Kilnwick
Encyclopedia
Kilnwick is a village in the East Riding of Yorkshire
, England
. It is situated in the Yorkshire Wolds
approximately 5 miles (8 km) south of Driffield
town centre and 7 miles (11.3 km) north of Beverley
town centre.
It lies 1 miles (1.6 km) west of the A614 road
, and 2.8 miles (4.5 km) east of Middleton on the Wolds
.
It forms part of the civil parish of Beswick.
. During the Dissolution of the Monasteries
between 1536–39, the Kilnwick Estate
was granted to Robert Holgate
, who later became Archbishop of York
, and passed on his death to the Earl of Warwick
. The oldest part of the House at the time of the sale and break-up of the Kilnwick Estate in 1951 was Jacobean
, having likely been built in the early years of the 17th century by Richard Thekestone, who held the manor in 1599 or Nicholas Stringer, owner from 1614.
The House was vastly extended in the 18th century by Thomas Grimston, who had been bequeathed the property by Admiral Medley in 1748. It was during the period 1740-80 that the Georgian
South and East frontages were built. But it would seem that Kilnwick House was occupied only seasonally by the family and its entourage during the 18th century and there is diary evidence that the journey would be made to Kilnwick from Grimston Garth in the autumn of each year. The Estate remained in the hands of the Grimston family until 1943 when, on the death of Captain Luttrell Grimston Byrom, it was sold.
which lies south of the church. This is an impressive structure, more than a metre in thickness at the base and rising to about 4 metres. It was built entirely of brick
s and topped by coping flags
. The wall encloses an area of more than half a hectare
and has built into it, at its western end, a two-storey cottage
. The walled garden must have served Kilnwick House, primarily for the purpose of supplying vegetable
s, though seasonal occupation of the House by the Grimston family raises the question as to why such a large enclosure was required. The magnificence of the structure is today partially concealed by an overgrown holly
hedge along the C59 road to the south and by growth of ivy
, which mounts the walls.
The church continues the theme of brick construction in that, while the nave is built of Jurassic
limestone
, the diminutive tower
is made of brick, making it unusual in character. The Church is simple: there is no transept
and there are no lady chapel
s. It is of mixed period construction, the oldest part being the Norman arch
at the North Door.
Brick also figures in the ha-ha that lies to the north of the C59 immediately west of the village, now forming the side of the road ditch
. This is in a state of poor repair, since the construction was ‘dry
’, involving no mortar
, and expansion and contraction of the clay subsoil
over the years has led to bulges and the loosening of bricks.
Brick is (as in Holderness, in general) also the building material of the cottages and farmhouse
s that make up the village buildings that were constructed prior to the 20th century. It comes as no surprise, therefore, that there was a brick kiln
in the village. In 1820, records show that 68,000 bricks were made, attracting an excise tax of £
17 1s.
3d.
Indeed, a walk northwards along the footpath from the corner of Church Lane and Main Street – what is now part of the Minster Way
– takes one through the flood plain of Kilnwick Beck. Here, on the north side of the beck, the unnaturally uneven ground is testimony to the shallow clay workings that must have been the source of one of the raw materials used by the kiln workers. This readily available, local source of bricks is a likely explanation for the size and extent of the walled garden and the interesting but seemingly casual construction of the dry-brick ha-ha. It explains why the church tower is built of brick rather than limestone carted at great expense from the quarries along the Jurassic outcrop beyond the Wolds at e.g. South Newbald
and South Cave
or on the Howardian Hills
, northwest of Malton
. It might also reflect the (dis)interest and (lack of) wealth of successive owners of the Estate.
s that are the major constituent of Holderness
, upon which Kilnwick is situated, are glacial
in origin. Successive Pleistocene
ice sheet
s swept south on a broad front
from Northumbria
, the Arctic Sea and Scandinavia
. The last advance – the Devensian glaciation (circa 60,000 to 20,000 years before present
) – was diminutive by comparison with its predecessors, but was responsible for building not only Holderness as it extends today, but a plain of greater west-east extent that has been trimmed in post-glacial times – roughly the last
10,000 years – by cliff erosion
as sea level
has risen about 90 metres to restore the North Sea
.
