Our History

Other minor roads link Rowley and its hamlets or lead to the adjoining villages of Brantingham, Elloughton, Walkington, and Welton. Several notably straight roads in Riplingham and Little Weighton were laid out at inclosure in 1803-4. The road from Little Weighton to Riplingham was diverted by the rector away from Rowley church and rectory in 1788. A road in Bentley township joining the Beverley-Hessle and Beverley-Howden roads was diverted in 1814 to a straight new line south of the hamlet.’ The road provides a means of bypassing Beverley and it was straightened in the 1960s. A branch leading from it towards Skidby, which was also stopped up in 1814, may have formed part of the road used by the inhabitants of Skidby to reach their meadowland beside the river Hull. Another part of that road followed the parish boundary as Jilly or Jilly Wood Lane and ran through Birkin or Birkhill wood; though overgrown it survived as a hollow way.

The Hull, Barnsley & West Riding Junction Railway was built across the parish and opened in 1885, running in deep cuttings through Little Weighton Township and in a long tunnel beneath Riplingham. It was closed for passengers completely to the west of Little Weighton in 1959 and to the east in 1964 the track has been lifted. The large red brick station at Little Weighton still stands.

The only houses remaining close to the site of the depopulated village of Rowley are the former rectory and rectorial farmhouse, but in the 20th century a new rectory and five houses have been built at some distance from the church. There is no trace of the village site. Like three of its hamlets Rowley was probably gradually depopulated over a long period.