1500 BC
The discovery of a ‘leaf shaped’ flint arrowhead dating from around this time was found in the Knox area in the 1960s. It’s likely that it was once attached to a stick, lost by a hunting party along the banks of the River Nidd. Flint, not being abundant in these parts suggests nomadic tribes ranging in the area. (Brigantes)
Iron Age
From around 800BC iron started taking the place of bronze, and the earthworks at Scotton Bank, on the north bank of the River Nidd, indicates local settlers.
Romans
The only Roman finds in the Harrogate area have been coins, discovered alongside the routes of roads radiating from York. There was possibly a small camp at Harlow Hill, on the route between Adel and Catterick, but Bilton seems little affected.
Dark Ages
After the departure of the Romans around the year 400 Yorkshire was left ripe for invasion. Saxons, Jutes and Angles. The place-name of ‘Bilton’ originates from the old English or Saxon word ‘ton’ meaning enclosure – Bil’s enclosure, or Bil’s ton. In 490 Uber Pendragon gained a victory over the Saxons and it is believed that he camped at Harlow Hill. Unlike raiding armies, the Angles (from what is now Northern Germany and Holland) settled, and by the middle of the 7th century, as a Christian race, began erecting wooden churches (York in 627 and Ripon in 660). Two hundred years later (867) a Viking force from Norway captured York, (naming it Jorvik). Yorkshire was divided into three administrative area (thrydings), and sub-divided into wapentakes. Angles tended to farm lowland areas with ox-drawn ploughs, whereas Vikings tended to run hill farms. In 954, Viking rule came to a bloody conclusion when they were overthrown by Northumbrian forces. It was around this time that fleeing Vikings buried their precious possessions, hoping no doubt to return at some point to retrieve them. The “Harrogate Hoard” or “Vale of York Hoard” was discovered close to Harrogate in 2007, although the exact location is a closely guarded secret – it consisted of 617 silver coins and 65 other items.
1066 and all that
A landmark in our History, when Count William of Normandy (William the Conqueror) routed King Harold at Hastings and was proclaimed King William I. The North of England, ruled by the Northumbrians, did not take kindly to having a french monarch and after a couple of uprisings, they attacked and massacred the entire Norman garrison of 3000 men, set fire to the buildings and reduced it to ruins. The reprisal by the new King was savage. William sent forces which massacred whoever had not fled, killing livestock, destroying crops, farm implements and burning buildings. For many miles around York they left devastation, followed by famine and within two years the population had halved. In 1086, 17 years later, when the Domesday Book was prepared, many local areas were listed as ‘waste’, no longer supporting a plough-team.
The Domesday document shows is that before the Norman conquest, two Northumbrian’s, Gamelbar and Arnketil owned the land in the Bilton area. Gamelbar de Spofforth was a prosperous man, owning a huge amount of land including Tadcaster, Plumpton, and Braham. He was a supporter of King Harold and fought alongside him. He was either killed in battle or executed shortly after William I’s succession, his lands confiscated, including his manor house at Spofforth and mansion in York. His land holding in Bilton (enough for 2 ploughs) was handed to Gilbert Tison. Value 2s, but the land described as waste.
Arnketil and his son Gospatrick, owned considerable tracts of land in 1066, which although reduced after the conquest, many still remained in their possession, including land in Bilton valued at 5s. Perhaps they changed allegiance, and signed the oath to support the new King. (Some sources say that he fled to Scotland, but in 1086 he is listed as the land holder).
It is likely that one held the land, which became ‘Bilton Park’ on the Knaresborough side, and the other the ‘Old Bilton’ side.
12th C.
By 1114 Knaresborough Parish Church had been built, followed by the construction of the castle. The surrounding forest a valuable asset. Stretching over an area of 160 square miles, and including all the land between the River Nidd and River Wharfe. In those days there were still wild boar, wolves, grouse, pine marten and red deer. (Today, the last sliver of ancient woodland, Willow Wood hangs on by the skin of it’s teeth). Descendants of the roe deer, badgers, fox, and hares still give visitor’s pleasure today.
