Molescroft is a village and

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 ...

in the

East Riding of Yorkshire The East Riding of Yorkshire, often abbreviated to the East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, S ...

, England. It is situated approximately north-west of

Beverley Beverley is a market town and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is located north-west of Hull city centre. At the 2021 census the built-up area of the town had a population of 30,930, and the smaller civil parish had ...

town centre adjoining its northern border. It lies to the north of the

A1174 road This is a list of A roads in zone 1 in Great Britain beginning north of the River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. ...

and is on the eastern slopes of the

Yorkshire Wolds The Yorkshire Wolds are hills in the counties of the East Riding of Yorkshire and North Yorkshire in Northern England. They are the northernmost chalk hills in the UK and within lies the northernmost chalk stream in Europe, the Gypsey Race. ...

. The Yorkshire Coast railway line from Hull to

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 ...

passes through the parish but the nearest station is

. According to the

2011 UK census A census of the population of the United Kingdom is taken every ten years. The 2011 census was held in all countries of the UK on 27 March 2011. It was the first UK census which could be completed online via the Internet. The Office for National ...

, Molescroft had a population of 6,820, an increase on the

2001 UK census A nationwide census, known as Census 2001, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday, 29 April 2001. This was the 20th UK census and recorded a resident population of 58,789,194. The 2001 UK census was organised by the Office for National ...

figure of 6,810. This is due to major housing developments in the north and east of the village due to unused

greenfield land Greenfield land is a British English term referring to undeveloped land in an urban or rural area either used for agriculture or landscape design, or left to evolve naturally. These areas of land are usually agricultural or amenity properties ...

, firstly in the late 1990s and secondly, on a smaller scale, in the 2010s. Over 65s make up over 25% of the population, higher than Under 18s. Until the early 1990s, Molescroft was very small, with the majority of the modern village being used as allotments and small farming ventures. However, housing developers saw a large, cheap area of land to place housing for the swiftly expanding

. Within a decade, Molescroft grew from a small agricultural village with a population of a few hundred, to 6,810 in 2001.

History

Molescroft is 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 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 ...

of Sneculfcros in the East Riding of Yorkshire. The settlement contained two households, two villagers, and two ploughlands. In 1066 Ealdred, Archbishop of York, was the

Lord Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power (social and political), power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the Peerage o ...

, this in 1086 transferred to the canons of

Beverley Minster Beverley Minster, otherwise known as the Parish Church of Saint John and Saint Martin, in Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire, is a parish church in the Church of England. It is one of the largest parish churches in the UK, larger than one-thir ...

, and the later Archbishop of York Thomas of Bayeux who was also

Tenant-in-chief In medieval and early modern Europe, a tenant-in-chief (or vassal-in-chief) was a person who held his lands under various forms of feudal land tenure directly from the king or territorial prince to whom he did homage, as opposed to holding them ...

to King William I. In 1823 Molescroft was in the parish of Beverley Minster, and 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 ...

of Harthill. Population at the time was 111, with occupations including four farmers, and the

landlord A landlord is the owner of property such as a house, apartment, condominium, land, or real estate that is rented or leased to an individual or business, known as a tenant (also called a ''lessee'' or ''renter''). The term landlord appli ...

of The Wellington

public house A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption Licensing laws of the United Kingdom#On-licence, on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the ...

. Residents included two

gentlemen ''Gentleman'' (Old French: ''gentilz hom'', gentle + man; abbreviated ''gent.'') is a term for a chivalrous, courteous, or honorable man. Originally, ''gentleman'' was the lowest rank of the landed gentry of England, ranking below an esquire ...

Facilities

The parish church that is dedicated to St Leonard was built in 1896, with the addition of a

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

in 1979 and further additions of a vestry, kitchen and toilets in 2001. Longcroft School is situated in the village although it has a very large catchment area, including Molescroft, northern and eastern

, Leconfield, Cherry Burton and other surrounding villages. The primary school in the village is Molescroft Primary School, serving Molescroft and Northern

. This school is routinely rated outstanding 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 ...

and is extremely popular. The Molescroft Inn is a late 18th-century

that is now a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

. Woodhall Way playing fields are a large green space with a children's play area, skate ramps, an enclosed combined basketball and football pitch and a Pétanque court. Molescroft Pavilion is a community hall and events venue ran by the parish council and also sited on Woodhall Way playing fields.

References

External links

* Villages in the East Riding of Yorkshire Civil parishes in the East Riding of Yorkshire {{EastRiding-geo-stub