Update

As a living village, Oswaldkirk has evolved in a number of ways since the book was completed in 2002.

The most structural of these changes has been the refurbishment of the Rectory, where the last major change was in 1837 and Broad Farm on the Terrace, from a traditional 19th Century farm with barns and a horse mill, into three executive style houses. Martins, on the Gilling Road, has been extended and fitted with Gothic style windows. It is now known as Havoc Hall. There is now no working farm in the village, but the land is well cultivated and grazed from three outlying farms in the Parish and another farm in the next Parish.

The Rectory about 1990 and 2008

Broad Farm 2002 and 2008

We now have a 'First Responder' group who are trained and equipped to respond quickly to anyone who is taken sick before the ambulance can get here. The Yorkshire Air Ambulance has also been called in for a number of traffic accidents and this is supported by local donations.

The Village Hall is well used and we have a number of new activities. The latest of these is 'Pilates' which has several sessions in a day. The Art group continues to meet weekly as well as the Simeon Singers, which was founded in the village and seems to appreciate the acoustics and piano. Scottish dancing draws enthusiasts from quite a wide area. A weekly all age tea and cakes club was meeting until recently on Thursdays. This has just evolved into an all age 'Books, Biscuits and Banter' session at around mid day to encourage the use of a large collection of books, videos and DVDs. The problems of the world are no doubt sorted in banter, with the help of a few biscuits.

We now have a village walk researched and led each month by committed enthusiasts. The walk is well publicised and supported. We are fortunate to have such a variety of beautiful local countryside - and good pubs at which to finish with a lunch. Non walkers are also welcomed to the end of walk meals, which gives an additional dimension to the social side of the day.

Our Parish is one of the first in the area to produce a Local Plan for the District Council which helps the Parish Meeting and District Council when planning proposals are discussed. The Parish Meeting thrives and often gets around 15- 20% attendance. As a 'Meeting' rather than a 'Council' all voting adults are welcome to attend and vote. In 2008 we won the 'Calor Village of the Year' award for our part of Yorkshire and at the time of writing we are preparing for the North of England contest. It was good to hear that we scored particularly highly on the personal aspects of our community - as well as for being the only village which produced tea and cakes for the judges rather than just tea.

We have even more active young people in the parish now and the playground is well used. Around a dozen come to the Wednesday Tea Time Club after school. This is something like what Sunday Schools used to be, but more fun and with good tea supplied by the parents, who also do the washing up. The children have produced some remarkable works of art, with the help of an inspirational mum. Examples below:

Mobile for the Feast of Pentecost 'The Fruits of the Spirit'	Harvest Festival Cross

The village archives are growing slowly. Until a few years ago the Parish Records of St Oswald’s church were all handwritten and kept in the church safe. We have been fortunate in having had two Rectors who produced them into a more accessible form. The Revd Patrick Rowley typed out the list from 1538 until 1837 and these are now available on disc. We have two printed copies for the village archive. This covers the period from Henry VIII until just before Queen Victoria. The earlier date was also the time of William Tyndale who translated the Bible into English, so that ‘every plough hand’ could read it for themselves. Oswaldkirk is unusual in having a complete list of Rectors from 1302, the time of Edward 1st. The earlier section is also in our archive but not yet on disc. It was compiled by The Revd Barry Keeton who followed Patrick Rowley in 1974.

One of the most interesting of our Rectors is Dr John Dee, from 1567/8 to 1574, who probably never lived here, but was amongst other things, a Mathematician, Astronomer, Astrologer, Alchemist and Chemist. He was also a friend of Queen Elizabeth and of Francis Drake. Research is continuing into contemporary documents and various more recent books about his life. His association with Oswaldkirk seems to have been due to his friendship with Sir William Pickering whose family arms feature on the wall opposite the church.

In more recent history, The Ampleforth Abbey Trustees have let us copy a drawing of our church and village street in 1900, drawn by Fr Maurus Powell, then a young monk, who went on to become the headmaster of the Ampleforth Preparatory School in Gilling Castle. The picture shows the village street as it was before the road was
widened and the wall on the right moved back into the hill. The young lady could have been carrying water from one of the wells on the south of the road. The ivy by the barn is hiding the top of the buttress and the coats of arms, which are now visible on the reconstructed wall.

An archaeology student from York University has recently been awarded a PhD for her work in researching the history of the Medieval Manor of Oswaldkirk. The first Manor House was probably built in the late 14th or early 15th Century, by the de Pickering family whose Coat of Arms features on the remaining wall, (see main book). They seem to have been national rather than local figures. The other Arms are of the de Barton family, whose connection with the village is also uncertain. It is probable that the Manor House was unoccupied or neglected for many years and became a useful source of building stone. Possibly some of it could have been used in what we now call the Manor House. Modern archaeology benefits from imaging cameras, which can explore into the ground without having to dig into it. They found part of a drainage system which suggested that the original manor could have been on the North side of the high wall with the shields. What remains of the original building is uncertain, but it could relate to the present buildings. The large barn would have been a good site for a dominant house. There may also have been some link with the layout of the churchyard across the village street. The White House, built in the 1930s on the site of an old orchard, may have older antecedents.

