Muker Yorkshire Family History Guide
Muker is an Ecclesiastical Parish in the county of Yorkshire, created in 1719 from Grinton Ancient Parish.
Other places in the parish include: Thwaite, Tanhill, Tan Hill, Stonesdale, Springend, Spring End, Saltron, Salton, Ravenseat, Rash, Rampsholme, Oxnop, Keld and Thorns, Ivelet, Frith, Calverthouse, Calvert House, Birkdale, Birckdale, and Angram.
Parish church:
Parish registers begin:
- Parish registers: 1638
- Bishop’s Transcripts: 1636
Nonconformists include: Independent/Congregational and Wesleyan Methodist.
Table of Contents
Adjacent Parishes
Parish History
The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870
MUKER, a small town, a chapelry, and a sub-district, in Grinton parish, Reeth district, N. R. Yorkshire.
The town stands on the river Swale, amid a tract of high uplands, 4 miles ENE of Great Shunner fell, and 5 NNW of Askriff r. station; forms a good centre for the exploration of the upper parts of Swaledale; and has a customary weekly market on Wednesday, and a fair on the Wednesday before Old Christmas.
The chapelry contains also the hamlets of Angram, Birkdale, Calverthouse, Frith, Ivelet, Keld and Thorns, Oxnop, Rampsholme, Rash, Ravenseat, Saltron, Springend, Stonesdale, Thwaite, and part of Tanhill. Post-town, Hawes, under Bedale. Acres, 30, 262. Real property, £7, 270; of which £850 are in mines. Pop. in 1851, 1, 321; in 1861, 1,005. Houses, 225. The decrease of pop. was caused by the closing of lead mines. The property is much subdivided.
The manor belongs to T. Smith, Esq.
Auld Gang lead mines, in the vicinity of the town, were worked long before the Roman invasion; and mounds of spa and rock, over miles to the N, are memorials of very ancient mining. Limestone is quarried, and coal is worked. Great Shunner fell, though inferior in height to three other mountains in Yorkshire, has an altitude of2, 351 feet. Lovely Seat, 2 miles S E of Great Shunnerfell, and overhanging a wild and romantic mountain pass from Muker to Hawes, soars also to a great altitude, and commands a striking view. A wild and sequestered but beautiful mountain road, leads west-north-westward from the town, over the backbone of England to Kirkby-Stephen.
The living is a p. curacy in the diocese of Ripon. Value, £130. Patron, the Vicar of Grinton. The church was built in 1580, is not in very good condition, has a small tower, and contains monuments of the Knowles and the Calvert families.
There are chapels for Independents and Wesleyans, and an endowed national school with £25 a year.
The sub-district contains also the township of Melbecks. Acres, 40, 368. Pop., 2, 627. Houses, 551.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].
Parish Records
FamilySearch
Administration
- County: Yorkshire
- Civil Registration District: Reeth
- Probate Court: Court of the Bishop (Consistory) of the Commissary of the
- Archdeaconry of Richmond Eastern Deaneries – Catterick
- Diocese: Post-1835 – Ripon, Pre-1836 – York
- Rural Deanery: Catterick
- Poor Law Union: Reeth
- Hundred: West Gilling
- Province: York