In 1171, Knaresbrough Castle was famously the place where the murderers of Thomas A’Beckett in Canterbury Cathedral took refuge. They were pardoned on the condition that they made a pilgrimage to the Jerusalem, where they died and were buried.
In the year 1200, the first ‘relief road’ was built. “The Great Road” from Knaresborough to Hamspthwaite, via Bilton. Fifty years later another mention of this road, turning right at the top of the hill, towards Bilton Hall. Possibly, via Bilton Lane, the Harrogate Hall lane (then parallel to what is now Hall Lane), via Bachelor Gardens, Knox Lane, Grainbeck Lane and Lund Lane. The 1220s saw the land becoming ‘The Honour of Knaresborough’ with a Constable of the Castle/Chief Forester taking administrative control.
Black Death or Plague struck the locality in 1350, wiping out half the population within a few months.
John of Gaunt
In 1372, John of Gaunt (or Ghent, where he was born in 1340), became Lord of Knaresborough. The son of King Edward III, he was Duke of Lancaster, which entitled him to enormous local land holdings. His personal standard, a red lion was adopted by many Inns as a show of support. A local tradition says that this accounts for the name of Red Cat Cottage, thought to be an Inn at one time with the sign of the red lion. The cottage, for the most part dates back to the 17th century, although some earlier features are said to be consistent with it’s use as an ale house.
Richard II
Legend has it that whilst hunting wild boar in Knaresborough Forest, the King was unseated from his horse. The cornered wild boar charging towards him was swiftly dispatch by a member of the Ingilby family, thus saving him from severe injury or perhaps death. In gratitude, the monarch bestowed land on his saviour. The Ingilby family still reside at Ripley Castle, and show the Boar’s Head on their Coat of Arms.
Richard II was the son of Edward, the Black Prince, who died before his own father (Edward III). Henry Bolingbroke, his uncle, the son of John of Gaunt, deposed him and was crowned Henry IV. Richard was imprisoned, and ‘The King’s Chamber” at Knaresborough Castle is where he is reputed to have stayed on his way to Pontefract Castle.
Wars of the Roses
Henry VI, of the Royal House of Lancaster adopted the furled red rose as their emblem, and Richard, Duke of York, the white Tudor or Yorkshire Rose. The so-called Wars of the Roses, might be misleading. The battles were between two royal houses, each owning large tracts of land not Yorkshiremen fighting Lancastrians. The Forest of Knaresborough was part of the Duchy of Lancaster, and foresters would have been fighting in support of their Lancastrian King. The Battle of Towton, near Tadcaster, saw the Lancastrian forces defeated (some 35,000 men died) and the victorious House of York proclaimed Edward IV as King.
The Ingilby family, in the process of building their home at Ripley, no doubt to show allegiance to the new regime, named their main gateway after the new King.
15th Century
Bilton was farmed through earlier times on a strip system, but it was becoming more common to consolidate these isolated strips and there are many recorded instances of land dealing. The Forest was under threat. Ironstone smelting and lime-kilns needed a great deal of wood as fuel, as well as the need for timber for building and the woodland began to diminish. There are references to a Mill at Bilton as early as 1472. There have been theories that this stood on the right bank of the River Nidd, opposite Gates Hill. There is evidence there of a medieval weir, but the mill race referred to in some histories is of a much more modern date and is associated with a different venture entirely (More on this later). There are land dealing documents of this date which refer to field names such as Mill Field and Mill Hill. We also have Milner’s Lane, the ancient hollow way, of indeterminate age, a well trodden pack horse trail for centuries. On very early maps this is shown as ‘Milngate’. “Gate’ being an old word for road, would suggest that this was the road to the mill. Personally, my theory would suggest that there was once a windmill at the top of this very windy exposed hill. It’s just an idea – but why would you grow the crops in the fields to cart it down to the river for milling and then back up the ravine again? Also – there were other windmills in the area, particularly the one at Follifoot. There are the ivy-covered ruins at the lane side of a stone building, known locally as ‘the bothy’, and a small enclosed field opposite, ‘Pond Close’. In the winter months there is still a pond in the corner, ideal as a holding area for horses/oxen.
