Kirkby Moorside, North Riding of Yorkshire

[Up to 1834] [After 1834] [Staff] [Inmates] [Records] [Bibliography] [Links]

Up to 1834

Kirkbymoorside had a workhouse from 1773 which accommodated twenty inmates.

Kirkby Moorside (or Kirkbymoorside) was initially part of the Helmsley Poor Law Union. The old Kirkby Moorside parish workhouse, and another in Helmsley, were retained for use by the new Union. However, the size of the Helmsley Union, and remoteness of some of its parts, created difficulties both for Guardians and paupers. 0n 6th March, 1848, a separate Kirkby Moorside Poor Law Union was formed and included parishes previously in the Helmsley and Pickering Unions. The new union's operation was overseen by an elected Board of Guardians, 18 in number, representing its 17 constituent parishes and townships as listed below (figures in brackets indicate numbers of Guardians if more than one):

County of York, North Riding: Bransdale, West side; Great Edstone; Little Edstone; Fadmore; Farndale, East side; Farndale, Lower Quarter; Farndale, West side; Gillamore; Hutton-le-Hole; Kirkby Moorside (2); Muscoates; Nawton; North Holme; Nunnington; Skiplaw; Welburn; Wombleton.
Later Additions (all from c.1849): Appleton-le-Moors, East Ness, West Ness, Normanby, Salton, Thornton Riseborough.

The population falling within the union at the 1841 census had been 5,091 with parishes and townships ranging in size from Little Edstone (population 15) to Kirkby Moorside itself (1,905). The average annual poor-rate expenditure for the period 1846-8 had been £1,200 or 4s.9d. per head of the population.

A new Kirkby Moorside Union workhouse was erected in 1850 at a cost of £1,350 to accommodate 70 inmates. The building, at a site on Gillamoor road in Kirkby Moorside, was designed by John and William Atkinson who were also the architects of many other Yorkshire workhouses including those at Bedale, Beverley, Easingwold, Guisborough, Goole, Helmsley, Howden, Pateley Bridge, Pocklington, Skirlaugh, Wetherby and York. Their design for Kirkby Moorside had a two storey main block facing to the south-east, with single storey blocks to each side. A small building to the north may have been a small infirmary. The workhouse location and layout are shown on the 1910 map below.

Kirkby Moorside Union workhouse site, 1910.

Kirkby Moorside main block from the south, 2001.
© Peter Higginbotham.

Kirkby Moorside from the north-east, 2001.
© Peter Higginbotham.

In the 1970s, the former workhouse was used to accommodate Vietnamese refugees. The building has now been adapted for residential use.

Staff

1881 Census

Inmates

1881 Census

Records

North Yorkshire County Record Office, Malpas Road, Northallerton DL7 8TB.

Bibliography

Helmsley and Kirkbymoorside Workhouses by Dr P Hastings (1996, Ripon Museum Trust leaflet).