Thwing and Octon

Thwing and Octon
Civil parish

View of farm buildings and agricultural fields in Thwing and Octon parish

Typical parish landscape view
Coordinates: 54°07′N 0°24′W / 54.117°N 0.400°W / 54.117; -0.400Coordinates: 54°07′N 0°24′W / 54.117°N 0.400°W / 54.117; -0.400
Country England
Primary council East Riding of Yorkshire
Region Yorkshire and the Humber
Status Parish
Government
  Type Parish Council
  UK Parliament East Yorkshire
  EU Parliament Yorkshire and the Humber
Population (2011 census)[1]
  Total 203

Thwing and Octon (also known as Thwing) is a civil parish in the northern Yorkshire Wolds in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England.

Description

Thwing and Octon is about 8 miles (13 km) north of the town of Driffield, and a similar distance west of Bridlington on the Yorkshire coast. It rises from about 45 m (148 ft) in the north-east corner of the parish to a high point of 163 metres (535 ft) in the south-west. [2] The parish covers an area of 1,628.644 hectares (4,024.47 acres).[3]

The civil parish is sparsely populated, with, according to the 2011 UK census, a population of 203,[1] the same as the 2001 UK census figure.[4] The main settlements are the village of Thwing and the smaller hamlet of Octon. There are farmsteads at Octon Grange, The Wold Cottage, and Willy Howe farm. Land use is almost entirely agricultural, predominately enclosed fields.[2] There is a private crematorium, East Riding Crematorium, at Octon Crossroads, built in 1997.[5][6]

History and archaeology

See also histories of Thwing, and Octon

There is evidence of significant human activity in the area beginning in at least the Neolithic Era: at Paddock Hill 0.6 miles (1 km) north of Octon, evidence of a henge dating from the late Neolithic has been discovered from crop marks and by excavation. The same site also shows evidence of re-use and modification into a hill fort during the Bronze Age, including artefacts typical of the Urnfield culture, and evidence of bronze metalworking. The site was re-used during the Anglo-Saxon period and contained houses including a grubenhaus and large rectangular hall; there was a cemetery with at least 130 inhumations east of the Bronze Age earthwork. During the 1200s a post mill was constructed.[7][8][m 1]

Two tumuli have been recorded and excavated in the northern part of the parish: the large mound named 'Willy Howe';[9][m 2] and another barrow, about 0.5 mi (0.8 km) to its west, in fields south of the village of Wold Newton.[10][m 3][note 1]

There are several other structures identified as barrows in the parish.[13] Other evidence of pre-historic settlement and activity include polished stone axes[14] and flint implements including arrowheads, chisels and knives,[15] as well as flint cores, tranchet axes and microliths;[16] pebble maceheads;[17] and bronze or Iron Age pottery.[18] A late Bronze Age (c.1150 to 750 BC) penannular ring of pale and yellow gold applied on a base metal core was found by metal detection in 2004 near Thwing.[19]

Finds of Roman pottery, including Samian ware, provide evidence of occupation during the Roman era,[20] and a potential Romano-British settlement has been located about 0.6 miles (1 km) north-east of Thwing, with nearby rectilinear enclosures and trackways dating from the Iron Age or Roman period.[21]

A monastic grange associated with Meaux Abbey was recorded at Octon Grange, north of Octon, in the 12th century.[22][23]

The Wold Cottage meteorite fell in the parish in 1795, and is commemorated by a monument.

In 1812 the parish's population was recorded as 268 persons in 37 houses; the predominant occupation was farming.[24] According to Sheahan, in the 1850s the parish had a total population of 599, and an area of 4,060 acres (1,640 ha),[25] the population had risen by a factor of two in the first half of the 19th century.[26] It fell during the last decades of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century: by 1951 it was below the 1811 population level.[27] By the 1961 census the population had been reduced to 244.[28]

Notes

  1. quote: "About half a mile east from it is a very large barrow called Willy Howe, which was partly opened by the late Lord Londesborough [...] while about 300yds. to the north is another barrow, much above the ordinary size, though still not to be compared in that respect with Willy Howe."[10] The description of the location given matches a tumulus shown on the 1:10560 and 1:2500 scale Ordnance Survey maps up to 1950, afterwards labelled as site of, or absent. The barrow to the north appears to be that opened by John Robert Mortimer (barrow 284, TA 0484 7261.) in 1894,[11] which was recorded by Mortimer to have been excavated by Lord Londesborough in 1857, and by Greenwell in 1887.[12]

References

  1. 1 2 "Key Figures for 2011 Census: Key Statistics: Area: Thwing CP (Parish)". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 7 February 2013.
  2. 1 2 Ordnance Survey. 1:25000. 2009
  3. "2001 Census Area Profile" (PDF). East Riding of Yorkshire County Council. 2004. Archived (PDF) from the original on 18 March 2012. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
  4. "2001 Census: Key Statistics: Parish Headcounts: Area: Thwing CP (Parish)". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 12 March 2008.
  5. "Burial and cremation". East Riding of Yorkshire Council. Retrieved 25 August 2012.
  6. Historic England. "East Riding crematorium (1522651)". PastScape. Retrieved 27 November 2012.
  7. "16th March – Recent work in the Bronze Age of East Yorkshire (Terry Manby)" (PDF). ERAS News (East Riding Archaeological Society) (15): 8–9. August 1983.
  8. Sources:
  9. See Willy Howe for details and sources.
  10. 1 2 Greenwell, William (1877). "Parish of Thwing". British Barrows, a record of the examinations of sepulchral mounds in various parts of England. Clarendon Press. pp. 225–228.
  11. Historic England. "Wold Newton 284 (79863)". PastScape. Retrieved 12 January 2013.
  12. Mortimer, John Robert (1905). "Barrows not grouped &c. : Barrow No. 284 – Wold Newton". Forty Years' Researches in British and Saxon Burial Mounds of East Yorkshire ... A. Brown and Sons.
  13. Sources:
  14. Sources:
  15. Historic England. "Monument No. 910822". PastScape. Retrieved 12 January 2013.
  16. Historic England. "Monument No. 910761". PastScape. Retrieved 12 January 2013.
  17. Historic England. "Monument No. 910682". PastScape. Retrieved 12 January 2013.
  18. Historic England. "Monument No. 910800". PastScape. Retrieved 12 January 2013.
  19. Sources:
  20. Source:
  21. Sources:
  22. Historic England. "Octon Grange (910772)". PastScape. Retrieved 12 January 2013.
  23. Burton, Janet (2006) [1999]. The Monastic Order in Yorkshire, 1069–1215. Cambridge University Press. Consolidation of granges, p.258.
  24. Strickland, Henry Eustasius (1812). A general view of the agriculture of the East-Riding of Yorkshire. Board of Agriculture?. p. 319.
  25. Sheahan, James Joseph; Whellan, T. (1857). "Thwing". History and topography of the City of York, the East Riding of Yorkshire, and a portion of the West Riding: embracing a general review of the early history of Great Britain, and a general history and description of the county of York 2. pp. 490–1.
  26. "1851 Census: Population tables : Thwing CP/AP". A Vision of Britain through time. columns 8–13. Retrieved 7 February 2013.
  27. Sources:
  28. "1961 Census: County Report: Thwing CP/AP". A Vision of Britain through time. column 2,3. Retrieved 7 February 2013.

Map locations

Sources

  • Gazetteer — A–Z of Towns Villages and Hamlets. East Riding of Yorkshire Council. 2006. pp. 9, 11. 

External links

Media related to Thwing and Octon at Wikimedia Commons

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, April 07, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.