Pickering Wall with barn above	Opposite view of barn looking over the top of the wall

The Oswaldkirk Parish Register 1538-1837

With money still remaining from the grant we obtained for the production of the History Book, Helen Goodman has had printed two copies of the Oswaldkirk Parish Register. Beautifully and clearly presented, one copy will remain in the Archive but the other will be available for perusal by anyone who wishes to inspect it and absolutely fascinating it is! Four names, Masterman, Thompson, Benson and Fawcett occur frequently showing a connection with the village through time. The number of Births, Marriages and Deaths in the parish would imply a larger population than we find today although we must remember everyone attended Church in those days. 1623 must have been a hard year, for sixteen people were buried then and the years 1568-9 were pretty prolific for births, nineteen being listed. In 1832, births were listed to fathers, three of whom were labourers, one a school master, one a stonemason, one a blacksmith and one a gamekeeper. Also listed was a birth to a single woman.

It is recorded that some people were buried in wool, one child was born in the Church porch and in 1827, Cain O’Hara aged 5, from Ireland, was buried in the churchyard. This brief review merely skims the surface of a wonderful record of our English history.

The most interesting entry of all is that of Dr John Dee MA, a Tudor mathematician and Astrologer, servant of Queen Elizabeth and arch dabbler in the Occult who was appointed Rector of Oswaldkirk in 1567.

Philip Entwistle

The Oswaldkirk Feast
A Conversation with Robert Wright, Oswaldkirk. June 1966

The Feast was usually held in about May or June and all the farm workers would have the week off work. There would be stalls, and travelling shows, coconut shies, sweets, hot peas (hot green peas), and sometimes even a gypsy to tell your fortune.

Robert Wright and his Harvest Festival font decoration in St Oswald's Church

The Burnsides and others used to attend, from Kirkbymoorside. Each year there would be a lot of dressing up, and usually a Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress who used to pass through the village in Tom Horseman’s Waggonette (he was the publican of the Malt Shovel). The whole crowd would stop at each house and the occupants would be ‘fined’ on some frivolous pretext, of having a window open, or a curtain hanging out, or grass growing between the flags. Everybody took it all in good part and the money which was collected in these ‘fines’ was used for the drinkings at the end of the day. The last Lord Mayor he could remember was called Harwood, who was the postman at Oswaldkirk.

The part of the Lady Mayoress was played by a man called Dick Magson, who worked for the Russells who owned West Newton Grange. (Harwood also used to play a similar part in the feast at Stonegrave). The Feast began to peter out during the Great War and it was never revived afterwards. Colonel Benson, the Squire at that time, decided to hold an Agricultural Show in Oswaldkirk, (to make up for the absence of a Feast?), and the first year it was held in the Paddock below the Malt Shovel, now owned by the Coopers. In subsequent years the Show was held in the Well Field at the west end of the village. Because Colonel Benson had military contacts there was always a military band and there would be Horse Showing, and Riding and Driving, also beasts, but no pigs or sheep because there were no pens. Apparently some of the tenants were not satisfied with the autocratic way that Colonel Benson ran these events and they demanded that a Show Committee be formed to organise it in other years. The Colonel was not keen on this and the Committee found that they could not get the military band without his co-operation and soon afterwards the Show began to fall in through lack of support. The boys from Castle Howard Reformatory came with a band one year but the Show was in decline by the mid 1920s.

An update of the four young people
interviewed in the village in 2002 when the Oswaldkirk History
Book was first published

Neil Thompson
Neil finished with his Milk Round last July and is having a breather from getting up to work in the middle of the night. He now lives on his own in Oswaldkirk and is employed by a local farmer. He also does gardening and occasional repairs for people in their homes and gardens. He cuts St Oswald’s churchyard and is invaluable in helping with the November Bonfire and Fireworks. Neil’s main hobby is still cricket but he also enjoys clay pigeon shooting and maintaining old cars at which he is well qualified as a mechanic. He has recently acquired a lovable cocker spaniel, called Paddy, so long walks are now on the agenda. Riding a motor bike is also an enjoyable pastime.

Tabitha Grove
Tabitha is currently working for North Yorkshire Youth as the Youth Volunteer Adviser for Ryedale and Scarborough. Her job involves helping to represent a nationwide charity called ‘V’and working with young people aged between 16 and 25 years. She is finding them opportunities for volunteering which are both relevant and fun, as well as making sure they are recognised and rewarded for the valuable work they do. Tabitha is still living in Oswaldkirk. She and her family are in the middle of renovating their house and making it into two smaller houses, one for Hilary, her mother, and the other for her partner Ross, and herself.

