History Links
Just a compilation of links about the village – just to get you started. Note that these are ordered by resource not chronology. You can also browse some Images of Ebberston complied from a mix of old postcards as well as villagers’ own photos. Lots of ‘then and now’ images.
Also check out a few of our history blog posts : https://ebberstonvillage.wordpress.com/category/history/
Why Ebberston?
Now called Ebberston, the village name has been spelt in a variety of ways over the centuries. Edbriztun(e) (1086), E-, JEdbri(c)hteston (1163), Edbriston (1185-95), Edbreston (1254), Ebreston(a) (1114-9), Ebriston(e) (1202).
The earliest recorded name of the village is from the Domesday book (dated 1086) : “Edbriztune” meaning the farmstead (tun) of a man called Eadbriht/Eadbeorht (a common Old English name)
(Source: A.H. Smith 1979 The Place-names of the North Riding of Yorkshire, English Place Name Society)
What we Know
Ebberston already existed as a settlement by the time of the Domesday Book in 11th century. It was part of the larger manor of Pickering. The regular alignment of plots running back from the main street (running N-S) and a parallel back lane (to the east) is characteristic of a planned medieval settlement (and similar to many of the villages along the northern edge of the Vale of Pickering along the spring line). The north-south aligned streets gave access to the moors and woods to the north and the marshes and meadows to the south. The original north-south plan form of the village was later modified by the east-west road. It is not clear when the planned village originated, although it may represent the post-Conquest re-ordering of earlier settlements. Certainly Ebberston was a sizable village in the medieval period, with an estimated population of some 300 people and 87 houses in the mid 14th century. By 1301-02, the village contained two smiths, two skinners, a tanner, a weaver, a carpenter and a carrier but whether they all were settled in the main village as it is now, or whether some were nearer the isolated Norman church located further to the north-west (now only visible as lumps and bumps in the field near the Hall) is not clear.
(Source : Dennison, E. 2008 The Grapes Inn, Ebberston. Preliminary Architechtural Appraisal)
Ebberston sits on the edges of the Vale of Pickering, which was the setting for Lake Pickering, the largest inland lake in Britain at the end of the last Ice Age, which drained away inland leaving an enclosed area of wetland filling the centre of the valley. The combination of
wetland and surrounding upland environments provided an exceptional habitat both for wildlife and people. Read more about the landscape’s value and significance here: https://thelrc.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/the-vale-of-pickering-an-extraordinary-place-statement-of-significance.pdf
External Links
British History Online entry for Ebberston
Ebberston – a list of many records relating to the village, many held by North Yorkshire Records Office (compiled by ParishMouse)
The Ebberston bomb!
Ebberston Hall (Historic England listing)
Ebberston listing in the GENUKI genealogy pages
Ebberston with Allerston, Yorkshire Genealogy
Embanked pit alignments, linear earthworks, round barrows and cairns on Ebberston Low Moor (Historic England listing)
The Grapes Inn, Ebberston – an architectural appraisal
Search for Ebberston in the Heritage Gateway – listings and scheduled monument information
Hinderwell’s 1798 account of Ebberston
Medieval settlement to the south of Ebberston Hall (Historic England listing)
Pictures of England – Ebberston
St Marys Church (Historic England listing)
Notable residents
William Pearson Baker – author who wrote The English Village (1953). His daughter Christine visited the village in 2021.
Claude Martin Bradley – Yorkshire’s “secret” Sideshow Artist
Frank Henry Mason (artist)
‘Squire’ Osbaldeston (sportsman). Also has his own Wikipedia entry. There is a portrait and history of him here too.
Margaret de Wend-Fenton and West de Wend-Fenton – West’s Telegraph obituary also has some colourful village history (but you need to register to be able to view)