Indeed, pre-glacial Kilnwick (had it existed) would have been on a re-entrant of the North Sea. The re-entrant was one of many along a crenulated coastline. The re-entrant was the drowned lower reach of a valley that had been created by runoff
from the Wolds along what are now the headwater dry valley
s around and west of Middleton. The pre-glacial coastline is most marked in the neighbouring village of Beswick, which sits on a degraded chalk
cliff
. A sense of the slope of the old cliff-line can be experienced by following the unclassified road that runs from Lund
to Beswick; the comparative steepness of the last 100 metres that fall towards Little Beswick is unusual for the area. The same sense of steepness is gained when taking the Rotsea
road out of Hutton
. ‘Beswick-on-Sea’ and ‘Hutton-on-Sea’ were promontories
that protected bays such as Kilnwick and Lockington
. Indeed, it is uncertain whether the site of present-day Kilnwick would have been subaerial
or submarine. Almost certainly, the lower level of the neighbouring village of Lockington would mean that it would have been submerged.
The Devensian glaciation was deflected in its southward advance by the northern buttress of the North York Moors
. Because of this, the ice sheet was divided, one arm flowing southward down the Vale of York
, the other curling around the Moors and Wolds to deposit Holderness. The Wolds were free of over-riding ice but would have been subjected to intense periglacial
conditions like those of modern Lapland. The till
left by the ice (a mixture of clay with cobbles
and boulder
s and, occasionally, outwash sand
s and gravel
s) feathers out westward of Kilnwick. At Lund and Middleton, there is none. Villages such as Kilnwick, Beswick, Watton
and Lockington sit truly at the transition between Holderness and the Wold.
, which stems from the use of coverts for rearing game birds. There are, within a mile of the village centre, six sizeable linear plantation
s: Wedding Wood, West Belt, High Wood, East Belt, Low Wood and Stonybroke, all of which serve to give the impression of a well-wooded landscape. Indeed, given its low-lying position and its diminutive church tower, Kilnwick is not easy to spot until a visitor is within the ring of woodland that surrounds it and the density of trees is in stark contrast to the oft-treeless arable
of the Wolds to the north and west and Holderness to the east.
Unlike Lockington, which lies directly alongside its beck (much to its cost in the floods of July 2007
), Kilnwick sits on a low river terrace and so avoids overbank floods that emanate from its own highly-regulated beck. Despite this, the suffix ‘wick’ probably denotes the Anglo-Saxon
for ‘village’ rather than its other meaning ‘marsh
’ - although walkers might think otherwise after using the footpaths alongside the beck in winter.
Kilnwick currently has no shop or public house
(the nearest are found in Middleton, Hutton Cranswick and Lund, while Lockington still clings to the provision of a post office
). This has not always been the case, though trading seems to have taken place from what were residential properties.
Similarly, as part of a rationalization, the School in School Lane ceased to function in this capacity and primary level pupils have long been catered for at Beswick & Watton School, one and a half kilometres to the east on the A164.
East Riding of Yorkshire
The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Yorkshire, is a local government district with unitary authority status, and a ceremonial county of England. For ceremonial purposes the county also includes the city of Kingston upon Hull, which is a separate unitary authority...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It is situated in the Yorkshire Wolds
Yorkshire Wolds
The Yorkshire Wolds are low hills in the counties of East Riding of Yorkshire and North Yorkshire in northeastern England. The name also applies to the district in which the hills lie....
approximately 5 miles (8 km) south of Driffield
Driffield
Driffield, also known as Great Driffield, is a market town and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The civil parish is formed by the town of Driffield and the village of Little Driffield....
town centre and 7 miles (11.3 km) north of Beverley
Beverley
Beverley is a market town, civil parish and the county town of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, located between the River Hull and the Westwood. The town is noted for Beverley Minster and architecturally-significant religious buildings along New Walk and other areas, as well as the Beverley...
town centre.
It lies 1 miles (1.6 km) west of the A614 road
A614 road
The A614 is a main road in England running through the counties of Nottinghamshire, South Yorkshire and the East Riding of Yorkshire.Beginning at Redhill, near Calverton in Nottinghamshire at a roundabout with the A60, the road meets the A6097 at a junction which looks like a roundabout but...
