Bilton-in-Ainsty 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 ...

Bilton-in-Ainsty with Bickerton Bilton-in-Ainsty with Bickerton is a civil parish in the county of North Yorkshire, England. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 512, reducing to 463 at the 2011 Census. The parish contains Bilton-in-Ainsty and Bickerton, North ...

, 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. It lies about east of

Wetherby Wetherby ( ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the City of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is close to West Yorkshire county's border with North Yorkshire and lies approximately from Leeds city centre, from ...

and west of

York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...

. Bilton had a population of 147 in 2006.

Geography and communications

Parish Church of Bilton-In-Ainsty - geograph

The village is situated on the B1224 York to Wetherby road. The soil is primarily

loam Loam (in geology and soil science) is soil composed mostly of sand (particle size > ), silt (particle size > ), and a smaller amount of clay (particle size < ). By weight, its mineral composition is about 40–40–20% concentration of sand–si ...

. The village is surrounded by farmland. The nearest villages are Long Marston to the east, Tockwith to the north and Bickerton to the west. There is no road access to the south of the village. The village has a church and a pub, ''The Chequers''. There is a bus service between York and Wetherby running through village. There are public footpaths to Tockwith to the north, Healaugh to the south-east, Wighill to the south and Syningthwaite to the south-west.

Governance

The village is part of the Wetherby and Easingwold Parliamentary constituency. On 1 April 1937 the parish of Bickerton was merged with Bilton, on 1 June 1956, the merged parish was renamed to "Bilton in Ainsty", on 26 October 1988 the parish was renamed to "Bilton in Ainsty with Bickerton". In 1931 the parish of Bilton (prior to the merge) had a population of 217. Until 1974 it was part of the

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire was one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the riding was an administrative county named County of York, West Riding. The Lord Lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire, lieu ...

. From 1974 to 2023 it was part of the

Borough of Harrogate The Borough of Harrogate was a local government district with borough status in North Yorkshire, England, from 1974 to 2023. Its council was based in the town of Harrogate, but it also included surrounding settlements, including the cathedral ...

, 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 ...

Heritage

Historic buildings

St Helen's Church is a Grade I listed building. Standing at the crossroads with the main road, it was built in the Norman style in 1166. It was associated with the Syningthwaite Cistercian nunnery founded about the same time and dissolved in 1535. The church underwent restoration around 1870 under the direction of

George Gilbert Scott Sir George Gilbert Scott (13 July 1811 – 27 March 1878), largely known as Sir Gilbert Scott, was a prolific English Gothic Revival architect, chiefly associated with the design, building and renovation of churches and cathedrals, although he ...

. It contains two medieval

sheela na gig A sheela na gig is a figurative carving of a naked woman displaying an exaggerated Human vulva, vulva. These carvings, from the Middle Ages, are Grotesque (architecture), architectural grotesques found throughout most of Europe on Architecture ...

figurative carvings, as well as a carving of a mermaid pulling her tresses, several

corbel In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal keyed into and projecting from a wall to carry a wikt:superincumbent, bearing weight, a type of bracket (architecture), bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in t ...

s, a cross from the Anglo-Saxon period, and other carved fragments. Bilton Hall became a Grade II listed building in 1966, cited as a "small country house. Early-mid C18 with extensions and alterations c. 1865." Also listed Grade II at that time was a private house known as Bilton Brow. It has a style similar to the additions to Bilton Hall. One building converted to residential use is an 1845

Wesleyan Wesleyan theology, otherwise known as Wesleyan–Arminian theology, or Methodist theology, is a theological tradition in Protestant Christianity based upon the ministry of the 18th-century evangelical reformer brothers John Wesley and Charle ...

chapel and Sunday school.Bilton in Ainsty Conservation... The village school, likewise Grade II listed and converted to residential use, was founded by Hall Plumer in 1801, closed in 1928, and then served as a village hall until 1973.

History

A Bronze Age hoard was discovered on Bilton Moor, pointing to prehistoric habitation. Bilton is an Anglo-Saxon name meaning Bilo's or Billa's Homestead. Ainsty was the name of the

wapentake A hundred is an administrative division that is geographically part of a larger region. It was formerly used in England, Wales, some parts of the United States, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, and in Cumberland County in the British Colony of ...

. The village appears in the

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 1086 as Biletone of the Annesti (Bilton in Ainsty). The parish registers go back in 1571 and record for 1644 the burial of several soldiers killed in the nearby

Battle of Marston Moor The Battle of Marston Moor was fought on 2 July 1644, during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms of 1639–1653. The combined forces of the English Parliamentarians under Lord Fairfax and the Earl of Manchester and the Scottish Covenanters unde ...

, after which some

Royalist A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of gove ...

prisoners were held in the church. Bilton Hall and its manor passed to the Plumer family in the 18th century, who established a school in 1801. John Marius Wilson's ''Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales'' (1870–72) described Bilton, then including not only Bickerton, but Tockwith, as follows: "BILTON, a township, a parish, and a subdistrict in the district of Tadcaster, W. R. Yorkshire. The township lies on the York and High Harrogate railway, near Hammerton station, 5 miles ENE of Wetherby; and has a post office under York. Acres, 1,460.-Real property, £2,606. Pop., 242. Houses, 44. The parish includes also the townships of Bickerton and Tockwith. Acres, 4,150. Real property, £6,894. Pop., 926 Houses, 201. A Cistercian nunnery was founded here, at Symingthwaite, about 1,160, by Bertram de Haget. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of York Value. £300.* Patron, the Prebendary of Bilton. Tockwith was made a separate benefice in 1867. There are two Wesleyan chapels and an endowed school.-The subdistrict comprises two parishes and two parts. Pop., 1,493."

Notable people

The writer sisters Annie (1825–1879) and Eliza Keary (1827–1918) were born at what is now the Old Vicarage, Church Lane, Bilton-in-Ainsty, where their father, Rev. William Keary, was vicar and their mother Lucy the daughter of Hall Plumer of Bilton Hall. A third sister, Maud, also took part in joint writing projects. The oldest brother, also William Keary and born in Bilton, was a solicitor who became the first mayor of

Stoke-on-Trent Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England. It has an estimated population of 259,965 as of 2022, making it the largest settlement in Staffordshire ...

, when it was incorporated in 1874.People of Stoke-on-Trent
Retrieved 10 March 2014.

Sport

Bilton-in-Ainsty has a village cricket club, the BIACC, founded in 1932. The club plays in the York and District League Galtres Division 2 and Wetherby League Division 3. It is nicknamed the Frogs for its team badge.

References

External resources

*W. V. Crapp: ''Some Historical Notes on the Parish and Parish Church of St Helen's, Bilton in Ainsty with Bickerton'', 1973.

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bilton-In-Ainsty Villages in North Yorkshire Former civil parishes in North Yorkshire