Map of Historic Sites in the Parish

The first marker is placed in the middle of the village, at the cross roads where the main road from Garrowby Hill, in the North, dissects the village's main street and then continues South towards Pocklington. Here the main road crosses a bridge over the beck that runs through the village. The bridge used to be called the "Wire" Bridge which is probably derived from "weir".

The Bishop Wilton Show & Craft Fair which was established in 1897 takes place once a year in this field at the foot of the road to Great Givendale. The Show has been sited here since 1979. Information about the Show can be found at www.bishopwiltonshow.co.uk.

Just visible here, on aerial photographs, is a ditch which could be marking the boundary of the Archbishop of York's Deer Park, dating from the 13th & 14th centuries.

There is a light chalky soil-mark just inside a gateway on the South side of the road up Garrowby Hill just before the right turn to Bishop Wilton. It's the remains of Garrowby Street Inn (or House). In 1822 it is mentioned in "Patersons Roads" on an itemised list of the route from London to Bridlington. In 1772 (according to the Enclosure award for Bishop Wilton), Robert Hall was the Innholder. At some point, Garrowby New Inn further down Garrowby Hill (on the sharp bend) replaced this old coaching inn.

A Bronze Age round barrow which survives as an earthwork (on private land behind a house). It contains Bronze Age burials and possible later Anglo Saxon Burials. It is a Scheduled Monument (No. 21178). It was excavated by J. R. Mortimer in 1876 (Mortimer's reference is C99).

This is tree-covered now, a few hundred yards on the left after turning to Bishop Wilton from Garrowby Hill (from the A166). Prior to the relatively recent tree-planting it used to stand out as a well-formed hillock. J. R. Mortimer investigated it in the late 1800s and thought that it was partly artificial. It has some kind of enclosure on its peak (now hidden by trees). A number of local people attest to the memory of a story that the dead from the Battle of Stamford Bridge (1066 AD) are buried here!

Prehistoric linear earthworks - a Scheduled Ancient Monument. The monument is within the grounds of Cot Nab farmhouse. The circular feature south of the linear earthworks is not ancient, evidently, but is the remains of a dew pond. The linear earthworks are described as a triple ditch with "Other slighter earthworks (house platform and hollow-ways) in the same field." - Loughlin & Miller 1979.

In the 1960s the road running past Cot Nab Farm was widened and rerouted. At this time an excavation was conducted by T.C.M. Brewster. A ditchless round barrow from the Bronze Age was uncovered. Although excavated by J. R. Mortimer in 1867, the 1966 dig found two further burials. Entrenchments from Cot Nab to the head of Hundle Dale in the north skirt the barrow on both sides. They post-date the barrow, being from the Late Iron Age or Early Roman period.

Manna Green Farm once stood here. It has disappeared completely now.

A whole area of the old North Field belonging to the Lord of the Manor was fenced off at the time of the Parliamentary Enclosure in 1772. Within that, plots were divided up afterwards and they kept their hedge lines that reflect the reversed "S" of ridge and furrow ploughing. Some of these can be seen from the road when travelling from Bishop Wilton to Garrowby Hill on the left hand side.

The road to Youlthorpe was laid out "of the breadth of 60 feet" as specified in the enclosure award for Bishop Wilton Township in 1772. Where this road crosses over into Youlthorpe Township, at Awnhams Bridge ("Awnham" is thought to be derived from "Inham" meaning an intake of land, typically on the edge of a territory), the change in road width is clearly visible. With each township being enclosed separately and at different times, decisions as to road widths varied. Similar changes can be seen on the roads to Pocklington and to Bolton.

At the boundary of Bishop Wilton Township, delineated by Awnhams Beck, lie the Ings. These are the communal meadow lands that would have provided the winter feed for over-wintered livestock during the time of the Open Fields. Although the car has to be abandoned before reaching the Ings it is well worth taking a walk along the wide grassy track as far as Awnhams Beck. It is like stepping back in time!

The boundary of the Parish of Bishop Wilton is represented by the blue line - all except for the Western portion round the Full Sutton Industrial Estate and part of the airfield. Beware, this is not a definitive parish boundary map!

Approximate length (without the Western portion mentioned above): 14.87 miles.

