Heworth, York

Heworth Church.

Heworth sometimes referred to as Heworth Village is a village in North Yorkshire, just a mile away from the City of York, England. The name "Heworth" is Anglo-Saxon and means a "high enclosure".

Location and demographics

Although Heworth Village and some of the streets around it retain a village feel, development since the late 19th century has linked Heworth to the city of York, and it is effectively one of the ring of suburbs surrounding York.

The area ranges from streets of terraced houses near the city (towards Layerthorpe) via large Victorian Villas (the Heworth Green Villas) on East Parade and Heworth Green to older houses along Heworth Village and 1930s semi-detached houses on Stockton Lane.

Much modern suburban development has taken place, particularly in the outlying area of Heworth Without. The area is split into two wards for the purposes of local elections -- Heworth (including all land within the old city boundary) and Heworth Without (outside the old city boundary). Heworth Holme is a popular open space near Heworth Village.

In recent years there has been an increasing tendency for estate agents to describe properties in the less desirable areas of Layerthorpe, Burnholme and Tang Hall as being in the more desirable Heworth causing some confusion about the extent of the area.

History

Very little is known about the prehistoric history of the Heworth area, some researchers believe the area was largely boggy land. The village is of Roman origin and two Roman cremation cemeteries have been found in the area. Heworth Green, the road from York city centre to the village, is on the site of a Roman road.

During the early Medieval period, Anglican burial's took place in a similar area to the Roman ones; this was during the 5th and 6th century. Though evidence for settlement in Heworth during this period of time still remains minimal.

Battle of Heworth Moor

On 24 August 1454, a skirmish took place and was the first meeting of the two families involved in the Percy-Neville feud (the fued which eventually helped provoke the Wars of the Roses). Historical analysts have descibed an attack on the Neville family's wedding party by Lord Egremont, numerous contemporaries regard it as the very first military action of the Wars of the Roses.

The Neville family was returning to Sheriff Hutton castle following a wedding between Sir Thomas Neville and Maud Stanhope. Stanhope was the heiress and niece of Ralph de Cromwell. Cromwell had previously confiscated Percy strongholds such as Wressle and Bunwell after Henry 'Hotspur' Percy's death in 1403, the thought of those properties one day being banded over to the Neville family angered Lord Egremont greatly.

Egremont decided to ambush the Neville family's returning wedding party at Heworth Moor, along with 1000 retainers from York. The Neville family were said to have given a good account of themselves and defended themselves well in the skirmish.

The Ordnance Survey map of 1849 and Skaife's Italic textAntiquarian Map of Roman, Medieval and Modern YorkItalic text of 1864 show Heworth to be, effectively, a square of three parallel streets sandwiched between the then Scarborough Road and East Parade. These streets remain. The church of Holy Trinity was added in 1869. Outlying features included a Wesleyan Chapel, the manor house, a public house (the Britannia), a windmill, several potteries, Heworth Hall and Heworth House. At that time Tang Hall was just that: a hall situated in parkland.

Settlement

It wasn't until 1817 that construction began on the Heworth Green Villas, and the land was occupied by 1832.Through the middle of the 19th century, the Lord of the Manor was the Reverend Robert William Bilton Hornby.

One prominent family of the early village might be mentioned: the Moisers, who occupied Heworth Grange on the Scarborough Road (now 45 Heworth Green - a doctors' surgery) from 1803 to 1928. (Its 83 acres have long since disappeared under housing.) They had moved in from Huntington, and before that, from at least 1600, they had lived at Haxby. One of the daughters married the Rev John Young, curate and then rector of St Saviour's in York from 1853 to 1910(!). One of the sons became land agent for the University of Oxford; another founded a leprosy hospital in Rhodesia (and was buried in Huntington graveyard in 1965). In the early days John 'Junior' Moiser (who died in 1832 and whose table-tomb can be seen in Huntington churchyard) made bricks in Heworth in partnership with his brother-in-law Robert Bewlay.

On the outskirts of the village near Monk Stray was Elmfield College, a Primitive Methodist foundation which existed from about 1860 to 1930 when it merged with Ashville College in Harrogate. All that is left of the college now is numbers 1 and 9 Straylands Grove, next to Monk Stray.

Heworth became a Conservation Area in 1975

Fireballs observed in Heworth

The York astronomer Edward or Nathanial Piggot was riding to Scarborough on horse back around the 1790's and he was passing though the Parish of 'Hewitt' (Heworth) and witnessed a very bright daylight fireball.

Further info. in York Reference Library and/or Yorkshire Museum.

References

• Appleton, Avril E. Webster (1999). Looking Back at Heworth — a York Suburb. ISBN 0-9536257-0-2.