WHELDRAKE. The townships of Wheldrake and Langwith constitute this parish; the former contains 4,140 acres, and 689 inhabitants; and the latter 781 acres, and 33 persons. Assessed property, £4,957. Rateable value of Wheldrake, £3,709.; of Langwith, £257. With the exception of 217 acres of glebe land, Lord Wenlock (Lord of the Manor) owns the entire township of Wheldrake. The soil is a strong loam, except on the moor, where it is of a sandy quality; the surface is level and well wooded, the hedge rows being generally planted with thriving oak trees. For a considerable distance the Derwent forms the eastern boundary, but at the south-eastern extremity the parish stretches across the river, where it constitutes a valuable tract of rich meadow land called Wheldrake Ings. The Living is a Rectory, valued at £25. 17s. 34d., and now at about £411. per annum. Patron, the Archbishop of York; Rector, Rev. Robert Bryan Cooke. Certain tithes were commuted at the enclosure in 1769, for allotments of land, and other tithes were commuted in 1841. The Church (St. Helen) consists of a nave and chancel, which are of brick, rebuilt in 1779, and an ancient stone tower, embattled. The interior is plain, and at the west end is a gallery, upon which an organ was erected by subscription in the present year, 1855. The churchyard was enlarged in 1824, by the addition of 30 perches, given by the Lord of the Manor. The Village is distant 8 miles S.E. of York, and in it is a small Methodist Chapel. Here still stands the "village terror," the stocks. The National School is endowed with £12. 8s. per annum, left by three individuals. The Poors' Land (18 acres) lets for £22. per annum, and there are a few benefactions. There is a Reading Room in the village, supported by Lord Wenlock. There are several scattered farms in this parish, one of which, called Wray's House, is in the occupation of Mr. George Hughes. Langwith consists of a few scattered houses, about 2 miles N.E. of Wheldrake. The principal landowners are Y. Yarburgh, Esq., and Mrs. Bailey. SELBY. Though the ancient market town and river port of Selby stands without the boundary of the East Riding, yet, from its proximity to that district, it is deemed necessary to add as lengthened an account of it as the limits of this work will admit of. The town is situated on the banks of the Ouse, in the Wapentake of Barkston Ash, in the West Riding, and is divided from the Ouse and Derwent Wapentake by the river Ouse, which is here crossed by a swivel bridge, of timber, 70 tons in weight, but worked with great rapidity, on balls similar to those of a cannon. It was completed in 1795. The parish is intersected by the North Eastern Railway, which is here carried over the Ouse by a handsome swivel bridge that opens with great facility for the admission of vessels to the quay. Selby is distant by railway 21 miles S. of York; 303 W. of Hull; 22 E. of Leeds; and 2114 N. of London. The parish contains 3,180 acres, and 5,340 inhabitants. Rateable value, £13,860. The population of the town in 1851 was 5,109 souls, viz., 2,491 males, and 2,618 females. This place was anciently called Salebeia, and is supposed to have been a Roman Station, though history is silent with regard to its state in the times previous to the Norman Conquest. But as it appears to have been a place of some note at that period, it is conjectured that it was built by the Saxons on a Roman foundation. The Abbey. In the year 1069 William the Conqueror founded a Benedictine Abbey here, which was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, and St. Germanus, the great opponent of the Pelagian heresy. In process of time the establishment acquired such extensive possessions and immunities, as rendered it equal in rank with the church of St. Peter at York. The superiors of this house, and that of St. Mary's Abbey at York, were the only mitred Abbots north of the Trent. In 1070 the royal founder of Selby Abbey visited the institution, accompanied by his Queen, Matilda, for the purpose of settling the endowment; and during the stay of the royal party, the Queen gave birth in the Abbey to her youngest son, who filled afterwards the throne of England, under the name of Henry I. The monastery flourished in great splendour till the Dissolution, when its revenue was valued at £819. 2s. 6d., and it was surrendered by Robert de Selby, the last Abbot. In 1541 it was granted to Sir Ralph Sadler, Knt., in consideration of £736., and an annual rent of £3. 