YAPHAM

YAPHAM-CUM-MELTONBY are two hamlets forming a joint township and chapelry containing 1,830^ acres. The land belongs to several proprietors, of whom the principal are James Richard Singleton, Esq., Bishop Wilton; Henry Abbey, Pocklington; Francis Riccall, Millington; Henry Jewison; Colonel Duncombe, Kilnwick Percy ; William Dixon Petch, Skelton-in-Cleveland, and the Feoffees of the " Poors' Charity, &c." The soil is good loam, sand, and gravel; Subsoil, clay and gravel, and the chief crops are wheat, barley, oats, beans, and turnips. The rateable value is £2,729, and the population in 1891 was 191.
The village of Yapham is small, and stands on an open green, two-and-a-half miles north-by-west of Pocklington. The chapel, a small, plain edifice, was partially rebuilt in 1777-8. It consists of chancel and nave, with a western turret, containing two bells. The living is a curacy annexed to the vicarage of Pockling­ton. The great tithe, amounting to £365, belongs to the dean of York. The chapel lands, now styled " Yapham-cum-Meltonby Church, School and Poor Charity," were left partly by one John Beal, or Belsom, and others, upwards of 300 years ago, and partly awarded at the inclosure of the common in 1773. The estimated extent of the charity land is 124 acres, producing an income of £143 a year. By an arrangement with the Charity Commissioners the income is thus expended:—one-fourth is applied to the repairs of the chapel, one-fourth is distributed amongst the poor, and the remaining two-fourths are applied towards the support of the school, which belongs to the Charity Trust. New premises were erected in 1875, for the accommodation of 45 children. The Wesleyans have a chapel here, built in 1865.