Mother Shipton
Ursula Southill, was born on 6th July, 1488 the illegitimate daughter of Agatha, a fifteen year old girl from Knaresborough. Legend has it that Agatha would not divulge the name of the father, gave birth to her baby girl in the cave next to the dropping well during a thunderstorm and continued to raise her three for the next two years. The Abbott of Beverley seems to have got involved and arranged for Agatha to enter a nunnery, with the baby being taken in by a local family. Ursula grew up in Knaresborough wandering the banks of the River Nidd, collecting herbs and plants, making potions and remedies until, in 1512, when she was 24 she was married to Tobias Shipton, a carpenter from York. They had no children and when Tobias died a few years later she kept his name. It is said she would foretell local events, and lived a long life, dying in Clifton York in 1561. In 1631 an elderly woman named Joanne Waller is credited as claiming to have been told the prophecies by Mother Shipton when she was a young girl and they appeared in print for the first time. It wasn’t until Victorian times that her name became famous. Many of her prophecies being printed, claiming fore-knowledge of events which had come to pass.
The Reformation
When the Catholic Church was dislodged from it’s position of absolute power and Fountains Abbey, further north left in ruins, the economy of the whole area must have been severely affected. The local powerful families with very few exceptions, were Catholic and had to make a choice of accepting the new religion and making an oath of allegiance to the Crown or being named as a ‘recusant’.
Harrogate Hall (Neither or Nether Hall)
In the 1450’s the ownership was recorded as being Richard Slingsby (Slyngsby) who bought and sold small pieces of land in the area to consolidate his holdings into one estate. Around 1550, the Burnand Family acquired the Estate. (The Slingsby family moved to Bilton Park). The Estate’s lands incorporated the Gorge area, an area called Crokesnabbe (around Strawberry Dale) and the Jennyfields area of today. The Burnands were a wealthy family (sometimes shown in early records as Brennand or Brenhand). Robert Burnand inherited the estate from his father, John in 1566, but then passed to his brother Richard. Due to lack of male heirs, Harrogate Hall then passed into the hands of Robert’s daughter Anne. Anne was married to Henry Trappes, the son of a London goldsmith. Their son, Francis Trappes (later Sir Francis) later inherited, while he was still a minor. Sir Francis had 12 children, but as was common in those days, several were known to have died in infancy. His younger son, Robert took the reigns next, in 1642.
Sir Francis, and his son & heir Robert were designated recusant when Robert was 19 years old and in order to avoid the estate being confiscated by the crown the Trappes family signed over their land, in trust, to the Ingilbys. The land remained in the hands of the Ingilbys for the next two centuries. The Trappes family moved to Nidd and in later years Harrogate Hall became a tenanted farm before being demolished.
Beck Farm
It was at some point during this time that the Ingilbys started extracting stone at a small quarry where the land rises behind Beck Farm today. The workings stretched some way along the far bank of Bilton Beck. The Ingilby Boar’s Head stone is possibly the only remaining sign of their involvement here. Today, the present owners have re-instated the pond, planted trees, and have introduced a new wild flower meadow, which is attracting a wide range of wildlife.
Bilton Park
It is said that Bilton Hall of today was built on the site of the original Royal Hunting Lodge, ordered to be built in 1380 by John of Gaunt. As at Harrogate Hall, the building probably saw a few re-builds. The Slingsby’s were down-sizing. The Hall was in lands known as Bilton Park, an enclosed hunting area, leased to them by the Crown. Francis Slingsby married Mary Percy (a well-to-do Northumbrian family) and became Knaresborough’s first Member of Parliament. His son, Henry, followed in his footsteps, becoming an M.P. in 1597 and inheriting the estate in 1600. By 1603 Henry Slingsby had become a gentleman at the court of James I, and he was knighted the same year.
Gunpowder Plot
In 1605, there must have been considerable local interest on the events in London with news of the failed attempt to blow up the houses of parliament. The alleged perpetrator Guy Fawkes had been born at Scriven and his mother and step-father, living at Scotton were known as ‘recusant”. The ringleader, Robert Winter,was related to the Ingilby’s at Ripley. The Trappes and the Slingsby’s were all related to the Ingilbys. Speculation must have been rife. Was there any truth in the rumours that a rebel force were trained at Ripley Castle? Were the local families sympathisers? Had they aided and abetted the conspirators?
