Maps and descriptions of East Yorkshire suggest completion of enclosure by 1750 in both manors; Cary’s map of 1787 has major woodland north of Bentley, and a large enclosed park north of Risby. A description of Risby by Arthur Young in 1697 is given on a board at Risby, and worth reading. Leland in 1540 says the land between Beverley and Cottingham is ‘well wooded and fruitful’.

From the earliest Ordnance Survey map dated 1856 the spread of enclosure can be seen in the field sizes and roads. In Bentley fields are smaller and less regular near the township than in distant parts. In particular around the Beverley Parks fields are large, straight hedged and equally sized–an effect, perhaps, of the drainage of the carrs in the 1790s. Isolated farms at Bentley Park (and Jillywoods and Pratwoods just outside the parish boundary) indicates building to be nearer the various owner’s lands. In Risby similar effects are seen; hedges near the Risby farm follows the erratic lines of the landscape, a winding narrow lane near the farm, but towards the new Risby Park farm and Risby Gate, and Dunflats Gate, fields are of regular size and direction indicating an intentional layout to develop use of the remoter lands.

Note; I have used data from various sources, but more detail can be found in Beverley Archives in the Victoria County History, and Oliver’s ‘History of Beverley’ 1829.)


Big Thank You to Barrie Heaton for his historical articles.

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