Our History

The prominent dry valley in which Little Weighton village stands continues eastwards into Risby where the landscape is diversified by the existence of two glacial meltwater channels, each of which turns sharply from a north-south to an east-west alignment. In Risby the chalk is mostly covered by boulder clay, again with gravel in the valley bottoms. Inclosure may have taken place there in the 17th century and much land around the sites of the village and Risby Hall was later devoted to grass land and plantations. The picturesque scenery of meltwater channels and parkland is in marked contrast to the open wold country further west in the parish. Risby village lay at about 50m. above sea level and Bentley stands at about 30m. In Bentley Township the ground, mostly covered by boulder clay, merges eastwards with the low-lying land of the Hull valley. A stream flowing from Risby towards the river Hull represents almost the only surface drainage in the parish.

The only main roads in the parish are near its eastern and western ends: Bentley township is crossed by the Beverley-Hessle and Hunsley roads by the Beverley-Howden roads. An indulgence for the repair of the former, from Beverley as far as Bentley, was promulgated in 1230, perhaps promoted by Beverley College as lords of the manor of Bentley. The same road was turnpiked in 1769 and the trust maintained until 1878. It was straightened in the 1960s and again in 1977.In the hedgerow beside the road near Rose Villa, stands the remains of a stone cross marking the sanctuary limits of Beverley Minster. In modern times two other routes have been increasingly used by traffic crossing the Wolds, one from Skidby through Little Weighton and HunsIey to Newbald, the other from Kirk Ella through Riplingham to North and South Cave.

The latter was turnpiked in 1774 and the trust continued until 1874. The road was diverted, perhaps at inclosure in 1803, evidently to remove it from the front of Riplingham House; part of the causeway of the old road could still be seen in 1977.