more about Raskelf

Easingwold with Raskelf Anglican Churches

Diocese of York

Easingwold Deanery

12th century church

One of many churches built in the 12th century to bolster the Norman regime, its foundation is attributed to Bertram de Bulmer of Sheriff Hutton Castle

Raskelf  village is built on cross roads and lies to the north-west of Easingwold , where farming has been the main occupation for generations, many of the farms being owned by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners (later the Church Commissioners). The church is at the end of the village giving onto fields which once formed the park of a great house, Raskelf Hall, belonging to the Nevilles, Earls of Westmorland. The name Raschel is mentioned in the Domesday Book and a possible explanation is that Raskelf  means a Deer Leap—a ditch designed to contain or keep out deer. Ra means Roe—deer and Scylfe or Schel means a Shelving of Land. The village once boasted a primary or elementary school built by John Webb in 1856, a Wesleyan Chapel built in l836 and to this day there is still a Pound , used to enclose stray animals, in the centre of the village (now a pinfold for notices). The small River Kyle flows through the parish and at one time on the nearby main London/Scotland railway line, there was a station to take passengers to York. The village is now mostly residential and Tied houses previously tenanted by agricultural workers at minimal rents have mostly been sold and are occupied by new incomers.