, and 2.8 miles (4.5 km) east of Middleton on the Wolds
Middleton on the Wolds
Middleton on the Wolds is a village and civil parish on the Yorkshire Wolds in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is situated on the A614 road mid way between Driffield and Market Weighton....
.
It forms part of the civil parish of Beswick.
Kilnwick House
Kilnwick House is thought to have been developed on the site of a Medieval farm that was under the control of the Gilbertine Canons of nearby Watton PrioryWatton Priory
-References:...
. During the Dissolution of the Monasteries
Dissolution of the Monasteries
The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their...
between 1536–39, the Kilnwick Estate
Estate (house)
An estate comprises the houses and outbuildings and supporting farmland and woods that surround the gardens and grounds of a very large property, such as a country house or mansion. It is the modern term for a manor, but lacks the latter's now abolished jurisdictional authority...
was granted to Robert Holgate
Robert Holgate
Robert Holgate was Bishop of Llandaff and then Archbishop of York . He recognised Henry VIII as leader of the Church of England....
, who later became Archbishop of York
Archbishop of York
The Archbishop of York is a high-ranking cleric in the Church of England, second only to the Archbishop of Canterbury. He is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of York and metropolitan of the Province of York, which covers the northern portion of England as well as the Isle of Man...
, and passed on his death to the Earl of Warwick
Earl of Warwick
Earl of Warwick is a title that has been created four times in British history and is one of the most prestigious titles in the peerages of the British Isles.-1088 creation:...
. The oldest part of the House at the time of the sale and break-up of the Kilnwick Estate in 1951 was Jacobean
Jacobean architecture
The Jacobean style is the second phase of Renaissance architecture in England, following the Elizabethan style. It is named after King James I of England, with whose reign it is associated.-Characteristics:...
, having likely been built in the early years of the 17th century by Richard Thekestone, who held the manor in 1599 or Nicholas Stringer, owner from 1614.
The House was vastly extended in the 18th century by Thomas Grimston, who had been bequeathed the property by Admiral Medley in 1748. It was during the period 1740-80 that the Georgian
Georgian architecture
Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1720 and 1840. It is eponymous for the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover—George I of Great Britain, George II of Great Britain, George III of the United...
South and East frontages were built. But it would seem that Kilnwick House was occupied only seasonally by the family and its entourage during the 18th century and there is diary evidence that the journey would be made to Kilnwick from Grimston Garth in the autumn of each year. The Estate remained in the hands of the Grimston family until 1943 when, on the death of Captain Luttrell Grimston Byrom, it was sold.
Kilnwick Bricks
Of considerable note is the walled gardenWalled garden
A walled garden is specifically a garden enclosed by high walls for horticultural rather than security purposes, though traditionally all gardens have been hedged about or walled for protection from animal or human intruders...
which lies south of the church. This is an impressive structure, more than a metre in thickness at the base and rising to about 4 metres. It was built entirely of brick
Brick
A brick is a block of ceramic material used in masonry construction, usually laid using various kinds of mortar. It has been regarded as one of the longest lasting and strongest building materials used throughout history.-History:...
s and topped by coping flags
Flagstone
Flagstone, is a generic flat stone, usually used for paving slabs or walkways, patios, fences and roofing. It may be used for memorials, headstones, facades and other constructions. The name derives from Middle English flagge meaning turf, perhaps from Old Norse flaga meaning slab.Flagstone is a...
. The wall encloses an area of more than half a hectare
Hectare
The hectare is a metric unit of area defined as 10,000 square metres , and primarily used in the measurement of land. In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as being 100 square metres and the hectare was thus 100 ares or 1/100 km2...
and has built into it, at its western end, a two-storey cottage
Cottage
__toc__In modern usage, a cottage is usually a modest, often cozy dwelling, typically in a rural or semi-rural location. However there are cottage-style dwellings in cities, and in places such as Canada the term exists with no connotations of size at all...
