Aiskew is a village in the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

Aiskew and Leeming Bar Aiskew and Leeming Bar is a civil parish within the Bedale ward of North Yorkshire, England. The parish only has two settlements (Aiskew and Leeming Bar), but prior to the changes in the 19th century, the area it contains belonged to the parish ...

, in

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in Northern England.The Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority areas of City of York, York and North Yorkshire (district), North Yorkshire are in Yorkshire and t ...

, England. The village is situated to the immediate north-east of

Bedale Bedale ( ), is a market town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. Bedale Beck is a tributary of the River Swale, which forms one of the Yorkshire Dales. The dale has a predominant agriculture sector and its related small traditional t ...

and separated from it by

Bedale Beck Bedale Beck is a small river that flows through the eastern end of Wensleydale and passes through Crakehall, Bedale and Leeming, before entering the River Swale between Morton-on-Swale and Gatenby. Between source and mouth its length is . Ro ...

History

Remains of a Roman villa were unearthed in 2015 north of Sand Hill. The building is thought to have been two storeys high with a

hypocaust A hypocaust () is a system of central heating in a building that produces and circulates hot air below the floor of a room, and may also warm the walls with a series of pipes through which the hot air passes. This air can warm the upper floors a ...

on the ground floor. Animal remains were found extensively across the site. It is thought the site dated from the third to fourth century AD and would have been situated along

Dere Street Dere Street or Deere Street is a modern designation of a Roman roads, Roman road which ran north from Eboracum (York), crossing the Stanegate at Corbridge (Hadrian's Wall was crossed at the Portgate, just to the north) and continuing beyond int ...

. The site was covered as part of the construction of the Bedale, Aiskew and Leeming Bar bypass, which opened on 11 August 2016 as part of the upgrade to the

A1(M) A1(M) is the designation given to a series of four separate motorway sections in the UK. Each section is an upgrade to a section of the A1, a major north–south road which connects London, the capital of England, with Edinburgh, the capita ...

. The village was known as ''Echescol'' in ''

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

'' in the

Hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numerals, Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 (number), 99 and preceding 101 (number), 101. In mathematics 100 is the square of 10 (number), 10 (in scientific notation it is written as 102). The standar ...

Count Alan of Brittany Alan Rufus, alternatively Alanus Rufus (Latin), Alan ar Rouz (Breton language, Breton), Alain le Roux (French Language, French) or Alan the Red (c. 1040 – 1093), 1st Lord of Richmond, North Yorkshire, Richmond, was a Bretons, Breton nobleman, ...

, the previous Lord having been ''Gospatric''. The village had 7 ploughlands. The Lordship of the Manor followed that of neighbouring Bedale. The name is derived from

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

words ''eik'' (oak) and ''skógr'' (wood) and thus means ''Oak wood''. Robert Hird, Bedale poet and diarist, noted that in late 18th Century the village name was spelled ''Ascough'' – he credits "Mr. Edward Strangeways, near Fencote" with the introduction of the modern spelling "by writing it Aiskew on his cartboard". In 2013

Masons Gin Masons Gin (also known as Masons Of Yorkshire) is a gin based alcoholic drink distilled by the Mason family in North Yorkshire, England. The brand has won many awards and accolades despite only being set up in 2013. It had a distillery and shop ...

established its first distillery in the village. This was damaged by fire in April 2019, leading to the opening of a new distillery in Leeming Bar in March 2020.

Governance

From 1974 to 2023 it was part of the district of Hambleton, it is now administered by the unitary

North Yorkshire Council North Yorkshire Council, known between 1974 and 2023 as North Yorkshire County Council, is the local authority for the non-metropolitan county of North Yorkshire, England. Since 2023 the council has been a unitary authority, being a county coun ...

. Aiskew Civil Parish (as it was before being renamed on 17 April 2018) includes the village of

Leeming Bar Leeming Bar is a village in the civil parish of Aiskew and Leeming Bar, in North Yorkshire, England. The village lay on the original Great North Road (Dere Street) before being bypassed. It is now home to a large industrial estate and the mai ...

. Until 2023, it was part of the

Richmond (Yorks) Richmond (Yorks) was a United Kingdom constituencies, constituency in North Yorkshire in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons of the UK Parliament. It was represented from 1910 by members of the Conservative Party (UK), C ...

parliamentary constituency. It was removed and added to the expanded Thirsk and Malton Constituency, in part due to areas from that constituency being created into a new seat of

Wetherby and Easingwold Wetherby and Easingwold is a constituency of the House of Commons in the UK Parliament, partly in North Yorkshire and partly in West Yorkshire. Further to the completion of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, it was first c ...

Demography

According to the 2001 UK Census, the population was 2,163 living in 863 dwellings. The 2011 UK Census showed this had increased to 2,427 in 985 dwellings.

Community

The village is in the Primary Education Catchment Area of Bedale Church of England Primary School, though it is also close to Aiskew, Leeming Bar Church of England Primary School, in Leeming Bar. It is within the Secondary Education Catchment Area of Bedale High School. The

Wensleydale Railway The Wensleydale Railway is a heritage railway in Wensleydale and Lower Swaledale in North Yorkshire, England. It was built in stages by different railway companies and originally extended to Garsdale railway station on the Settle-Carlisle line ...

, a tourist and heritage line, includes station on the Aiskew side of Bedale Beck at the edge of the village. The signal box opposite Park House is a Grade II listed building. In the village is the 18th-century Grade II listed

Aiskew Mill Aiskew Mill is a historic building in Aiskew, a village in North Yorkshire, in England. The corn mill was built in the late 18th century on the Bedale Beck, powered by an undershot waterwheel. In the mid 19th century, a three-storey extension ...

with all its original wooden machinery. There is also an 18th-century Leech House next to the beck.

Religion

St Mary and St Joseph's Church, Bedale lies in the village. It was built in 1878, designed by Mr George Goldie of London, after the original chapel became too small for the congregation. There had been both a Baptist church and Primitive Methodist Chapel in the village. The Methodist Church in Aiskew, which was part of the Ripon & Lower Dales Methodist Circuit, has closed and the congregation merged with the Bedale & District Methodist Church.

References

External links

* {{authority control Villages in North Yorkshire