Skipwith

Skipwith is a village and civil parish about 4 miles (6.4 km) north-east of Selby and 10 miles (16 km) south-east of York in North Yorkshire, England. It was historically in the East Riding of Yorkshire.^[2] After the 1974 local government reorganisation Skipwith was in the Selby District of the shire county of North Yorkshire. In 2023 the district was abolished and North Yorkshire became a unitary authority.

The name Skipwith derives from the Old English scēpwīc meaning 'sheep trading settlement'. Wīc was later changed to the Old Norse viðr meaning 'wood'.^[3]

The Domesday Book records that by 1086 Robert de Stutville held a carucate of land at Skipwith.^[4] His family held a manor here until 1229, when it passed to Hugh Wake by his marriage to Joan de Stutville.^[4] In 1325 it passed to Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent by his marriage to Margaret Wake, 3rd Baroness Wake of Liddell.^[4] It remained with his heirs until 1418,^[4] a decade after their line became extinct with the death of Edmund Holland, 4th Earl of Kent in 1408.^[4]

The oldest parts of the Church of England parish church of Saint Helen are Saxon. The west tower began as a porch, but in the 11th century upper stages were added to turn it into a tower.^[5] The tower is linked with the nave by a characteristic Saxon plain Romanesque round arch,^[5] so the nave must also have originally been Saxon.

A Norman north aisle of two bays was added to the nave in about 1190, linked with the nave by an arcade of pointed arches.^[5] This was followed by the south aisle, whose arcade has octagonal columns.^[5] The nave and aisles were then extended eastwards with the addition of a third bay.^[5]

The present chancel was built about 1300.^[6] It is lofty and has large, square-headed windows with Decorated Gothic tracery.^[6] The chancel windows were glazed with medieval stained glass, fragments of which survive.^[5]

In the 15th century the tower was raised again with the addition of a new bell-stage above the 11th-century Saxon one.^[5] In the 16th century, possibly after the English Reformation, a clerestory was added to the nave and new square-headed windows were inserted in the north aisle.^[5]

In 1821–22 the Gothic Revival south porch was added,^[7] and in 1877 the church was carefully restored under the direction of John Loughborough Pearson.^[5] Notably, the south door was replaced but re-using its original 13th-century ironwork.^[5] St Helen's is now a Grade I listed building.^[7]

St Helen's parish is now part of a joint benefice with the parish of Bubwith with Ellerton and Aughton.^[8]

Two families in Skipwith were Methodists by 1764.^[4] The village's Methodists worshipped in each other's homes until 1833, when a Wesleyan Methodist chapel was built.^[4] In the 1860s the Vicar of St Helen's claimed that 300 or 400 of the villagers were Methodists.^[4] In 1876 the first chapel was replaced with a larger brick one next to the parish school.^[4]

The chapel is now Skipwith Methodist Church.^[4] It is a member of the Goole and Selby Methodist Circuit.^[9]

Skipwith Hall is early in the 18th century house of seven bays and two and a half storeys,^[5] flanked by a three-bay wing on each side.^[10] It is now a Grade II* listed building.^[11]

A school and schoolmaster's house built in 1714,^[10] founded and endowed by the bequest of a Dorothy Wilson.^[4][12] In the 1851 its pupils included 11 boarders, and in the 1860s a separate classroom for girls was added.^[4] In 1871 the school had 54 pupils but in 1872 this fell to only 30.^[4] From the 1900s to the 1930s the school averaged 30–40 pupils, but in 1938 this had declined to 26.^[4] In 1957 the school was closed and its pupils were transferred to Thorganby.^[4] Since 1959 the school has served as the village hall.^[4]

0.5 miles (800 m) south-west of the village is the site of RAF Riccall, a training airfield that was a heavy bomber conversion unit in the Second World War. The site is now a national nature reserve known as Skipwith Common.^[13]

Skipwith has a public house, the Drovers Arms, which is now a gastropub.^[14]

• Listed buildings in Skipwith
• Skipwith railway station
• Skipwith Common

• Baggs, A. P.; Kent, G. H. R.; Purdy, J. D. (1976). Allison, K. J. (ed.). A History of the County of York East Riding. Victoria County History. Vol. 3 Ouse and Derwent wapentake, and part of Harthill wapentake. pp. 89–101.
• Pevsner, Nikolaus (1972). Yorkshire: York & the East Riding. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. pp. 340–342. ISBN 0-14-071043-4.

• Skipwith Parish Council
• Friends of Skipwith Common