. The walled garden must have served Kilnwick House, primarily for the purpose of supplying vegetable
Vegetable
The noun vegetable usually means an edible plant or part of a plant other than a sweet fruit or seed. This typically means the leaf, stem, or root of a plant....
s, though seasonal occupation of the House by the Grimston family raises the question as to why such a large enclosure was required. The magnificence of the structure is today partially concealed by an overgrown holly
Holly
Ilex) is a genus of 400 to 600 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. The species are evergreen and deciduous trees, shrubs, and climbers from tropics to temperate zones world wide....
hedge along the C59 road to the south and by growth of ivy
Ivy
Ivy, plural ivies is a genus of 12–15 species of evergreen climbing or ground-creeping woody plants in the family Araliaceae, native to western, central and southern Europe, Macaronesia, northwestern Africa and across central-southern Asia east to Japan and Taiwan.-Description:On level ground they...
, which mounts the walls.
The church continues the theme of brick construction in that, while the nave is built of Jurassic
Jurassic
The Jurassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about Mya to Mya, that is, from the end of the Triassic to the beginning of the Cretaceous. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of the Mesozoic era, also known as the age of reptiles. The start of the period is marked by...
limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
, the diminutive tower
Bell tower
A bell tower is a tower which contains one or more bells, or which is designed to hold bells, even if it has none. In the European tradition, such a tower most commonly serves as part of a church and contains church bells. When attached to a city hall or other civic building, especially in...
is made of brick, making it unusual in character. The Church is simple: there is no transept
Transept
For the periodical go to The Transept.A transept is a transverse section, of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In Christian churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform building in Romanesque and Gothic Christian church architecture...
and there are no lady chapel
Lady chapel
A Lady chapel, also called Mary chapel or Marian chapel, is a traditional English term for a chapel inside a cathedral, basilica, or large church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary...
s. It is of mixed period construction, the oldest part being the Norman arch
Norman architecture
About|Romanesque architecture, primarily English|other buildings in Normandy|Architecture of Normandy.File:Durham Cathedral. Nave by James Valentine c.1890.jpg|thumb|200px|The nave of Durham Cathedral demonstrates the characteristic round arched style, though use of shallow pointed arches above the...
at the North Door.
Brick also figures in the ha-ha that lies to the north of the C59 immediately west of the village, now forming the side of the road ditch
Ditch
A ditch is usually defined as a small to moderate depression created to channel water.In Anglo-Saxon, the word dïc already existed and was pronounced 'deek' in northern England and 'deetch' in the south. The origins of the word lie in digging a trench and forming the upcast soil into a bank...
. This is in a state of poor repair, since the construction was ‘dry
Dry stone
Dry stone is a building method by which structures are constructed from stones without any mortar to bind them together. Dry stone structures are stable because of their unique construction method, which is characterized by the presence of a load-bearing facade of carefully selected interlocking...
’, involving no mortar
Mortar (masonry)
Mortar is a workable paste used to bind construction blocks together and fill the gaps between them. The blocks may be stone, brick, cinder blocks, etc. Mortar becomes hard when it sets, resulting in a rigid aggregate structure. Modern mortars are typically made from a mixture of sand, a binder...
, and expansion and contraction of the clay subsoil
Subsoil
Subsoil, or substrata, is the layer of soil under the topsoil on the surface of the ground. The subsoil may include substances such as clay and/or sand that has only been partially broken down by air, sunlight, water, wind etc., to produce true soil...
over the years has led to bulges and the loosening of bricks.
Brick is (as in Holderness, in general) also the building material of the cottages and farmhouse
Farmhouse
Farmhouse is a general term for the main house of a farm. It is a type of building or house which serves a residential purpose in a rural or agricultural setting. Most often, the surrounding environment will be a farm. Many farm houses are shaped like a T...
s that make up the village buildings that were constructed prior to the 20th century. It comes as no surprise, therefore, that there was a brick kiln
Kiln
A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, or oven, in which a controlled temperature regime is produced. Uses include the hardening, burning or drying of materials...
in the village. In 1820, records show that 68,000 bricks were made, attracting an excise tax of £
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
17 1s.
