The parish of Bugthorpe is situated in what was once the wapentake of Buckrose, part of the historical East Riding of Yorkshire (see maps in Introduction). Before the 1832 parish boundary changes it included the locality of Thoralby. During the mid 1800s the lord of the manor tried unsuccessfully to change Bugthorpe’s name to Buckthorpe, which is closer to the Domesday spelling.

Bugthorpe dates back Saxon times, when it already had a church. There were two manors at the time of the Conquest: one was held by Clibert, which by 1086 was in the hands of the canons of St. Peter’s, York, under its tenant in chief, the archbishop of York; the other was held by Forne, son of Sigulf (see below), before it was awarded to Odo the bowman. Soon after the Conquest the church at Bugthorpe was made prebendal, and the prebendary became automatically the lord of the manor. This situation prevailed until as late as 1838, when the Cathedral Act was passed. The manor and church lands in Bugthorpe were then sold by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners to Sir Francis Wood of Garrowby, the ancestor of the Viscounts Halifax. The Halifaxes thus became the owners of Bugthorpe and the village remains part of the Halifax estates to this day.
Thoralby was mentioned in Domesday as having as its lord and tenant in chief Gamal, son of Barth, along with his brother and mother, the ownership remaining the same in 1086. The name is retained today in Thoralby Hall.
The late medieval manor house at Bugthorpe is still standing though in a much altered state; in the late 1700s it was re-cast and cased in brick. Its pond remains and traces of its moat are also still visible. It is now a Grade II* listed building known as Low Hall.

Bugthorpe church is dedicated to St. Andrew. It was founded in Saxon times and re-built in the Norman style soon after the Conquest. At the beginning of the 1200s the east wall of the chancel was demolished, and a new chancel added, separated from the old one by an arch. The new chancel later became the choir, leading to the high altar. The old arch, separating the nave from the chancel, retains the capitals of the original Saxon arch and is decorated with carvings of humans, animals, foliage and abstract shapes, whereas the new arch, separating the chancel from the choir, is plain. The current nave is lower than the chancel, but was considerably lower before it was rebuilt in 1859. It contains an 11th century circular font, which is plain apart from a narrow dog-tooth moulding. The tower arch completes the series of three and is closed by a wooden screen. The 15th century tower appears to have retained the old Saxon piers at its base. Its upper stage was re-built and leaded in 1878. St Andrew’s church was designated a Grade I listed building in 1966.

As seen above, Forne, son of Sigulf, was the holder of one of the manors of Bugthorpe before the Conquest. Father and son were the forerunners of the Greystokes, who had close ties with the Pickerings of Killington and who in turn are thought to be the ancestors of the Puckerings. A great deal of conjecture surrounds the descent of the Puckerings of Kirby Underdale, to whom the Bugthorpe Puckerings belong. Edward of the 7th generation was the first to be buried in Bugthorpe in 1676, followed by his brother James in 1707 and his cousin William in 1712. His other cousin John had already moved out of the village, and the descendants of the other three men had moved to neighbouring parishes and further afield within a few generations. A handful of Pickerings appear among the Puckerings of Bugthorpe, but not enough information is provided by the parish registers to determine whether they were in fact Puckerings who were recorded wrongly by the clerk.

Sources:

https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/ERY/Bugthorpe
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bugthorpe
https://opendomesday.org/place/SE7757/bugthorpe
Bulmer’s History, Topography and Directory of East Yorkshire with Hull 1892, pp. 566-569: https://specialcollections.le.ac.uk/digital/collection/p16445coll4/id/324025
History and Topography of Yorkshire, vol. 2, York, Ainsty, East Riding, pp. 639-640: https://books.google.fr/books?redir_esc=y&id=unEKAQAAMAAJ
https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1083872?section=official-list-entry
https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1309966?section=official-list-entry
http://www.garrowbychurches.com/st-andrew-bugthorpe.html