Great Driffield Yorkshire Family History Guide
Great Driffield is an Ancient Parish and a market town in the county of Yorkshire.
Other places in the parish include: Kelleythorpe, Emswell with Kellythorpe, Emswell with Kelleythorpe, Emswell, and Elmswell.
Alternative names: Driffield
Parish church:
Parish registers begin:
- Parish registers: 1556
- Bishop’s Transcripts: 1600
Nonconformists include: Independent/Congregational, Particular Baptist, Primitive Methodist, and Wesleyan Methodist.
Table of Contents
Adjacent Parishes
Parish History
Driffield
The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870
DRIFFIELD, a town, a parish, a sub-district, and a district in E. R. Yorkshire. The town stands on a fertile plain, at the foot of the eastern wolds, near the source of the river Hull, adjacent to the Hull and Scarborough railway, 11½ miles N of Beverley.
It was known to the Saxons as Driffelda; and seems to have been the centre of many contests, in the times of the kingdom of Northumbria. It is washed by a brook, enlarging into a canal 5 miles long, going into communication with canals to Hull; and consists chiefly of one long wide street. It has a head post office, a railway station with telegraph, three banking offices, four chief inns, a parish church, five dissenting chapels, a corn exchange, and a work-house; and is a polling-place for the east riding, and the capital of the York Wolds.
The church is a handsome structure, mainly Norman and early English, of nave, aisles, and chancel, with a fine tower of decorated English date. An Independent chapel was built in 1867, at a cost of nearly £15, 000; is in the Italian Gothic style; and has a gallery all round the interior.
The corn exchange was built in 1842. Markets are held on Thursdays; fairs, on Easter Monday, Whit-Monday, 26 Aug. and 19 Sep.; and a considerable trade in corn, carpets, and cotton fabrics is carried on. Pop., 4, 244. Houses, 948.
The parish comprises the townships of Great Driffield, Little Driffield, and Emswe-with-Kellythorpe. Acres, 7, 434. Real property, £23, 158. Pop., 4, 734. Houses, 1, 028. The property is much subdivided. Tumuli, seemingly of the times of the Danes, occur in various places, particularly on a farm called Danes-dale, 3 miles from the town; and some of them have yielded flint spear-heads, fragments of urns, and beads of jet, glass, and amber.
The living is a vicarage, united with the p. curacy of Little Driffield, in the diocese of York. Value, £240. Patron, the Archbishop of York.
The sub-district contains the parishes of Driffield, Ruston-Parva, Skerne, and parts of Nafferton and Hutton-Cranswick. Acres, 20, 927. Pop., 7, 787. Houses, 1, 696.
The district comprehends also the sub-district of Foston, containing the parishes of Foston-on-the-Wolds, North Frodingham, Harpham, Lowthorpe, parts of Beeford, Nafferton, and Hutton-Cranswick, and the extra-parochial tract of Little Kelk; the sub-district of Bainton, containing the parishes of Bainton, Watton, Middleton, North Dalton, Kirkburn, Wetwang, Garton-on-the-Wolds, and part of Kilnwick; and the sub-district of Langtoft, containing the parishes of Langtoft, Kilham, Foxholes, Weaverthorpe, Helperthorpe, Cowlan, Sledmere-with-Croom, and part of Wharram-Percy.
Acres, 105, 114. Poor-rates in 1862, £6, 784. Pop. in 1841, 16, 828; in 1861, 19, 226. Houses, 3, 959. Marriages in 1860, 156; births, 717, of which 70 were illegitimate; deaths, 372, of which 159 were at ages under 5 years, and 12 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 1, 479; births, 6, 620; deaths, 3, 694. The places of worship in 1851 were 30 of the Church of England, with 5, 473 sittings; 4 of Independents, with 730 s.; 3 of Baptists, with 610 s.; 29 of Wesleyan Methodists, with 4, 424 s.; and 21 of Primitive Methodists, with 2, 678 s. The schools were 27 public day schools, with 1, 727 scholars; 41 private day schools, with 1, 029 s.; and 36 Sunday schools, with 2, 325 s.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].
Great Driffield
The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870
DRIFFIELD (Great), a township in Driffield parish, E. R. Yorkshire; containing the town of Driffield. Acres, inclusive of Little Driffield, 5, 058. Pop. of Great Driffield alone, 4, 405. Houses, 967.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].
Emswell with Kelleythorpe
The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870
EMSWELL-WITH-KELLEYTHORPE, a township in Driffield parish, E. R. Yorkshire; 2 miles WNW of Great Driffield. Acres, 2, 376. Pop., 132. Houses, 20.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].
Kelleythorpe
The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870
KELLEYTHORPE, a township, conjoint with Emswell, in Great Driffield parish, E. R. Yorkshire; 1½ mile SW of Great Driffield.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].
Parish Records
FamilySearch
Administration
- County: Yorkshire
- Civil Registration District: Driffield
- Probate Court: Court of the Peculiar of the Precentor of York with Prebendal Jurisdiction of Driffield
- Diocese: York
- Rural Deanery: Harthill and Hull
- Poor Law Union: Driffield
- Hundred: Harthill
- Province: York