Shilling
The shilling is a unit of currency used in some current and former British Commonwealth countries. The word shilling comes from scilling, an accounting term that dates back to Anglo-Saxon times where it was deemed to be the value of a cow in Kent or a sheep elsewhere. The word is thought to derive...
3d.
Penny
A penny is a coin or a type of currency used in several English-speaking countries. It is often the smallest denomination within a currency system.-Etymology:...
Indeed, a walk northwards along the footpath from the corner of Church Lane and Main Street – what is now part of the Minster Way
Minster Way
The Minster Way is a 50-mile/80-kilometre walking route between the Minsters of Beverley and York. It crosses the chalk hills of the Yorkshire Wolds, as well as a wide variety of East Yorkshire countryside...
– takes one through the flood plain of Kilnwick Beck. Here, on the north side of the beck, the unnaturally uneven ground is testimony to the shallow clay workings that must have been the source of one of the raw materials used by the kiln workers. This readily available, local source of bricks is a likely explanation for the size and extent of the walled garden and the interesting but seemingly casual construction of the dry-brick ha-ha. It explains why the church tower is built of brick rather than limestone carted at great expense from the quarries along the Jurassic outcrop beyond the Wolds at e.g. South Newbald
South Newbald
South Newbald is a hamlet in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, very close to the larger village of North Newbald. It is situated approximately north west of Hull city centre, north of South Cave and south of Market Weighton...
and South Cave
South Cave
South Cave is a town and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It lies approximately to the west of Hull city centre on the A1034 road just to the north of the A63 road. North Cave is approximately to the north west.- Overview :...
or on the Howardian Hills
Howardian Hills
The Howardian Hills form an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in North Yorkshire, England. located between the Yorkshire Wolds, the North York Moors National Park and the Vale of York. The AONB includes farmland, wooded rolling countryside, villages and historic houses with parkland...
, northwest of Malton
Malton, North Yorkshire
Malton is a market town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. The town is the location of the offices of Ryedale District Council and has a population of around 4,000 people....
. It might also reflect the (dis)interest and (lack of) wealth of successive owners of the Estate.
Pre-history
The clayClay
Clay is a general term including many combinations of one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Geologic clay deposits are mostly composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure.- Formation :Clay minerals...
s that are the major constituent of Holderness
Holderness
Holderness is an area of the East Riding of Yorkshire, on the east coast of England. An area of rich agricultural land, Holderness was marshland until it was drained in the Middle Ages. Topographically, Holderness has more in common with the Netherlands than other parts of Yorkshire...
, upon which Kilnwick is situated, are glacial
Glacier
A glacier is a large persistent body of ice that forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. At least 0.1 km² in area and 50 m thick, but often much larger, a glacier slowly deforms and flows due to stresses induced by its weight...
in origin. Successive Pleistocene
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
ice sheet
Ice sheet
An ice sheet is a mass of glacier ice that covers surrounding terrain and is greater than 50,000 km² , thus also known as continental glacier...
s swept south on a broad front
Ice front
An ice front is the place where a glacier thins and ends. The ice front's position changes as the glacier moves or melts....
from Northumbria
Northumbria
Northumbria was a medieval kingdom of the Angles, in what is now Northern England and South-East Scotland, becoming subsequently an earldom in a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England. The name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory, the Humber Estuary.Northumbria was...
, the Arctic Sea and Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
. The last advance – the Devensian glaciation (circa 60,000 to 20,000 years before present
Before Present
Before Present years is a time scale used in archaeology, geology, and other scientific disciplines to specify when events in the past occurred. Because the "present" time changes, standard practice is to use AD 1950 as the origin of the age scale, reflecting the fact that radiocarbon...
) – was diminutive by comparison with its predecessors, but was responsible for building not only Holderness as it extends today, but a plain of greater west-east extent that has been trimmed in post-glacial times – roughly the last
10,000 years – by cliff erosion
Coastal erosion
Coastal erosion is the wearing away of land and the removal of beach or dune sediments by wave action, tidal currents, wave currents, or drainage...
as sea level
Sea level
Mean sea level is a measure of the average height of the ocean's surface ; used as a standard in reckoning land elevation...
has risen about 90 metres to restore the North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
.
