APPLETON WISKE
Apletune, Appeltona (xi cent.); Apleton super
Wisk (xiii cent.).
The parish of Appleton Wiske lies in the northwest corner of Cleveland and covers an area of 1,865
acres, the soil of which is clay on a subsoil of Keuper
marls. It is for the most part from 150 ft. to 200 ft.
above ordnance datum. In 1808 about half the land
was said to be in tillage, (fn. 1) but there are now 595 acres
of arable land, upon which wheat, barley, oats and
beans are grown, 1,103 acres of permanent grass and
45 acres of woodland. (fn. 2) The population was largely
employed in hand-loom weaving during the last
century. (fn. 3)
The village is in the south of the parish. It is
built on flat ground and consists of a main street with
rows of brick houses and a strip of grass running
along the east side. At the cross roads to the north
of the village is a group of houses and an inn, while
another small group lies near the church to the west.
The Wesleyan chapel dates from at least 1823, and
the Congregationalists and Primitive Methodists have
had places of worship here since 1857. (fn. 4) To the
south a road leads to the River Wiske, which flows
westwards and forms the boundary between this parish
and Welbury. In the north Staindale Beck separates
Appleton from High Worsall Moor.
Names of the 12th or 13th century now vanished
are Bulesdales, Coppedeshilles, Orghill, Laddegate
and Newnledales. (fn. 5)
St. Mary's Abbey, York. Argent a cross gules charged with a bezant.
Manor
Six geldable carucates in APPLETON
held by Orm under the Confessor, and
amongst the king's lands in 1086, were
afterwards included in the fee of Robert de Brus, (fn. 6) who
granted them as 'the manor
which is called Appelton' to
St. Mary's Abbey. (fn. 7) Gifts of
other lands in the parish were
made to the abbey by various
donors of the 13th and 14th
centuries, (fn. 8) and almost all
Appleton seems to have belonged to this house at its surrender. (fn. 9) The manor formed
part of a life grant made to
Sir Charles Brandon and his
wife Elizabeth, widow of Sir
James Strangways, on her surrender of other property in
January 1545–6, (fn. 10) and in February 1551–2 it was leased by the Crown to Richard
Vincent for thirty years from the death of Sir Charles
Brandon. (fn. 11) Another lease made by Queen Elizabeth
to three of her servants in 1589 (fn. 12) was followed
in the next year by a grant of the manor to Roger
Rant and Peter Whetcomb, (fn. 13) who sold it in 1592 to
Theodore Goodwin alias Rix (fn. 14) of Little Stonham,
Suffolk. (fn. 15) In 1597 Theodore, who had previously
leased Appleton to his brother-in-law (fn. 16) John Grange
of Swaffham Bulbeck, Cambridge, (fn. 17) made a settlement
of it on the marriage of his eldest son Thomas with
Dorothy Calthorpe. (fn. 18) Thomas, who was a widower
when he succeeded his father in 1617, (fn. 19) died in 1638,
leaving a son and heir Ambrose. (fn. 20) It is possible that
the whole manor passed before the end of the 17th
century into the possession of a family which had
enjoyed rights here since 1594, when Theodore
Goodwin sold the capital messuage with some land to
Thomas Bowes. (fn. 21) Early in 1613–14 Thomas Bowes
and his wife Isabel made a conveyance of a 'manor
of Appleton upon Wisk,' which seems to be this property, (fn. 22) and a later Thomas Bowes, lord in 1723, (fn. 23)
sold Appleton in 1732 to Joseph Hall, (fn. 24) from whom
it passed in the same year to the Rev. George
Walker of Stockton-on-Tees. (fn. 25) In 1745, when his
eldest daughter Anne married Richardson Ferrand, (fn. 26)
two-thirds of the manor were held by them and
Elizabeth Walker, probably Anne's younger sister. (fn. 27)
Deborah Walker owned a third in 1751, (fn. 28) and
appears the next year as joint owner with Anne
Walker, perhaps her mother, Richardson and his
wife and Elizabeth Walker, (fn. 29) and in 1759 with only
Richardson and his wife. (fn. 30) It was probably about
this time that Appleton was parcelled out amongst
different owners, the manorial rights being acquired
by Miss Allan of Blackwell Grange. (fn. 31) James Allan,
her cousin and heir, was seised of the manor of
Appleton Wiske at his death in 1790, (fn. 32) and his
grandson Robert was lord in 1811. (fn. 33) His younger
son Robert Henry Allan died without issue in 1879,
bequeathing his estates to his cousin Lieut.-Gen.
