Appleton Wiske - Appleton Wiske in History

Appleton Wiske in History

Appleton Wiske - today just a tiny parish within the Hambleton District of North Yorkshire - is actually one of the 41 ancient parishes of the Wapentake of Langbaurgh in the Cleveland division of the North Riding of Yorkshire. It was also a part of the sessional division of Yarm.

The parish was gifted by William the Conqueror to Robert de Brus of Skelton, an ancestor of Robert the Bruce, the famous Scottish king. De Brus’s son gave it to St. Mary’s Abbey, York, along with Hornby and other lands. It remained in the possession of the St. Mary’s until the dissolution of monasteries, when it was granted by Henry VIII to Charles Brandon, who later became the Duke of Suffolk. The parish then passed though several hands and was finally split up in the early 19th century after the death of Robert Henry Allan, whose family had owned the parish since the early 18th century.

The village is thought to date back to Saxon times and, as already mentioned, is referred to in the Domesday Book as Apletona. The village church is not quite as old - the first reference to it is in 1299, when Edward I visited and heard Mass. Parish records indicate that it was being called The Chapel of St Mary Magdalen in Appleton by 1586. It is a small Norman structure, consisting of nave, chancel and porch.

In 2009 it was suggested that a planning application for nine wind turbines was due to be raised with Hambleton District Council. With each turbine planned to be 425 feet high and the nearest some 800 yards from the village some locals started an opposition group (North Hambleton Windfarm Action Group) to oppose the development.