Sir Henry married a recusant, Frances Vavasour, between 1610-1615 he was neglecting his duties as keeper of the royal hunting reserve at Bilton Park. Due to spending too much time at Court, there were accusations of illegal tree felling, killing deer and failure of boundary repairs. He was evicted in 1615. Financial ruin, and a couple of years in the Fleet debtors prison followed. However, he seems to have got back onto his feet, as he was Vice President of the Council of the North when he died in 1638. He was buried in Knaresborough Church where there is an impressive memorial effigy. (By coincidence – it was around 1631 that the prophecies of Mother Shipton started appearing in print – around the time when the Slingsby’s were in need of a cash boost!)
Royalist supporter
Sir Henry Slingsby, of Scriven, (son of Henry Slingsby & Frances Vavasour of Bilton Park) a royalist and supporter of the exiled Charles Stuart (Charles II) was charged with plotting against Oliver Cromwell’s Protectorate and “endeavouring to levy war against the Government on the behalf of Charles Stuart” and “attempting to debauch some of the garison of Hull to the service of Charles Stuart, and delivering a commission from him to them.” He was be-headed on Tower Hill 8th June 1658. His body was placed in a coffin by his family and driven away in a closed coach – there is an interesting display in the museum at Knaresborough Castle, which includes the blooded shirt it is said he was wearing at the time.
Harrogate Spa Water
Another member of the Slingsby family is credited with the discovery of the famous sulphur springs. The uncle of Francis Slingsby of Bilton Hall, William Slingsby, was born in January 1562, and as a youth travelled on his “Grand Tour” visiting German Spas. Most history books refer to the discovery being in 1571, but is now thought to be more likely around 1580. The spring referred to “Tewit Well” from the local name for Lapwings prevalent in the area. The later discover of another sulphur spring (said to be the purest in Harrogate) within the boundary of the Slingsby’s home, Bilton Park, seems ironic. The Bilton Park well is now sealed, and is on private land.
Stockdales at Bilton Park
After Sir Henry was evicted from Bilton Hall, for failing to comply with the terms of his lease, in 1615 it was leased (according to the present Bilton Hall website) by Esme Stuart (Duke of Aubingy) and three years later Thomas Stockdale, who purchased the estate from the Crown in 1628. It is highly likely that he was in some way responsible for getting Slingsby ousted. The two men were bitter rivals and he replaced Slingsby as the next M.P. for Knaresborough. He was a staunch supporter of Oliver Cromwell and a member of the Long Parliament, as well as a magistrate. The Stockdales lived at Bilton Park for several generations, until in 1720 another Thomas Stockdale took a mortgage out on the property for £1,000 to invest in the ill-fated South Sea Company. When the bubble burst, Stockdale faced ruin. The family went to America.
Oliver Cromwell
There are many local stories of Oliver Cromwell visiting the area. Staying overnight at Ripley Castle after the Battle of Marston Moor in 1644, guarded by the ferocious Lady Ingilby, or four years later, spending the night at a house in Knaresborough High Street, or even at Red Cat Cottage in Bilton. On the footpath from Bilton Hall to Knaresborough there was once a large rock, which we are told once carried an inscription, known locally as Oliver’s Stone. Local children would touch it as they passed and make a wish – there seems to be no longer any trace of this. It is not known which of these stories are true, or even if perhaps Cromwell actually stayed at Bilton Park with his ally, Stockdale. The vantage point of this rocky outcrop providing a good view across to Knaresborough Castle. (A later occupant was later Oliver Coghill, and this might just have easily been one of his boundary stones).
Charles I
In 1646 the Scots handed Charles to the Cromwellian forces and taken to Newmarket, travelling through Yorkshire, and is known to have visited Boroughbridge and York during the civil war. A local story (again from Ripley) is that his hat was knocked from his head by an overhanging tree branch – the Ingilby’s had the tree axed immediately. His journey is said to have taken him from Ripon to Leeds via Pannal, so it is quick possible he passed through – even crossing Spruisty Bridge, and along Knox Lane. He may even have been brought across the ford by Scott Mill and along the old pack horse trail through Bilton.
………………….to be continued
