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Looking back through
the entrance to |
GOLDSBOROUGH
HISTORY Written by Alyson Jackson in collaboration with Pat Wood, local Goldsborough historian. |
Early History
The village was, until very recently, occupied in agricultural activites of one kind or another. In the Domesday Survey of 1086 the village is described as:
"In Godenesburg, Merlesuan had eight carucates of land for geld. Land to four ploughs. Now, Hubert, Ralph's homager, has one plough there, and seven villanes with two ploughs, and half a fishery, rendering five shillings and fourpence. Wood, pasturable, twelve quarenteens in length and four in breadth. The whole manor, one leuga in length and one in breadth. T.R.E., it was worth four pounds; now forty shillings"
Canon Lascelles of Goldsburgh (Ref. 1) thought that the "half a fishery" was probably a salmon trap at the point where Goldsborough Mill later stood.
Merlesuan ( Merle-Sweyne in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle) had extensive lands throughout England and raised forces for Harold against William. He seems to have remained in favour with William after the conquest, as seen by his land holdings described in the Domesday Book. It seems, however, that he reteined his dislike of the rule of William and he finally lost his life when he took part in the attack on York in 1069. His estates, including Goldsborough, were granted to Ralph Paganel (or Paynel Ref. 2) who became Sheriff of Yorkshire in 1086.
| Some evidence of Danish/Viking
influence was established with the finding of coins and pieces of silver
during construction work outside the north wall of the church in 1859. The
coins were mostly of Mesopotamian origin, dating from between 700 and 1050
AD. The most likely route to their resting place in Goldsborough is that
they were brought by Danes who traded with Western Asia, perhaps from transactions
at the fairs which were held at that time around the Baltic Sea.
A fine remnant of Norman architecture can be seen in the south door of the church, although this may not have been it's original site (church history). The chancel of the church dates from around the mid-thirteenth century and marks the beginning of the period when a church is known to have stood on this site.
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Norman stonework
in the south door of Goldsborough Church |
Families at the Hall
John de Vesey, who probably held the manor during the reign of Henry II, granted it to Richard de Vesey who took the name of the village to become Richard de Goldsburgh. This family held the manor for over four hundred years (Ref. 1). Effigies in the church include one of a Richard de Goldsburgh who accompanied Edward I against William Wallace in 1298.
In the sixteenth century a family feud led to the destruction of Goldsborough Hall. Thomas Goldsburgh, born 1507, had two sons. The elder son, William, married Anne, a daughter of Sir Peter Slingsby of Scriven, and they had one child, a daughter Anne, born about 1559. William's death preceded that of his father, and when Thomas died in 1566 William's younger brother Richard claimed the estate on the strength of a settlement made, as he asserted, by his father after William's death. Anne grew up and married Edmond Kightly of Newhall, Otley, who fought to establish his wife's claim to the estates. When he eventually succeeded, Richard attacked the hall and completely destroyed it.
Richard Hutton was a lawyer, knighted at York in 1617 and astute enough to buy out rival claimants to the Goldsborough manor and estates. He built the present hall but relocated it away from the site of the original thatched manor house which stood in the north-west corner of the park. His second son, Richard, succeeded him in 1639 - he was Governor of Knaresborough Castle for four years, MP for Knaresborough in 1625, and High Sheriff of Yorkshire in 1642. At Marston moor he and Sir Henry Slingsby both escaped to York when the Royalists were defeated - Hutton was killed in a skirmish at Sherburn the following year. He was succeeded by his son, yet another Richard, whose only daughter [there is some confusion here which is being investigated. AJ] Anne married Col. Anthony Byerley. Byerley memorials can be found in the church. When the last Byerley died in 1756, the estates were purchased by Daniel Lascelles.
The Byerley Turk
The Byerley Turk was one of the three stallions from which all thoroughbreds are descended, the others being the Darley Arabian and the Godolphin Arabian. He was taken by Captain Byerley in the war against the Turks in the 1680's (Refs. 3 and 4). In 1690 the Byerley Turk carried his master, now Colonel Byerley, when fighting for King William III in the Battle of the Boyne. Subsequently he was at Middridge Grange in County Durham and then Goldsborough Hall. Although the Byerley Turk never raced himself, the progeny of his direct descendant Herod won over 1000 races.
An article in The Sunday Telegraph of 30/12/2001 reports that the work of scientists at Trinity College, Dublin has singled out the Darley Arabian as the most dominant horse in the ancestry of modern-day thoroughbreds.
Connections with Harewood
The Twentieth Century
The men of Goldsborough who died in the First World War are commemorated on the village War Memorial.
| The inscription reads:
OF JOHN GEORGE CHAPMAN EDWARD WILLIAMS EVANS JOHN CHARLES KIRK WILLIAM PANNET RICHARD WILSON WHO FELL IN THE GREAT WAR 1914 1919 GIVING THEIR LIVES THAT THEIR FRIENDS MIGHT LIVE + GRANT THEM O LORD ETERNAL REST AND LET PERPETUAL LIGHT SHINE UPON THEM + |
The War Memorial |
Goldsborough Hall was used by the Harewood family as a home for the eldest son while he waited to inherit the Harewood estates. The village came into prominence in 1922 with the anouncement that HRH Princess Mary, the only daughter of King George 5th and Queen Mary, was to marry Viscount Henry Lascelles, heir to the 5th Earl of Harewood. They would make their home at Goldsborough Hall.
Henry was considered to be a suitable husband for Mary for he was extremely rich, having inherited a fortune from his eccentric great uncle, the Marquis of Clanricarde. Henry was 40 but Mary was 22 and thought to be getting to an unmarriageable age!
In 1923 their son George (the present Earl) was born and was christened in Goldsborough church in the presence of the King and Queen. Their other son Gerald was born the following year.
Mary did a great deal for the school and the church while she lived here. The church has a magnificent set of altar frontals which she gave.
The christening of
George Lascelles - return from Goldsborough church. Queen Mary leads the procession.
From a postcard kindly lent by Pat Wood
The family moved to Harewood in 1929 after the death of Henry's father.
After Henry's death in 1947 there were enormous death duties and various farms and villages were sold around Harewood. In 1952 it was Goldsborough's turn to be sold, all the farms and cottages were included. The cottages made between £200 & £400 and the largest farm made £16,000. Goldsborough had been an estate village for over a thousand years.
Since 1952 the village has gradually expanded with new bungalows - houses built on infill sites around the village. A continual battle is waged against developers but the village is now a conservation area which should afford some protection
The Hall is now a private nursing home. Most of the barns and farm buildings have been either demolished or converted into homes. The majority of residents now work elsewhere so that Goldsborough increasingly takes on the status of a commuter village.
References
