Briggswath

History

The name Briggswath is first recorded in 1230 as Briggwath, meaning bridge-ford as it is next to an old bridge which crossed the River Esk over to Sleights. The village is 1 mi upriver from Ruswarp at the site of the Medieval bridge from which it takes its name, and 2 mi south of Whitby. The bridge was known as Sleights Bridge, and was replaced as the main road bridge by one further upstream in 1937. A great flood in July 1930 swept away the old road bridge.

Historically, the village was in the civil parish of Aislaby and part of the wapentake of Whitby Strand. It is now in the civil parish of Eskdaleside cum Ugglebarnby. From 1974 to 2023 it was part of the Borough of Scarborough, it is now administered by the unitary North Yorkshire Council. The village is represented at Parliament as part of the Scarborough and Whitby constituency.

Just west of the village was the site of an ironstone mine (known as Sleights Bridge). It was worked between 1856 and 1859, producing on average 3,500 tonne of iron ore each year.

The village has the A169 to the west, and the B1410 and the River Esk to the south. The River Esk sometimes floods the B1410 closing it to traffic, and the nearby Briggswath measuring station on the Esk recorded an all time high of 4 m on the river in June 1999.

The Wesleyan chapel in the village was first built in 1820 (though the present structure dates from 1905), and includes a roll of ten local men who died in the First World War.

The village has an hourly bus service on average, with most being a local bus around the Whitby and Ruswarp area, with some services consisting of the longer-distance 840 Coastliner service to Leeds.

References

Sources

References

1. (1979). "The Place Names of the North Riding of Yorkshire". English Place Name Society.
2. "Georeferenced Maps - Map images - National Library of Scotland".
3. (11 July 2020). "Quiet hamlet, valley views". The Yorkshire Post.
4. (27 July 2012). "Aislaby, Sleights and Ruswarp". Darlington and Stockton Times.
5. "Cloudburst in Yorkshire".
6. "Election Maps".
7. "Eskdaleside cum Ugglebarnby Parish".
8. Tuffs, Peter. (1996). "Catalogue of Cleveland Ironstone Mines". Tuffs.
9. (2011). "Esk Valley Through Time". Amberley Publishing.
10. (29 August 2020). "More heavy downpours on the way with warnings of flooding". The Yorkshire Post.
11. (8 January 2021). "B1410 between Briggswath and Ruswarp closed after River Esk bursts banks". The Scarborough News.
12. "River Esk level at Briggswath - GOV.UK".
13. "27092 - Esk at Briggswath".
14. (2015). "Journeys around Whitby". Amberley Publishing.
15. "Briggswath and Sleights Methodist Church".
16. "Briggswath Sleights Carrhill Lane (E-bound) – Bus Times".