STRENSALL
Strenshale (xi cent.); Stranessale (xiv cent.);
Strencile, Strencham alias Trencham (xvii cent.).
The parish of Strensall lies east of Galtres Forest,
and from the 13th to the 17th century was one of
its townships. (fn. 1) It covers an area of 2,908 acres, of
which 804 are arable land upon which corn and
potatoes are mainly grown, 733 permanent grass,
33 woods and plantations. (fn. 2) Its soil is sand and
foxmole upon a subsoil of white and grey sandstone. (fn. 3)
The land lies generally about 50 ft. above ordnance
datum.
A considerable proportion of the population is
employed in a tannery in the village. Another industry is indicated by the ordnance maps of 1849,
which show Strensall Pottery, then disused, in the
north-west of the parish and another named 'Britannia'
near the village.
The highway from York enters Strensall from
Towthorpe and runs northwards into Sheriff Hutton. (fn. 4)
Most of the village lies round a bend in the highway
and on either side of the River Foss, which is crossed
by a bridge in the middle of the village. Though
of some size, Strensall has no features of architectural
interest, most of the houses being quite modern.
The church stands at the north-west end, the Hall
with its moat and large grounds being a short distance
further north. On the same site probably stood the
manor-house of 1649 (fn. 5) and 1757, (fn. 6) which also had
its moat with an adjoining close called Conygarth
and a smithy 'in a street near a foldyard.' Other
closes in the neighbourhood were the Hall Inge,
Pudding Park, Palling, Butt Close, Inge Wall Butt and
Long Wall Butt, all adjoining the Foss. (fn. 7) This river
enters the parish in the north-east and flows in a
south and south-westerly direction into Towthorpe.
It is crossed by three bridges, the northernmost of
which, Strensall Bridge, (fn. 8) is close to the village and
tannery. About a quarter of a mile east of the
village is Strensall station on the York and Scarborough branch of the North Eastern railway, which
passes through the parish from south-west to northeast. A Wesleyan chapel existing in Strensall before
1857 was succeeded by a new building in 1895.
Between 1879 and 1889 a Primitive Methodist
chapel was built.
South of the village 'the monotonous plain of
Strensall, once a vast marsh,' (fn. 9) is the only considerable
portion now left of the forest of Galtres. It is now
a permanent military training camp for the northern
district and extends into Towthorpe, where are the
quarters of the officers and men. The York Golf
Club has a course on Lordsmoor Farm near Strensall
Common, a wide tract of open moor varied by
woodland and water which spreads over a large
district in the south of the parish east of this camp.
Two prebendaries, in 1214 Simon de Langton, in
1222 Ruffinus, nephew of the papal legate Gualo,
received royal permission to impark and afforest the
land and wood of the prebend of Strensall, surrounding them with ditch and hedge. (fn. 10) An inclosure of
a different nature was made in 1757, with the mutual
consent of the archbishop, the prebendary and the
farmer of the prebend, Sir William Robinson, the
vicar and upwards of forty copyholders; 675 acres
of common in the north of the parish and west of
the Foss lying between the Roans in Sheriff Hutton
and an 'ancient Inclosure' were then inclosed and
divided. (fn. 11)
Manor
In the reign of Edward the Confessor
Sasford and Turchil held 5 carucates in
STRENSALL of the fee of St. Peter's,
York. This estate, reckoned at the Survey amongst the
lands of the Archbishop of York, (fn. 12) was allotted, certainly
before 1214 (fn. 13) and probably at an earlier date, (fn. 14) to
one of the minster prebends which bore the name of
the parish, and from the wealth of its endowment
was afterwards known as the 'Golden Prebend.' (fn. 15)
In 1291 the prebend of Strensall was valued amongst
the possessions of St. Peter of York, (fn. 16) and the return
of 1316 recorded that the parish was in the Liberty
of St. Peter and that the dean and chapter were its
lords. (fn. 17)
Royal presentations to the prebend of Strensall
were made in the 13th century during two vacancies
of the see of York, one by King John of Alexander
de Dorset, (fn. 18) the other by Edward I of the famous
Anthony Bek, whom he promoted four years later to
the bishopric of Durham. (fn. 19) During the following century most of the prebendaries were foreigners, seven
amongst their number being cardinals. (fn. 20) William de
Flisco, who had succeeded Aymo de Savoy as prebendary in 1325, (fn. 21) was ejected five years later by John
de Melburn, controller of the king's household. (fn. 22)
In 1331 John obtained permission to attend the
Roman court to answer for his action, (fn. 23) and seems to
