Knapton is a former

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 ...

, now in the parish of Scampston, 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 parish included the hamlets of East Knapton and West Knapton. In 1931 the parish had a population of 236.

History

The name origin of "Knapton" is uncertain and may mean 'Cnapa's farm/settlement' or 'servant's/boy's farm/settlement'. Knapton was recorded 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 ''Cnapeton''/''Cnapetone''. In the Domesday Book, Knapton in the hundred of Toreshou, is mentioned as being held in 1066 by Edeva, wife of Topi, and in 1086 by

Ranulph de Mortimer Ranulph I de Mortimer (''Ralf'', ''Ralph'', ''Raoul de Mortemer'') (born before –died in/after 1104) was a Marcher Lord from the Montgomery lands in the Welsh Marches (border lands between Wales and England). In England, he was Lord of Wigmore ...

. Knapton was formerly a

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

and

chapelry A chapelry was a subdivision of an ecclesiastical parish in England and parts of Lowland Scotland up to the mid 19th century. Status A chapelry had a similar status to a Township (England), township, but was so named as it had a chapel of ease ...

in the parish of Wintringham, in 1866 Knapton became a separate civil parish, in 1894 it became part of Norton Rural District, on 1 April 1935 the parish was abolished and merged with Scampston. In 1974 the area became part of the non-metropolitan district of

Ryedale Ryedale was a non-metropolitan district in North Yorkshire, England. It was in the Vale of Pickering, a low-lying flat area of land drained by the River Derwent, Yorkshire, River Derwent. The Vale's landscape is rural with scattered villages ...

and the county of North Yorkshire. In 2023 the area became part of

district.

Church

The parish church was the Church of St Edmund, located in the grounds of Knapton Hall.

References

Former civil parishes in North Yorkshire {{England-church-stub