Indeed, pre-glacial Kilnwick (had it existed) would have been on a re-entrant of the North Sea. The re-entrant was one of many along a crenulated coastline. The re-entrant was the drowned lower reach of a valley that had been created by runoff
Surface runoff
Surface runoff is the water flow that occurs when soil is infiltrated to full capacity and excess water from rain, meltwater, or other sources flows over the land. This is a major component of the water cycle. Runoff that occurs on surfaces before reaching a channel is also called a nonpoint source...
from the Wolds along what are now the headwater dry valley
Dry valley
A dry valley is a valley found in either karst or chalk terrain that no longer has a surface flow of water.There are many examples of the latter along the North and South Downs in southern England...
s around and west of Middleton. The pre-glacial coastline is most marked in the neighbouring village of Beswick, which sits on a degraded chalk
Chalk
Chalk is a soft, white, porous sedimentary rock, a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite. Calcite is calcium carbonate or CaCO3. It forms under reasonably deep marine conditions from the gradual accumulation of minute calcite plates shed from micro-organisms called coccolithophores....
cliff
Cliff
In geography and geology, a cliff is a significant vertical, or near vertical, rock exposure. Cliffs are formed as erosion landforms due to the processes of erosion and weathering that produce them. Cliffs are common on coasts, in mountainous areas, escarpments and along rivers. Cliffs are usually...
. A sense of the slope of the old cliff-line can be experienced by following the unclassified road that runs from Lund
Lund, East Riding of Yorkshire
Lund is a village and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is situated approximately north west of Beverley town centre and south west of Driffield town centre.It lies to the east of the B1248 road....
to Beswick; the comparative steepness of the last 100 metres that fall towards Little Beswick is unusual for the area. The same sense of steepness is gained when taking the Rotsea
Rotsea
Rotsea is a hamlet in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is situated approximately south east of Driffield and south west of North Frodingham.It forms part of the civil parish of Hutton Cranswick....
road out of Hutton
Hutton Cranswick
Hutton Cranswick is a village and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, approximately south of Driffield town centre on the A164 road....
. ‘Beswick-on-Sea’ and ‘Hutton-on-Sea’ were promontories
Promontory
Promontory may refer to:*Promontory, a prominent mass of land which overlooks lower lying land or a body of water*Promontory, Utah, the location where the United States first Transcontinental Railroad was completed...
that protected bays such as Kilnwick and Lockington
Lockington, East Riding of Yorkshire
Lockington is a small village and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is situated approximately north west of Beverley town centre.The civil parish is formed by the villages of Lockington and Aike and the hamlet of Thorpe....
. Indeed, it is uncertain whether the site of present-day Kilnwick would have been subaerial
Subaerial
The term subaerial is mainly used in geology to describe events or structures that are located at the Earth's surface...
or submarine. Almost certainly, the lower level of the neighbouring village of Lockington would mean that it would have been submerged.
The Devensian glaciation was deflected in its southward advance by the northern buttress of the North York Moors
North York Moors
The North York Moors is a national park in North Yorkshire, England. The moors are one of the largest expanses of heather moorland in the United Kingdom. It covers an area of , and it has a population of about 25,000...
. Because of this, the ice sheet was divided, one arm flowing southward down the Vale of York
Vale of York
The Vale of York is an area of flat land in the north-east of England. The vale is a major agricultural area and serves as the main north-south transport corridor for northern England....
, the other curling around the Moors and Wolds to deposit Holderness. The Wolds were free of over-riding ice but would have been subjected to intense periglacial
Periglacial
Periglacial is an adjective originally referring to places in the edges of glacial areas, but it has later been widely used in geomorphology to describe any place where geomorphic processes related to freezing of water occur...
conditions like those of modern Lapland. The till
Till
thumb|right|Closeup of glacial till. Note that the larger grains in the till are completely surrounded by the matrix of finer material , and this characteristic, known as matrix support, is diagnostic of till....
left by the ice (a mixture of clay with cobbles
Cobble (geology)
A cobble is a clast of rock with a particle size of to based on the Krumbein phi scale of sedimentology. Cobbles are generally considered to be larger than pebbles and smaller than boulders . A rock made predominantly of cobbles is termed a conglomerate....