have made good his case, for he retained possession
of the prebend until 1346, when it is said that
William was reinstated. (fn. 24) After the death in 1405
of one of his successors, Francis Bishop of Sabina,
who held Strensall by papal grant, (fn. 25) a fresh contention arose. The pope's provision of Cardinal Raynald
was carried out neither at this time nor seven years
later, when Roger Corringham, who had successfully
resisted Raynald's claim, died in possession. (fn. 26) Thomas
Polton, one of the proctors who had pleaded Roger's
cause at Bologna, soon obtained the prebend, which
he held until and possibly after his promotion to the
see of Hereford in 1420. (fn. 27) Other instances in which
Strensall formed a stepping-stone to higher preferment occurred in this and the next century, and
many of the prebendaries, none of whom after the
Bishop of Sabina were of foreign extraction, (fn. 28) seem to
have enjoyed its revenues in conjunction with other
benefices and offices. (fn. 29)
The prebend of Strensall, which was valued in
1535 as part of the possessions of the cathedral church
of York, (fn. 30) is one of the thirty-two which have remained attached to the minster to the present day. (fn. 31)
Nevertheless, it did not altogether escape the rapacity
of the ministers of Edward VI. In 1547 it was one
of certain prebends granted to the Duke of Somerset
with the intention that they should be restored to
the king for the endowment of the cathedral church
of York. (fn. 32) Three days later the duke sold the
mansion-house of the prebend in the city of York
and a meadow ground called Waybott in the parish of
Strensall to Lord Wharton, (fn. 33) and in the exchange
which took place a fortnight afterwards the prebend
came back to the Crown shorn of these possessions. (fn. 34)
The meadow of Waybott was the occasion of more
than one dispute in the early years of Elizabeth's
reign. In 1560 Geoffrey Morley, then prebendary,
leased Strensall to Sir Thomas Stanley, whose claims
to rent were resisted by various tenants. One of
them, Robert Foster, based his defence on the sale
of Waybott to Lord Wharton, from whom he held
it by lease. (fn. 35) Another lessee of Geoffrey Morley,
George Redmayne, who rented the whole prebend
with the exception of the mansion-house at York by
a lease of April 1563, lodged a petition against the
servants of Lord Wharton for carrying away loads of
hay from this same meadow. (fn. 36) Lord Wharton seems
also to have laid claim to the whole prebend on the
pretext of a lease from the Duke of Somerset. (fn. 37) It
is even said that he occupied it during the nominal
tenure of George Redmayne, (fn. 38) a statement corroborated by the fact that the tenant of a close in Haxby
which belonged to Strensall, on being sued by George
Redmayne's executors for arrears of rent, made it his
defence that this was due and had always been paid
to Lord Wharton. According to the same defendant,
Strensall was at that time and had for long been 'in
suite and question' between the queen and the prebendary, (fn. 39) but before the close of the reign the latter
was restored to the enjoyment of the prebend by an
Exchequer decree. (fn. 40) The record of an inquiry held
in 1620 shows that the prebendal manor of Strensall,
to which, exclusive of the demesne lands and 2 oxgangs
appropriated to the vicarage, 36 oxgangs in the parish
belonged, was probably still of the same extent as the
estate owned by the archbishop in 1086. (fn. 41) The
claims of the Crown were revived in 1634, when
Charles I leased the prebend to Gabriel Hippesley
for twenty-one years. (fn. 42) William Barlow, then prebendary, obtained a grant of the reversion in the
next year, (fn. 43) and seems to have succeeded besides in
keeping out the new lessee. (fn. 44)
In 1649 the Parliamentary trustees for the sale of
cathedral lands sold the manor of Strensall to Richard
Sikes of London. (fn. 45) The ejected prebendary John
Neyle, petitioner for restitution in 1660, (fn. 46) seems to
have renewed the lease granted by his predecessor to
Sir William Robinson, (fn. 47) who himself and his heirs as
lessees of the prebend were lords of the manor of
Strensall until the latter part of the 18th century. (fn. 48)
By the Act of 1840 the lands of the prebend were
transferred to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, (fn. 49) and
twelve years later they were empowered to sell any
part of them. (fn. 50) Since that date the soil has been
held by various copyholders, the manorial rights being
vested from 1857 to 1889 in Leonard Thompson of
Sheriff Hutton and his trustees, and from 1901 to
1909 in William Benson Richardson. Mr. Thomas
Hillyard Richardson is the present owner.
