FANGFOSS PARISH.

Wapentake of Harthill (Wilton Beacon Division)—County Council Electoral Division of Bishop
Wilton—Petty Sessional Division of Wilton Beacon—Poor Law Union, County Court District,
and Rural Deanery of Pocklington—Archdeaconry of the East Riding—Diocese of York.

This parish, covering a total area of 1,408 acres, is surrounded on the north, east, and south by Bishop Wilton, and on the west by Catton. The soil is chiefly clay and light loam, and the crops generally under cultivation are wheat, oats, barley, beans, turnips, and seeds. The whole parish is comprised in one town­ship, of which the rateable value is £1,921, and the population in 1891 was 177. Henry Fawcett, Esq., Thomas Eadon, Esq., Pangfoss Hall; and the Eev. John Henry A. Eudd, Hereford, are the principal landowners. The first-named gentle­man is lord of the manor.

The village is small, and stands one-and-a-quarter miles east-by-north of Fangfoss station, on the York and Market Weighton branch of the North-Eastern railway, 11 east of York, four north-west of Pocklington, and 15 south of Malton. The church (St. Martin) is a small stone edifice in the Norman style, rebuilt in 1849, at a cost of £860, and consisting of chancel, nave, south porch, and western turret, containing two bells. One of these dated from the 12th century, but both have been re-cast. The church which previously occupied the site was an early Norman structure, and contained some curious carving on a cornice of blocks. The porch is partly rebuilt with stones of the old church, which exhibit marks of fire, but how or when the fire occurred is not known, though some suppose it to have been the work of the Danes. There is a fabric fund for the repair of the nave, derived from the rent of three cottages and gardens in the village, a field containing four acres, and a rent-charge of 10s. In the floor is a memorial stone to several members of the Overend family, formerly seated at Fangfoss Hall.

The registers date from 1662. The living is a perpetual curacy united to the vicarage of Barmby Moor, in the gift of the Archbishop of York; curate-in-charge, the Eev. George Edward Park, B.A. (Durham), who resides at Spode Cottage, Bolton. The Wesleyans and Primitive Methodists have each a chapel in the parish, erected in 1865; the former in the village of Fangfoss, and the latter at Spittle.

The National school (mixed) with master's house adjacent, was built on the site of the old school in 1864. It will accommodate 102 children, and is attended by about 60 Fangfoss Hall is a large square mansion of brick, with stone entrances on the east and west sides, erected in 1766. It is the property and residence of Thomas Eadon, Esq.

Spittle is a hamlet about a quarter of a mile south of the church. It appears from its name to have been the site of an ancient hospital, but nothing is known concerning it.
The following charities are recorded on the Benefaction Board in the church : Cade's gift, a rent-charge of 3s. 4s. per annum, payable out of Hill Garth, Spittle; Timothy Overend's gift of 10s. a year out of a cottage house in Spittle; and Wood's dole, 5s. per annum.