10s. 8d. The site of the Abbey, with the little park containing about ten acres, and the manor of Selby, soon afterwards passed to Leonard Beckwith, and descended to his heirs, the Walmsleys of Dunkenhalgh, in Lancashire; from whom it was carried in marriage to the noble family of Petre. The Selby estate was recently sold to Lord Londesborough, by the Hon. Mrs. Petre (widow and sole executrix of the Hon. Edward Petre), for, it is said, £270,000.; and that lady has retired from the world, and entered a nunnery in France. The church of the Abbey was made parochial by letters patent in 1618, and a great portion of it still remains. The principal buildings of the monastery were on the west and south side of the church. The great gateway was pulled down about fifty years ago. Over it was the Abbot's court house, with two rooms for the jury and the witnesses; and on each side of the gate were the porter's lodge and a room to serve the poor. VOL. II. 4 M In the early part of the Civil War the town appears to have been held for the Parliament; and although subsequently taken by the Royalists, it was eventually recaptured by Sir Thomas Fairfax. (See vol. i., p. 240.) The Town of Selby, as has been observed, is seated on the west bank of the Ouse, and upon the great road from London to Edinburgh. The streets are well paved and lighted with gas, and many improvements have been made in the general aspect of the place, of late years. Some twenty-five years ago the Lord of the Manor, at a great expense, opened a continued view of the west front of the church, and enlarged the Market Place and streets leading to the wharfs. The general trade of the town has been improved by means of the railways, and of a canal which connects the rivers Ouse and Aire. There is a large flax mill, some oil mills, a rope and sail cloth manufactory, an iron foundry, and a ship building yard. Ships of 150 to 200 tons burthen navigate to Selby, and steam boats pass daily to and from York and Hull, and there is a jetty for these packets, projecting into the Ouse. The Market is on Monday, and Fairs are held on Easter Tuesday, the Monday after June 22nd, and October 11th, for cattle, &c. In the centre of the Market Place is a large handsome cross in the ancient English style. The Town Hall is a neat brick building, erected in 1825. The building containing the new Lock-up and Magistrates' Room, was erected in 1854. Petty Sessions are held in the latter every alternate Monday; and the County Court once a month, before Serjeant Dowling. New Waterworks were established here in the present year (1855.) The Yorkshire District and the York City and County Banking Companies have branches here. The Railway Station, a little south of the town, is a neat and spacious building. There is a Mechanics' Institute, which was established in 1846. The Parish Church is all that now remains of the famous Abbey of Selby, which once formed a pile of buildings among the most sumptuous and magnificent in the kingdom. What remains of this edifice shows it to have been a very noble building, erected at different times, and in different styles of architecture. The appearance of this venerable pile is strikingly impressive. "The magnificent yet comparative simplicity of the west front," says Mr. Buckler, "renders it deserving of particular notice, as its proportion and decorations merit remark from their singularity and elegance." The same learned antiquarian and architect is of opinion that it was originally intended to place two towers on this front, though the design was never carried into execution; but the angles terminate with lofty and well-proportioned pinnacles. The entrance is by a large and richly-adorned Norman doorway, supported on each side by six columns. The windows of this front are pointed, and the finish is an embattled parapet, with four large crocketed pinnacles. The walls of the nave and north transept are Norman, though the arches and ornaments of that character have been mostly replaced by windows in the pointed style, at different periods. The simple and massy Norman nave is the oldest part of the building, and its internal architecture is very fine. It is divided from the aisles by eight circular arches, resting on circular and enriched columns, and above the arches are two stories of open gallery. The beautiful choir is of later erection, and exhibits a splendid example of the pointed style of building, prevalent in the reign of Edward III. The proportions are extremely