Pickering:
Pickering, positioned as it is on what
would have been the shores of the glacial lake Pickering at the end of
the last Ice Age, the settlement was in an ideal place to flourish
from the multiple natural resources of the moorlands to the north, the
wetlands to the south, the running water in the beck and the forests
all around. It had wood, stone, wildfowl, game, fish, fresh water and
fertile easily worked soils. The east west route from the coast inland
ran along the foothills of the North York Moors past the site at a
place where the beck could be forded.
There is evidence of Celtic
and
Roman era habitation in the areas surrounding Pickering but very
little remains in the town itself. Legendary sources suggest a very
early date for the establishment of a town here and it has been
assumed that traces of earlier settlements have been
erased by subsequent development.
In 1598 the streets of Pickering were named as:
- East Gate
- Hall Garth
- Hungate
- Birdgate
- Borrowgate (the present Burgate)
- and West Gate.
Many of the older small houses of the town were built at this time,
some of stone with
thatched roofs. The
stocks, the
shambles and the market cross stood in the centre of the town in
the Market Place. The castle fell into disrepair yet the town
flourished. In the English Civil
War, Parliamentary soldiers were quartered in the town and did
damage to the church and castle and Pickering was the subject of a
minor skirmish but it was not the scene of a pitched battle.
The Whitby and Pickering Railway was
opened in May 1836. At first the carriages and wagons were horse drawn
but steam locomotives were used from 1847. The Forge Valley Line ran
from 1882 to 1950, connecting Pickering to the Whitby-Scarborough line
in an attempt to encourage residents to visit the coast. The local
Health Board (the forerunner of the Urban District Council) was formed
in 1863. A Gas and Water Company provided gaslight to light the town
and piped drinking water. The shop fronts became closed in and glass
windows were used to display goods for sale.
At the 1901 census, Pickering had 3491
people and by 1911 this had risen to 3674 people who were living in
784 households. There were in excess of 60 shops. In the early 20th
century the growth of non-conformist religious sects, particularly
Methodism, generated a political spirit of Liberalism and Pickering
built a great Liberal tradition. In 1922 an old mill was converted to
the Memorial Hall in memory of the Pickering men killed in the First
World War. This hall, now much modernised, serves as a community
centre for the town. The Castle Cinema was built in 1937 in Burgate.
Electricity had arrived a few years earlier.
The years from 1920 to 1950 saw a
decline in Pickering’s role as an agricultural market town and the
population fell slightly from a peak of 4,193 in 1951 to 4,186 in
1961. The closure of the railway in 1965 under the Beeching axe was a
blow to the area. The economy of the town saw a turn around in the
following decades with the greater mobility of the working population
and a rise in tourism due to increasing car ownership. Tourism has
been a major occupation in the town since the reopening of the North
York Moors Railway as a restored steam railway and the filming of the
television series “Heartbeat” on the moors. In 1991 the population was
6269.
The tourist venues of Pickering Castle,
the North Yorkshire Moors Railway and Beck Isle Museum have made
Pickering popular with visitors in recent years. Nearby places include
Malton, Norton, Whitby and Scarborough.
Pickering Castle
The town of Pickering probably existed in the
Anglo Saxon period of British history. According to the Domesday Book
there was enough
arable land to need 27 ploughs, meadows and extensive
woodlands. The present town may have grown up to service the
Norman castle. After 1066 when
William I became the king of England the town and its
neighbourhood was in the personal possession of the king. A castle and the
church were built at this time and the medieval kings occasionally
used to visit the area. In 1267 the
manor, castle and forest of Pickering were given by
Henry III to his youngest son, Edmund,
First Earl of Lancaster. In times of trouble this estate was first
confiscated by the King and then returned. Eventually, it passed to
Henry, Duke of Lancaster who later became King Henry IV of
England. It has belonged to the monarch ever since.
The Market town
Pickering In the 1650s George Fox the founder of
Society of Friends, or
Quakers, visited the town to preach on at least two occasions. Pickering continued to prosper as a market town and
agricultural centre. It had
watermills and several
inns and was a centre for coaching travel, Mail coach
traffic and trade. At this time the beck served as an open sewer and
it remained so until the early part of the 20th century. The townspeople tended towards the adoption of
Non-conformist religious sects and were visited by John Wesley on
several occasions, the first being in 1764 and the last in 1790. The Quakers held meetings in a cottage in the town long before they
built their present Meeting House in Castlegate in 1793. In 1789 the first Congregational Church was built in Hungate and
for several years following 1793 a private residence was licensed for
Divine Worship by
Protestant Dissenters. The Pickering
Methodist Circuit was formed in 1812.