Amongst appurtenances which probably belonged
to the manor of Strensall as part of the prebend were
free warren granted to the prebendary Gerard de
Wippeyns in his demesne lands here in 1292 (fn. 51) and
court leet and view of frankpledge. (fn. 52)
Four oxgangs in Strensall, larger, it is said, in
dimension than the ordinary oxgang of the parish,
formed MOWBRAY'S FEE, (fn. 53) and may have borne
the name of the ancestors of one William Mowbray,
who with his wife Katherine held land here in 1492. (fn. 54)
Possibly here as at Easby (fn. 55) his lands were bought by
Sir William Bulmer, for he at his death in 1531
owned property in Strensall (fn. 56) which was forfeited
to the Crown on the attainder of his son Sir John
Bulmer. (fn. 57) This as Mowbray's fee or land afterwards
came into the possession of various freeholders of the
parish, whose title was made the subject of a special
inquiry in 1620, and was then declared to be based
on a grant of Queen Elizabeth. (fn. 58)
Church
The church of ST. MARY is a modern
building consisting of an aisleless nave
and chancel, with a western tower and
south porch. The ancient church was destroyed
about 1798 or 1800, when a brick building was
erected on its site, which in turn gave place to the
present structure. The foundation stone was laid
in 1865, and the church is from the designs of Sir
G. Scott. It cost £1,700, and conforms in style to
the Gothic of the 13th century.
Fixed to a pew end in the nave is a small brass
inscription to Mrs. Susan Pool (died 1740), wife of
the Rev. M. W. Pool. The western tower is surmounted by a stone spire and contains three modern
bells, one of them being a recasting of a mediaeval
bell inscribed '+Jacobi in honore saunti+ Walterus
me fecit.'
The plate includes a cup (York, 1626) with the
maker's initials R.H., a modern paten and flagon and
an ancient pewter paten.
The registers before 1812 are as follows: (i) all
entries 1676 to 1764; (ii) marriages 1756 to 1812;
(iii) baptisms and burials 1765 to 1787; (iv)
baptisms and burials 1788 to 1811.
Advowson
The church is said to have been
appropriated to the prebend in
1314, when a vicarage was ordained. (fn. 59)
It remained in the gift of the prebendary until it
was transferred by the Act of 1840 to the Archbishop
of York, the present patron. (fn. 60) The rectory also
belonged to the prebend until 1840. (fn. 61) The church,
which is a peculiar, seems to have been originally
dedicated to St. James. In 1428 indulgences were
granted to penitents who visited the church of St. James
of Strensall and gave alms for its repair, (fn. 62) and more
than twenty years later the vicar of St. James,
Strensall, was paid 6s. 8d. to pray for the soul of
Thomas Vicars. (fn. 63) A like sum was devoted to the
fabric of the church and 20s. expended on the day
of the funeral for making a door (in factura j ostii) in
it. (fn. 64) Prebendary William Poteman left the church
of Strensall his 'vestment of red worsted with the
garters and one missal of the use of the church of
York.' (fn. 65)
In 1535 the vicar had a dwelling-house with
2 oxgangs (fn. 66) which remained associated with it till
the latter part of the 18th century. (fn. 67) The glebehouse, however, was declared unfit for residence in
1818, and in 1834 no return of glebe was made (fn. 68) ;
96 acres are now said to be attached to the living.
At the survey of chantries in 1548 it was found
that a sum of money was provided for a light in the
parish church of Strensall. (fn. 69)
Charities
By a scheme of the Charity Commissioners dated 12 March 1897,
varying a scheme of 8 December
1876, the properties constituting the poor and
church lands (acquired by surrender by William
Turner, 1679) and poor and school lands (acquired
by surrender by Robert Wilkinson, 1719) were
apportioned as follows, namely:—
The church charity: land part of Paddock Steel or
Stile Closes, otherwise New Bridge Closes, copyhold
of the manor of Strensall containing 2 a. 3 r., let at
£5 8s. a year, of which the vicar and churchwardens
were appointed trustees;
The poor charity: land remainder of Paddock
Steel or Stile Closes, containing 4 a. 1 r. 7 p. and
three cottages, and £199 10s. consols with the official
trustees;
Wilkinson's charity for the poor: land copyhold of
the manor of Strensall containing together about
60 acres and five cottages, and £199 10s. consols
with the official trustees, and £62 9s. 2d. consols
held by trustees. The land and stock assigned for
the benefit of the poor produce about £70 a year.
In 1903 gifts of money were made to thirty-three
persons.
Wilkinson's charity for the school: buildings at
Strensall used as a school with master's house and garth,
land copyhold of the manor of Strensall containing
21 a. 2 r. 21 p., let at £28 5s. a year, and £199 10s.
consols with the official trustees, producing an annual
dividend of £4 19s. 9d.
The scheme provides that the lord of the manor,
the steward, and the vicar shall be the ex officio
trustees of these charities (other than the church
charity), that three representative trustees shall be
appointed by the parish council of the rural parish
of Strensall, and for the appointment of co-optative
trustees.
Elizabeth Cobb, by will proved at York, 1810,
bequeathed to the poor of Full Sutton £80 and to
the poor of Strensall £80. The amount given to
this parish was with further sums received from the
executors of William Cobb laid out in the purchase
of a cottage and land containing 2 a. 2 r., now let at
£14 a year.
John Hodgson, by will proved in 1891, left £150
York Corporation £3 per cent. stock, the dividends
of which are distributed among the poor in coals.