Ed Collinson
Ed, now 22 years old, has just finished at the University of Northumbria, in Newcastle, studying in the Arts and Social Sciences Department. He was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree, with First Class Honours, last summer as well as the Paul Mason Sculpture Prize for the best piece of sculpture in his year. He is now converting an old barn on the farm as a studio, is studying English Literature on a Distance Learning Course, and working at furthering his career. He is applying to study for an MA degree, possibly at the Royal College of Art, or the Royal Academy or at the Slade. Asked what he does in his spare time? He draws.

Other young people in the village

Bethany Alexander
The year 2008 has been an amazing adventure for Bethany beginning with a trip to Hollywood. This was an educational Field Trip with her College class preceding her examinations. Seeing film sets, catching far away glimpses of famous actors and absorbing the atmosphere of an exciting place was a rich experience. In April she celebrated her 18th birthday and then successfully completed her ‘A’ levels in Film, Drama and English at York College. For one of her examinations Bethany directed her own short film, shot on location here in Oswaldkirk.

After spending the summer working at McConnell Thomas, a delicatessen in Kirkbymoorside, Bethany went backpacking around Europe going mainly to Italy and Spain. Seeing Michelangelo’s David in the Gallerie dell’Academia in Florence was a great delight; she will certainly return to this captivating city. Bethany is now working again and her next destination is to Australia and New Zealand. Bethany is a regular and popular visitor to the Wednesday Tea Time Club in the village and is a great asset there. She also looks after several children in a ‘baby sitting’ capacity in the evening. She also enjoys visiting the theatre and has found the Minack Theatre in Cornwall an exhilarating encounter. Her favourite musical is ‘Blood Brothers’ by Willy Russell which she has written an adaptation of, has performed in it and has seen it three times. In September 2009 Bethany will be starting a Degree course in Theatre Arts but does not yet know which university will chose her! She is hoping to pursue a career in the media.

Josh Butler
Josh is 13 and is in Year 8 at Ryedale School where he enjoys studying Design Technology and Food Technology. His main passion is sport especially football where he plays in the Under 14s both for Duncombe Park and for his school. He also loves cricket, rugby, cross country running, athletics, tennis, and achieved an Honours badge for swimming. His basketball team won an area competition organised by Ryedale School. He lives at Golden Square Farm on the northern outskirts of Oswaldkirk and loves riding his 100cc Honda Motor Bike around the farm. He also belongs to the Ampleforth Youth Club where he plays pool and computer games.

Katie Mennell
Katie has lived at the top of Oswaldkirk Bank all her life. She and her parents, Janice and Andy and her brother Jim live next door to her grandmother, Sylvia Stephenson, who featured in the book: ‘Oswaldkirk - a living village, 2002’. She has school friends in the village and enters into the many activities on offer, including the Christmas parties, the Bonfire with fireworks and has applauded at the summer cricket matches. Katie is in Year 9 at Ryedale School and enjoys most of the subjects that she studies, doing well in English, Mathematics and Science. Her favourite subjects are Design Technology and Art. As her school has a Performing Arts Status she participates in the high standard of Drama and Dance and belongs to several clubs. Music and singing are a great pleasure to her and she has learnt the guitar for several years. The Girl Guides are also of great interest to Katie. She has earned several badges including the ‘Traditions of Guiding’ which involved camping, walking and cooking. A Party badge was also much enjoyed and last year she and two friends went in for the ‘Guiding Star’ Singing Competition in which they reached the Regional finals.

Thomas Stone
Thomas, known as Twm, came to live in the village over three years ago with his parents Jill and Peter, one younger sister Ceri and two younger brothers, David and Patrick. He is now twelve and in Year 8 at Ryedale School. He enjoys studying all subjects but especially likes Science and Languages. In his spare time he learns the piano, Grade 5 standard, and the violin, Grade 4, and weekly attends the Scarborough Music Centre. At school he is a member of the History Club and the Fiddle Band and in between does karate, swimming and can just about manage to ride a unicycle. In the village Twm has helped to tidy up Chestnut Bank; he has been a regular member of the Wednesday Tea Time Club and rings the church bell for Family Services. With his family he goes to most village events: Cricket matches, Bonfire with fireworks, Safari lunch, and to the playground. Recently he was the financial expert on his school team ‘Dynamite’ during the National Enterprise Week 2008. They won the Ryedale and Hambleton area competition with their idea of how best to market Castle Howard. Their prize, as well as a giftvoucher, was a free Annual Family Membership to the stately home.