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Birkby Parish main page |
Wapentake and Petty Sessional Division of Allertonshire - Electoral Division of Brompton - Poor Law Union, County Court District, and Rural Deanery of Northallerton - Archdeaconry of Cleveland - Diocese of York.
Hutton Bonville, formerly a township and chapelry in the parish of Birkby, is now, for all purposes ecclesiastical and civil, a distinct parish. Its total area, according to Ordnance measurement, is 1,520 acres; its rateable value is £3,588, of which about one half is the assessed value of the portion of the North Eastern Co.'s line which passes through the parish; population, 114.
This lordship formerly belonged to the ancient and knightly race of Conyers, one of whom is famed in story for his combat with, and destruction of, "the monstrous venomous, and poysonous wyvern, ask, or worm, which overthrew and devoured many people in fight"; and in this family it passed through many generations. But, eventually, the family estates were squandered by alienation and dissipation; the barren title descended, after the death of Sir George Conyers, to his uncle, Thomas Conyers, a pauper in the Chester-le-Street Workhouse. In the latter part of the 17th century, the manor was in the possession of Richard Peirse, Esq., who subsequently purchased Thimbleby; and, in 1874, Hutton Bonville estate was purchased from this family by the late J. B. W. Hildyard, and is now held by his exors.
The Hall, a stone building, to which considerable additions were made in 1879-80, stands in a park of about 90 acres. It is the residence of Mrs. Mary Blanche Hildyard - widow of the late J. R. W. Hildyard, Esq., and daughter of Sir Richard Digby Neave, Bart. - and John Arundell Hildyard, Esq., J.P.
The Church of St. Lawrence, which stands a short distance from the Hall, is a plain stone structure, consisting of a nave, chancel, and north aisle, with campanile above the west gable. The Living is a vicarage, in the patronage of Mrs. Hildyard, value £61, and held by the Rev. H. C. Holmes, M.A., Rector of Birkby.
The inhabitants live chiefly in scattered houses. A few cottages and the school on the Darlington and Northallerton road bear the name of Lovesome Hill, near which the Wesleyans have a small chapel.
Palmer's Hall, now a farmhouse, was formerly a residence of some importance.
[Description(s) from Bulmer's History and Directory of North Yorkshire (1890)]
Scan, OCR and html by Colin Hinson. Checking and correction by Peter Nelson.