elegant, and the ornaments richly disposed, forming on the whole, in the words of Mr. Buckler, one of the most chaste and magnificent designs in the kingdom. The aisles are separated from it by seven pointed arches springing from beautiful clustered columns, the whole of the blank wall being adorned with statues, &c. The east window is highly enriched with tracery; and in the last century it contained the genealogy of Christ in stained glass. On both sides of the choir are several stalls of wood, enriched with tabernacle work. The four arches at the intersection of the cross aisles are Norman. The central tower fell down on Sunday, March 30th, 1690, about six o'clock in the morning, and by its fall destroyed a part of the church; the present tower was probably built about the year 1700, but in a style by no means corresponding with the original. The Chapter House is a beautiful building, attached to the south side of the choir. The font is plain, and suspended over it is a fine lofty cover of carved wood. In 1826 a fine-toned organ was erected by private subscription, which adds considerably to the elegance of the choir. The Living is a Perpetual Curacy, in the gift of the Lord of the Manor, and incumbency of the Rev. F. W. Harper. It is certified at £17. 10s., and returned at £100. per annum. The dissenting congregations which have chapels here are the Wesleyans, Primitive Methodists, Independents, Unitarians, and Quakers. The foundation stone of a new Catholic Church was laid here on the 14th of June, in the present year (1855), and is now in course of erection. It will be a fine building, in the Gothic style, and a new Presbytery is being built close to it. The whole expense of the building is being defrayed by the Hon. Mrs. Petre. This mission is endowed, and the Rev. John Rigby is the present pastor of it. The old chapel is to be converted into a school. Here is a Blue Coat Boys' School, and an endowed Free School, a Ladies' Charity School for girls, Almshouses, &c. An estate, in the hands of feoffees for charitable uses, yields over £150. per ann. The Selby Poor Law Union comprises 24 parishes and townships, of which 16 are in the West, and 8 in the East Riding. The Union Workhouse was erected in 1842. Thomas Johnson, a botanist, who published the first local catalogue of plants in the kingdom, and an improved edition of Gerard's Herbal, and who fell in a skirmish with a body of the Parliamentarian forces, in 1644, was a native of Selby. Buckrose Wapentake. The boundaries of this division of the East Riding are formed by the river Derwent on the north and west, which separates it from the North Riding; by Harthill Wapentake on the south and south east; and on the west by the Wapentake of Dickering. It comprises the parishes of Acklam, Birdsall, Bugthorpe, Burythorpe, Cowlam, Fridaythorpe, North Grimston, Helperthorpe, Heslerton, Kirby Grindalyth, Kirby Underdale, Kirkham, Langton, Norton, Rillington, Scampston, Scrayingham, Settrington, Sherburn, Skirpenbeck, Sledmere, Thorpe Bassett, Weaverthorpe, Westow, Wharram-Percy, Wharram-le-Street, Wintringham, and Yeddingham. Area, 102,453 acres; population, 13,832 persons, viz:-7,270 males, and 6,562 females. The western side of this Wapentake is generally a fertile district, mostly having a rich loamy soil, and partly a light sand; but its central and eastern parts rise in bold and lofty limestone hills, forming the western side of the Wolds, where the soil is poor and thin. It is watered by many rivulets and brooks flowing westward from the Wolds to the Derwent. ACKLAM. This parish comprises the townships of Acklam with Barthorpe, containing 1,860 acres, and 334 inhabitants; and Leavening, having 1,110 acres, and 447 persons. The surface is elevated, including a portion of the Wolds, from which a most extensive view of the surrounding country is obtained; and the scenery is in many parts very romantic. The amount of assessed property in the parish, in 1815, was £3,440. The rateable value of Acklam is £1,477.; and of Barthorpe, £1,066. The manor of Acklam belongs to the Crown, and the land to various owners. A vallum and two ditches, running east from Acklam, may be traced over the Wolds for a considerable distance, and are supposed to have been formed by the Ancient Britons, who, according to Sir Rd. Colt Hoare, had similar ridgeways in various parts of the kingdom, as lines of communication between the different towns and villages. In the neighbourhood of Huggate, Mil |