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 reference	SE491361
Civil parish	Barkston Ash
District	Selby
Shire county	North Yorkshire
Region	Yorkshire and the Humber
Country	England
Sovereign state	United 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) – was 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.^[3]

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

↑ "Parish population 2011". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 16 August 2015.
↑ "Where is the Geographic Centre of Yorkshire?". The Yorkshire Ridings Society. 4 March 2012. Retrieved 31 May 2016.
↑ Langdale, Thomas (1822). "A topographical dictionary of Yorkshire; containing the names of all the towns, villages, hamlets, gentlemen's seats, &c. in the county of York". Northallerton: Langdale J: 149. OCLC 5211910.

External links

Media related to Barkston Ash at Wikimedia Commons
The Ancient Parish of Sherburn in Elmet at GENUKI: Barkston Ash was in this parish

Ceremonial county of North Yorkshire

Yorkshire Portal

Unitary authorities	Middlesbrough Redcar and Cleveland Stockton-on-Tees (part) City of York

Boroughs or districts	Craven Hambleton Harrogate Richmondshire Ryedale Scarborough Selby

Major settlements	Bedale Bentham Boroughbridge Catterick Garrison Colburn Easingwold Eston Filey Grassington Guisborough Harrogate Hawes Haxby Helmsley Ingleby Barwick Kirkbymoorside Knaresborough Leyburn Loftus Malton Masham Middleham Middlesbrough Northallerton Norton-on-Derwent Pateley Bridge Pickering Redcar Richmond Ripon Saltburn-by-the-Sea Scarborough Selby Settle Skelton-in-Cleveland Skipton South Bank Stokesley Tadcaster Thirsk Thornaby-on-Tees Whitby Yarm York See also: List of civil parishes in North Yorkshire

Rivers	Aire Derwent Esk Foss Leven Ouse Ribble Swale Tees Ure Wharfe

Topics	Parliamentary constituencies Country houses Grade I listed buildings Grade II* listed buildings Windmills Monastic houses History Rivers Schools Museums Lord Lieutenants High Sheriffs

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 5/31/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.