Sir Henry Marshman Havelock, whose son Sir
Henry Spencer Moreton Havelock-Allan, bart., is
now lord of the manor. (fn. 34)
Allan. Sable a cross potent quarterpierced or charged with four drops of blood with two lions' heads razed or in the chief all within a border engrailed erminois.
Havelock. Vert a castle argent between two fleurs de lis in the chief and a crosslet fitchy in the foot argent.
A capital messuage belonged to the manor in the
13th (fn. 35) and 16th centuries, when court leet and view
of frankpledge were appurtenances. (fn. 36) In 1678 there
was a water-mill in the parish. (fn. 37)
Four and a half oxgangs here, once of Mount
Grace Priory, were included in the grant to Sir
Charles Brandon, (fn. 38) and belonged to Theodore Goodwin in 1597. (fn. 39) Between 1196 and 1204 the tithes
of some land in this parish on the borders of Picton
were ceded to Guisborough Priory by the monks of
St. Mary. (fn. 40)
Church
The church of ST. MARY THE
VIRGIN consists of a chancel 17 ft.
6 in. by 13 ft. 8 in., nave 36 ft. by
18 ft. 6 in. and small south porch, these measurements being internal. There is a turret containing
one bell over the west gable. The chancel arch is
of 12th-century date, and a great portion of the north
and south walls may belong to the same period, but
the building has been so much altered from time to
time that the actual extent of the early masonry is
difficult to determine. The width and beauty of
the chancel arch, however, point to a church of some
size and importance in the 12th century. There are
diagonal buttresses of three stages at the west end of
the nave, probably of 14th-century date or later,
and other parts of the walling may be of this time.
All the windows, however, are modern with the
exception of one on the north side of the nave—a
square-headed opening 9 in. in width with wide internal
splay and inner shouldered arch. In 1760 the north
door of the nave was walled up, and in 1802 the church
was reroofed and a new gallery and pews were erected. (fn. 41)
A tumble-down vestry on the north side of the chancel
and the south porch are apparently of this date. There
was a restoration in 1875, when the roof was again
renewed, the chancel arch restored, the west gable
and bell-turret rebuilt and new windows inserted in
the nave. The roofs are eaved and covered with
blue slates. The porch is stuccoed, and the south
doorway, which has a pointed head, is covered with
plaster.
The east window of the chancel is a plain squareheaded opening of three pointed lights probably
dating from 1802, and there is a built-up priest's
doorway on the south side with a flat-arched head
in one stone. The chancel arch is elliptical and
consists of two continuous moulded orders towards the
nave, the east side being of a single order with plain
hood mould. The inner order, which has a small
round moulding on each edge and a large halfround on the soffit, springs from semicircular responds
with carved capitals and imposts. The outer order
is carried on detached angle shafts, the capitals and
imposts of which are also richly carved, the height to
the springing being 7 ft. The capital below the
inner order on the north side is of scalloped pattern
with a dragon carved on the square face of the inner
side and has a cable mould necking below. On the
south side the neck of the corresponding capital is
ornamented with intertwined serpents, the square
upper part being carved with a series of paterae.
The capitals of the shafts are also elaborately carved,
the northern one being scalloped and that on the
south having a head at the angle with conventional
foliage emerging from the mouth. The upper flat
surface of the capitals on the north side is mutilated,
but has also had an animal's head and foliage. The
hollows of the impost mouldings on both sides are
studded with pellet ornament and the shafts are
covered over their entire surface with lozenge ornament of rather elaborate type. The whole is a very
fine piece of 12th-century work.
The interior of the nave is without interest and
all the fittings are modern. The pulpit is of stone
and the font of plaster. Built into the gable of the
porch is part of a mediaeval grave slab with an
incised cross, and at the south-east angle of the nave
is an incised sundial. The royal arms of George III
are over the chancel arch, and on the north wall is a
painted board with the inscription 'Mrs. George
Rokeby churchwarden 1687.'
The plate consists of a cup of 1673 made by
Marmaduke Best of York and a modern set of two
chalices, two patens, a flagon and almsdish, presented
in 1889 under the will of the late Robert Henry
Allan of Blackwell, Darlington. There is also a
pewter paten. (fn. 42)
The registers begin in 1629.
Advowson
The church was a chapel of
Great Smeaton (fn. 43) served by a perpetual curate until a district was
assigned to it in 1869 (fn. 44) ; the advowson has always
been included with that of the church of that
parish (fn. 45) (q.v.).
Charity
William Morton, by will proved
10 May 1734, left £20 to the use
of the poor of Appleton. The
legacy is on deposit in the Yorkshire Penny Bank,
and 11s. a year is distributed among the poor in
respect thereof.