Newby, which close adjoins, consists of two or three farmsteads belonging to the Earl of Harewood.

The township contains 1,376 acres of land of variable quality. The population in 1801 was 237; in 1811, 297; in 1821, 310; in 1831, 322; and in 1851, only 300, The annual value as assessed to the county rate in 1849 was £1,846; as assessed to the property tax in 1858, £2,149; and to the poor-rate in 1859, £2,263.

CASTLEY.

CASTLEY is a village and small township in the parish of Leathley. On the south it adjoins the river Wharfe, which, with an extensive curve, embraces it almost on three sides; the other adjoins to Leathley and Weeton. This township forms the south-western angle of the Forest of Knaresborough.

At the time of the Domesday survey (1086) it was in the hands of the king, and is thus entered

"In Castlelai, Elwin had one carucate to be taxed, and Berne and Elflet had one carucate to be taxed. Land to two ploughs. Ebrard, a vassal of William de Percy, farms it, but William does not vouch for him. Value in King Edward's time shillings; at present sixteen pence.† Afterwards it was held by a family to which it gave a surname, many members of whom were benefactors to the

The name is evidently derived from some castra, castle, or camp of the Romans, and ley, a field-that is the castle field. Within a very limited space around this village, we have evidence, in the names of places, of the different nationalities which have occupied or peopled the country. In Castley, we have Roman and Saxon; in Huby and Newby, we have Danish; in Weschoe and Riffoe, Norwegian.

+"Bawdwen's Dom. Boc.," p. 37.

At the time of Kirkby's Inquest (1284) "Castelley" was held by Richard de Goldsburgh and William de Castley, as the fourth part of a knight's fee, of the heirs of Percy, and the same heirs held it of the king, in capite.-Kirkby's Inquest, Surtees' Soc., p. 45.

In the list of knights' fees, 31st of Edward I., here was one carucate of land of the fee of Percy, where fourteen carucates make a fee.—Ibid, p. 203. To the aid for marrying the same king's daughter Castley contributed 2s. 10d.-Ibid, p. 293.

Abbey of Fountains, as will be seen by the following extracts from "Burton's Monasticon Eboracense"

"Robert, son of Nigel de Castelay, gave one acre and a half of land here in Turneridding, and one acre and a half in Thieveridding."

"William, son of Gilbert de Castelai, gave two oxgangs of land, with his share of the mill and its pool, and the service of Henry de Westcoght for the said mill, reserving the right of having his corn grinded there muclture free; they, the monks, paying three shillings to the canons of Park.'

"Hugh, son of William de Lelay, quit-claimed to them the service of William, son of Gilbert de Castelai, for one tenement here."

"Roger, son of Henry de Castelay, gave a toft and a croft here, with one acre of land, and all his demesne in East-head of Hungerholme, upon the bank of the water."

"Alexander, son of William de Castelay, gave his land with this piece which Hamer de Castelay had, with a toft and croft, and half of the holme betwixt Cornhill and Werf, which did belong to John de Castelay, his brother."

"Then Alexander also confirmed to them the land called Ulframrode, as far as Tuinber-beck, with the land that is betwixt Ulframrode and the boundary of Buggerode, together with the land, toft, and croft, which Roger, son of Henry, his brother, held here."

"William de Uskelf quit-claimed a toft in this place, called Foulesikecroft, and eight acres of arable land in the same village."

"Francis de Cipria quit-claimed his right in the wood, betwixt Huby and Moseker."

66

Malger, son of William Pouella gave all his land here, being three acres, on the east side of the way or ford called

*The Monastery of Healough Park, in the Ainsty.

Haldwadford, in Poolholme, in Castley, to the monks of Fountains; which was confirmed by Robert, son of William Bram de Powel."*

The mill mentioned above belonged to the monks of Bolton Priory, and not a vestige of it, or its pool, can be discovered at the present day.

"Isolda, daughter of Hugh de Lelay, gave six acres of land in Castelay, with one oxgang of land, with the service of Galfrid de Arthington, and of 4d. annuity to the nuns of the Priory of Nun-Appleton, which Sir Hugh de Lelay confirmed."+

In the year 1300, William Castleley was one of the jurors on the Inquisition post mortem of Roger de Mowbray.

In the grant of half an acre of land from Walter, the son of Hugo de Creskeld to the nuns of Arthington, the name of William de Castelay occurs as a witness.

In the Nomina Villarum (1315) William de Castellay is returned as lord of Castellay.

At what period the family of Castley ceased to be lords of this village we have no direct information, Afterwards it came into the hands of the family of Lindley, of Leathley, from them it passed to those of Hitch, Maude, and Fawkes; the Rev. A. Fawkes being at present the principal proprietor.

The village of Castley is placed in a most singular situation; more especially since the formation of the railway, the lofty embankment of which carries the road above the tops of the highest houses, so that the inhabitants, on looking up, can see between themselves and the sky the rapid rush of the fireimpelled chariots of the present iron age. The viaduct, which carries the railway across the Wharfe, consists of twenty-one arches, each sixty feet in span and ninety feet high in the

"Burton's Mon. Ebor.," p. 191. + Ibid, p. 227.

middle, containing upwards of 50,000 tons of stone; a most stupendous piece of work to be constructed for the mere passage of a road across it.

Castley Hall, now a farm-house, was built about the year 1700, by Mr. Robert Dyneley, second son of Robert Dyneley, Esq., of Bramhope.

Riffa or Riffoe Wood is a hill covered with wood, and strewn with blocks of hard coarse gritstone; on the top is a gamekeeper's cottage, in a lofty and romantic situation. On the western side runs Riffa-beck, one of the boundaries of Knaresborough Forest.

The charities belonging to this township consist of fourteen shillings, being the interest of £14, left to the poor by Mrs. Ann Hitch, in 1769.

The area of this township is only 527 acres, and the population about 80. In 1801 it was 82; in 1811, 96; in 1821, 110; in 1831, 118; and in 1851, 83. The annual value as assessed to the county rate in 1849 was £777; as assessed to property tax in 1858, £926; and to the poor rate in 1859, £990.