Barkston Ash

Barkston Ash

Main Street junction with the A192, Barkston Ash
Barkston Ash
 Barkston Ash shown within North Yorkshire
Population 370 (2011)[1]
OS grid referenceSE491361
Civil parishBarkston Ash
DistrictSelby
Shire countyNorth Yorkshire
RegionYorkshire and the Humber
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post town TADCASTER
Postcode district LS24
Police North Yorkshire
Fire North Yorkshire
Ambulance Yorkshire
EU Parliament Yorkshire and the Humber
List of places
UK
England
Yorkshire

Coordinates: 53°49′09″N 1°15′16″W / 53.819220°N 1.254460°W / 53.819220; -1.254460

Barkston Ash is a small village and civil parish close to Selby in North Yorkshire, England. Until recently it was officially named Barkston.

History

Church of the Holy Trinity, Barkston Ash.

According to local folklore, an ash tree that stands in the village gives it its name and marks the centre of Yorkshire – although the actual centre is closer to Hessay.[2] A legend has it that anyone who spits at the tree will be struck by lightning a year and a day later, and an apocryphal figure, known as Jack Foll, is supposed to have suffered this fate.

Until 1753, the Barkston Ash Folly – a form of medieval football involving pigs' bladders and "lighteners" (wooden staves) – played by the young men of the village. The game is supposed to have commemorated Jack Foll.

Now part of Selby district, the village previously gave its name to the former wapentake of Barkston Ash.

Barkston Ash was also the name of the local parliamentary constituency of Barkston Ash until 1983, when its boundaries were redrawn to divide the area into Elmet and Selby. The Barkston Ash constituency was traditionally a safe Conservative seat, though both successive constituencies elected Labour MPs in 1997.

References

  1. "Parish population 2011". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 16 August 2015.

External links


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, April 09, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.