Keen historian Glen Stott contributed much to this section with other work by the web editor. Any and everyone is invited to share any historical information they have on Broughton – very old photographs are particularly welcome.
People and Places also provide an historical insight, as of course, does the Historical section under the Parish Meeting heading and the Memorable Events 20thC which covers the two World Wars. The old parish minutes also give an insight into life in Broughton during the earlier part of the 20th Century- a precis of these are given in past running of Broughton parish.
References to Broughton on the internet are rare. (Anyone finding more than is cross-referenced here, please let me know by using the Contact Us page). What there is contains much of that found in old copies of Kelly’s Trade Directory.
There are various sites on which to find old maps which date back to the mid 19C. It was in 1840 that the County Series of Ordnance Survey maps for Great Britain began the first comprehensive historic mapping of England, Scotland and Wales.
Buildings to be seen on the 1854 map are the Manor House now known as Manor Farm and Flowery Hill, the name formerly given to Flowery Bank. Other development seems to be located around what today we know as Blacksmiths Yard (formerly Holme Farm), Broughton House (aka Broughton Villa) and Oak Farmhouse.
Lime quarries and limekilns account for most of the land between Broughton and Malton parish. One map notes the finding of numerous sepulchral urns and locates some of the parish wells which were also to be found in the grounds of most of the early homes.
It is believed cist burials were also found in this area – a cist being a small stone-built coffin-like box. It was quite usual to find several together in the same barrow – believed by some to have possibly given Broughton its name, although others believe it derives from the 11thC and the word Broc meaning a stream or brook.
Appleton-le-Street parish
Broughton was part of Appleton-Le-Street parish.
The longest reference found so far for our parish was on the Genuki website – reproduced here in full by kind permission of Colin Hinson who states it is a transcription from Bulmer’s History and Directory of North Yorkshire (1890).
“BROUGHTON is a small township containing 855 acres of land and 109 inhabitants. The soil and subsoil are clay and limestone. The principal owners are Thomas Isherwood, Esq., Heywood, Lancashire, who is lord of the manor; Mrs. Wright, Broughton; Mr. Thomas Williams, Scarborough; and Thomas Walker, Esq., Malton. The gross rental of the township is £1,282, and the rateable value, £1,148. Mr. Hinderwell, the historian of Scarborough, tells us that vestiges of the Roman road leading to Dunus Sinus were discovered here by Mr. Robert King, and traced thence to Newsham Bridge, where it crossed the Rye. Whilst making the fences of the land then enclosed, 11 Roman urns were found, indicating the existence of a Roman settlement here. There are several barrows or burial mounds in the district, and from their presence this place has probably received its name of Broughton, that is, Barugh or Barrow town. The village is 1½ miles W. of Malton.”
However before this Kelly’s Trade Directory(1857) describes Broughton as a township in the parish of Appleton-le-Street with a population of 97 in 1851 with 855 acres, adding it was a Roman settlement with a clay soil over a limestone subsoil.
Pickering historian John Rushton in his book The Ryedale Story found reference to Broughton having pottery and 3rd century coins and an early pagan settlement. He states that among finds were bronze bridle bits, combs, pins jet rings earrings armlets and lamps.
The website for British History (in search facility add Ryedale after Broughton to find page) describes Broughton:
“BROUGHTON, a township, in the parish of Appleton-le-Street, union of Malton, wapentake of Ryedale, N. riding of York, 2 miles (N. W.) from New Malton; containing 111 inhabitants. It is situated on the road from Malton to Appleton-le-Street, and comprises by computation 800 acres of land. There is a place of worship for Wesleyans.”
A wapentake is a word derived from an assembly or meeting place. This was usually at a cross-roads or near a river, where literally one’s presence or a vote was taken by a show of weapons. It became a word to denote an administrative area. Ryedale was one of many wapentakes in the North Riding. Among websites which can be visited for further information is http://www.yorkshirecdbooks.com/Tana/wryorks/wapen.htm
In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson’s Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Broughton:
“BROUGHTON, a township in Appleton-le-Street parish, N. R. Yorkshire, 2 miles NW of New Malton. Acres, 855. Real property, £1,397. Pop., 123. Houses, 27. An hospital was founded here, in the reign of Stephen, by Eustace St. John. There is a Wesleyan chapel.”
Broughton amateur historian Glen Stott has provided a more in depth piece on the hospital which was for lepers and was connected with the priory at Old Malton. It was one of three such hospitals within a relatively short distance the others being at what is now the Cross Keys pub in Malton, the third being on an island in the River Derwent.
It is Kelly’s Trade Directory which gives tit-bits of details over the centuries.
Regularly it notes what type of crop is being grown as well as giving a rateable value for land. It notes Hazel House, home of farmer John Wilson and Musley Bank as being “places here.”
Population numbers are given – by 1871 the population had risen to 120 but was down to 92 in 1901 rising again to113 in 1911 and then up to 125 in in 1921. But by 1937 it was reduced to 105.
In 1937 it notes “By the North Riding of Yorkshire Review Order, 1934, a detached part of the township was transferred to Swinton.”
Presumably the lord of the manor, Thomas Isherwood, lived in the Manor House. Of the early major landowners, George Wright is the only one attributed to a building which is Broughton Villa.
The old photographs, provided by John Lund and Mr and Mrs Blackburn-Maze, showing Broughton House and its farmyard suggests this was once a large holding. The earlier photograph seems to show a barrier across what is now Beachcroft Lane. This would totally separate Broughton House from Oak Farm which appears to have a much smaller farmyard.
Hazel House aka Hessle House is shown as having been farmed by various people. It seems they were tenants until 1913 when William Studley Potter is described as being “of Hazel House”. He also had Oak Farm.
Broughton House had the front demolished and rebuilt in the Victorian period. Honeysuckle Cottage, although now part of Oak Farmhouse, is physically attached to Broughton House. Extensions have been added to Oak Farmhouse, which together with its buildings, became the only Listed Building in the village. Two of its barns were converted after in the first decade of the 21stC.
AGW 2011
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