and boulder
Boulder
In geology, a boulder is a rock with grain size of usually no less than 256 mm diameter. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive....
s and, occasionally, outwash sand
Sand
Sand is a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles.The composition of sand is highly variable, depending on the local rock sources and conditions, but the most common constituent of sand in inland continental settings and non-tropical coastal...
s and gravel
Gravel
Gravel is composed of unconsolidated rock fragments that have a general particle size range and include size classes from granule- to boulder-sized fragments. Gravel can be sub-categorized into granule and cobble...
s) feathers out westward of Kilnwick. At Lund and Middleton, there is none. Villages such as Kilnwick, Beswick, Watton
Watton, East Riding of Yorkshire
Watton is a village and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The village is situated on the A164 road, about north of Beverley and south of Driffield. According to the 2001 UK census the civil parish of Watton had a population of 238....
and Lockington sit truly at the transition between Holderness and the Wold.
Modern landscape
The landscape of Kilnwick owes much to its history as an Estate, having been described at the time of its sale in 1951 as 'one of the finest shoots in Yorkshire'. The 1951 sales brochure drew attention particularly to the ‘bag’ of game that had been got over the six years since the end of the Second World War. Because of its history, it is exceptionally well endowed with woodlandWoodland
Ecologically, a woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of...
, which stems from the use of coverts for rearing game birds. There are, within a mile of the village centre, six sizeable linear plantation
Plantation
A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...
s: Wedding Wood, West Belt, High Wood, East Belt, Low Wood and Stonybroke, all of which serve to give the impression of a well-wooded landscape. Indeed, given its low-lying position and its diminutive church tower, Kilnwick is not easy to spot until a visitor is within the ring of woodland that surrounds it and the density of trees is in stark contrast to the oft-treeless arable
Arable land
In geography and agriculture, arable land is land that can be used for growing crops. It includes all land under temporary crops , temporary meadows for mowing or pasture, land under market and kitchen gardens and land temporarily fallow...
of the Wolds to the north and west and Holderness to the east.
Unlike Lockington, which lies directly alongside its beck (much to its cost in the floods of July 2007
2007 United Kingdom floods
The 2007 United Kingdom floods were a series of destructive floods that occurred in various areas across the country during the summer of 2007. The most severe floods occurred across Northern Ireland on 12 June; East Yorkshire and The Midlands on 15 June; Yorkshire, The Midlands, Gloucestershire,...
), Kilnwick sits on a low river terrace and so avoids overbank floods that emanate from its own highly-regulated beck. Despite this, the suffix ‘wick’ probably denotes the Anglo-Saxon
Old English language
Old English or Anglo-Saxon is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons and their descendants in parts of what are now England and southeastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century...
for ‘village’ rather than its other meaning ‘marsh
Marsh
In geography, a marsh, or morass, is a type of wetland that is subject to frequent or continuous flood. Typically the water is shallow and features grasses, rushes, reeds, typhas, sedges, other herbaceous plants, and moss....
’ - although walkers might think otherwise after using the footpaths alongside the beck in winter.
The village
The older houses lie on the west side of the village, between Church Lane and School Lane, while farms such as Highthorpe and Townend stood nearby, separated by fields. Developments since 1950 have filled the eastward extension of Main Street towards Highthorpe, while in-fill or the replacement of houses in School Lane, the extension of housing for a 100 metres along High Road (the C59 to Middleton) and the refurbishment of the barns along Church Rd remove the sense of strassedörfer. Somewhat distant, the out-buildings of Kilnwick House have been separately developed for residential use, while the Georgian part of the House was demolished, leaving the Jacobean wing and the butler’s and servants’ quarters (now named ‘The Old Hall’).Kilnwick currently has no shop or public house
Public house
A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...
(the nearest are found in Middleton, Hutton Cranswick and Lund, while Lockington still clings to the provision of a post office
Post office
A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...
). This has not always been the case, though trading seems to have taken place from what were residential properties.
Similarly, as part of a rationalization, the School in School Lane ceased to function in this capacity and primary level pupils have long been catered for at Beswick & Watton School, one and a half kilometres to the east on the A164.