15th August 2015

Well  we've been so busy this summer that we haven't had time to update the Embsay Project blog!

The Road to Bolton Abbey - through Eastby

Chris, Sue and David recently gave a guided walk, as part of the Upper Wharfedale Heritage Group's summer programme, from Embsay village car park to Halton East. 

Chris explains the derivation of the place-name "Angrymire"

Titled "The road to Bolton Abbey" the emphasis was on the connection between Embsay and Bolton Priory, and some of the features in the historic landscape that can be seen along our route, which took us from St Mary's church, through Eastby and up Bark Lane to the parish boundary at Mawking Hole. 

Alison can't resist closely examining a gate-post on the way to Mawking Hole

The event was highly successful - we were astounded that 43 people turned up - it was very gratifying that this number included a large number of local people. Perhaps the fact that we ended up at Billy Bob's Ice Cream Parlour at Halton East had something to with it!


Work is ongoing as always on the long-term research into the general history of Embsay-with-Easby. 
The focus is still upon the First World War, the emergence and impact of non-conformism, and the development of the genealogical database. We have had quite a few enquiries from the general public who are researching their family histories, and we have been able to provide them with information which they have found useful. This can be very time-consuming, so it has caused some delays to our other work, but at the moment we are happy to answer such queries. We may have to review the situation soon if we get too many other enquires in the near future. 

The research into the men of the parish who fought in the First World War has slowed somewhat as other projects take up our attention, but we have published a couple of articles in the parish newsletter on the anniversaries of those who died in 1915.  You can read these articles on the Embsay Research Group's project pages on the UWHG website - http://www.uwhg.org.uk/projects/erg/embsay_wwi/embsay_wwi.html 

Although the walls survey has stopped for the summer - the vegetation makes it almost impossible to do efficiently - work on the 19th C electoral registers continues, as does the entry of data into the ever-growing genealogical database. 

The Victorian and Edwardian school log books of the non-conformist "British School" have been transcribed and are currently being proof-read and analysed for what they can tell us about the broader history of the parish. 

We are very excited at being invited by Embsay primary school to look at their archive of log books, registers and minute books which cover a similar period of time. 

Extract from admissions register, Embsay Primary school archives

We have started work on transcribing these, and it will be fascinating to see how these Church of England "National" school records compare to those of the British school. 

Jane Lunnon, Embsay Research Group