Hawsker is the name for the combined villages of High and Low Hawsker that straddle the A171 road southeast of

Whitby Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. It is on the Yorkshire Coast at the mouth of the River Esk, North Yorkshire, River Esk and has a maritime, mineral and tourist economy. From the Middle Ages, Whitby ...

, 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.

History

The name Hawsker derives 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 ...

and means Haukr's enclosure. The settlement was listed 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 ...

as belonging to Earl Hugh in ''Nortreding''. Hawsker was originally in the parish of Whitby, but in 1878 it was split off into its own parish ( Hawsker-cum-Stainsacre) along with neighbouring hamlet of Stainsacre where the parish church, All Saints' Church, Hawsker, is located. the population of the parish is 790 and includes the hamlet of Stainsacre and the wider parish which amounts to over in area. The two settlements of High and Low Hawsker are divided by the A171 road between Whitby and

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, sub ...

; Low Hawsker lies to the west of the road and High Hawsker lies to the east. Low Hawsker used to have a working windmill; this was built in 1861 by George Burnett and was known to be in use up until 1915. The upper storeys were removed in 1960, but the lower portion is still in the village. There is a caravan park on the southern boundary of the settlement, York House, and 2 caravan parks on the eastern boundary, Northcliffe and Seaview. Between July 1885 and March 1965, Hawsker had a station on the Scarborough & Whitby Railway line. The track was left in situ for potash traffic that never was realised, however, a new potash mine at Sneatonthorpe (to the west) is due to open for mining in 2021. The trackbed is now a long-distance path and cycleway, with the old station now housing a cycle hire business. There is a primary school in the village that caters to students from the Hawsker-cum-Stainsacre parish and was rated as being 'Good' by

Ofsted The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is a non-ministerial department of His Majesty's government, reporting to Parliament. Ofsted's role is to make sure that organisations providing education, training ...

in 2013. Caedmon College and Eskdale School, both in Whitby, provide secondary education for students from Hawsker and Stainsacre. An hourly bus service connects the village with Whitby, Robin Hood's Bay, and Scarborough. This is increased to half-hourly through the summer daytime.

References

{{authority control Villages in North Yorkshire

History

See also

References