According to Chris Fenton-Thomas in his book, "The Forgotten Landscape of the Yorkshire Wolds", Wetwang Raikes was "intercommoned between Bishop Wilton and Wetwang". Quite why is not currently known. Further research is needed here.

On maps it is called Hall Garth but we know it as the medieval site of the Palace of the Archbishops of York. Some say it was Archbishop Neville's Palace, probably because Archbishop Alexander Neville (1374 to 1388) was the last to hold office before it fell into a ruinous state and ceased to be used (after about 150 years) around 1388. The Local History Group believes that it was established and used earlier than that. Archbishop Walter De Gray was probably the one who had it built during the 1220s. It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, managed by English Heritage and owned by Lord Halifax's Garrowby Estate.

The official English Heritage description of the site dates it later than is reasonable and associates it with Archbishop George Neville (1465 to 1476). This is probably based on a confusion between two Nevilles, Alexander & George! Added to this, English Heritage delineate the site incorrectly by not taking account of a portion of the site on the South side which should be included.

On aerial photographs there is what looks like an interesting crop mark in this field. It's the Cricket Pitch in the middle of Bishop Wilton's Playing Fields!

In 2010 a new Hall was built on the Playing Fields to replace the existing Pavilion and the old Village Hall which was on the main street in an old tin tabernacle that was moved to the village from Sutton-on-Derwent to start its new life as the Men's Institute.

Awnhams Beck forms the western boundary (for 2.43 miles) of the old Bishop Wilton Township. It skirts the Ings and waters the meadowland. "Awnham" is thought to be derived from "Inham" meaning an intake of land, typically on the edge of a territory.

On OS maps this is marked as a Roman road and is called The Bence. No one seems to know the reason for this name but it is possible that it is related to the linear earthworks which are just visible on aerial photographs off the road to the east.

Crossing this cultivated field and still visible here is a stretch of linear earthworks observed and documented by J. R. Mortimer. It runs from dale to dale. A lot of these earthworks run from dale head to dale head. This one runs from dale side to dale side and even goes down the side into the bottom of the dales.

A windmill is marked as being on this spot on a map of 1817 (surveyed by C. Greenwood between 1815 to 1817 and published by Robinson & Son of Wakefield). An aerial photograph shows signs of its precise location.

A painting from the mid-1800s shows this windmill as being still in working order (with sails at least). The base of it still exists. It is said that the structure was at full height until World War 2 when it was judged to be a hazard for planes coming in to land at Full Sutton airfield and it was reduced in height.

High Belthorpe is a moated medieval farmstead (some think that it is older than that). The moat can still be seen in places on aerial photographs and more extensively on the ground. It encloses a pond that has a spring as its source. High Belthorpe used to be a separate township. There are signs of an old track and building platforms to the West of the moated site on some aerial photographs.

Still called Mill Hills, the earliest known reference to this site is from 1611 when a Survey of Bishop Wilton identifies Water Mill Hill against the name of the tenant, Robert Moore (Hull University Brynmor Jones Library Archive, Ref:DDKG/27). The area of the mill pond has been reflooded as can be seen from some aerial photos.

Late Iron Age pottery sherds (with bones and pot-boilers) were found as part of a "back garden dig" begun in 2003 on the last day of the Time Team Big Dig. The ditch feature runs for at least 10m at a depth of 1.5m. In the middle layers there were signs of Romano-British pottery. No metal unfortunately.

The boundary of the medieval inhabited part of the village can be seen on this map. It has an overall length of approximately 1.52 miles (not a lot of people know that!). Following the back lanes and the header and footer lanes it forms a roughly rectangular shape. Within that, dwellings front onto the village green and the beck. Back paddocks open onto the back lanes. In former times this would have given access onto the open fields which were in use for around 800 years.

The Manor House on this site was demolished around 1902. Photos of it still exist. In its latter days it was a farmhouse. It ceased to be the residence of the Lord of the Manor in the late 1700s. The site is now an extension to the graveyard for St Edith's Church. Humps and bumps give an idea of where it was situated.

The L-shaped "fish-pond" that served the Manor House still exists. Some say it could have been a moat that was partially filled in. An octagonal brick-built dove-cote used to stand besides the fish-pond but it was knocked down soon after the Manor House.