The parish of Kilwick is situated in what was once the wapentake of Dickering, part of the historical East Riding of Yorkshire (see maps in Introduction). Its boundaries remained unchanged after the 1832 parish boundary changes, still including the sub-parishes and localities of Beswick, Bracken and Wilfholme and scattered parts of Lockington, but in 1894 it lost the latter to the village of the same name, and in 1935 became part of the parish of Beswick. Kilnwick village lies near an excellent seam of chalk which has been quarried since time immemorial. Chalk makes lime when heated in a kiln and lime is used in the production of mortar and as a fertilizer.

Aldwif and Mulagrim owned land in Kilnwick before the Conquest, which became the manor of Count Robert de Mortain in 1086 under the lordship of Nigel Fossard. Other lands in Kilnwick were in the hands of Earl Morcar in 1066 as part of his Driffield estate, but King William was both tenant in chief and lord by 1086. According to the Domesday survey both manors were waste. By the end of the 12th century large tracts of land and a sizable farm in Kilnwick were held by the Gilbertine Priory at neighbouring Watton until its dissolution in 1539. The prior at the time was Robert Holgate, who later became Archbishop of York, and on his death the estate passed to the Earl of Warwick. Kilnwick Hall which is believed to have been built on the foundations of the Gilbertine farm, is Jacobean in style and dates back to the early 1600s. It was perhaps built by Richard Thekestone, who held the manor in 1599, or Nicholas Stringer, its owner from 1614. The house later came into the possession of Vice-Admiral Henry Melton, he bequeathed it to Thomas Grimston in 1747, and it was the latter owner who greatly extended it and added the Georgian south and east facades. The house remained in the hands of the Grimston family until 1943 when it was sold, and the estate was broken up in 1951.

Brick has always been the principal building materiel in Holderness, and this is particularly evident in Kilnwick. The houses in the village, part of the church tower and the church wall are all of red brick, but it is the huge walled garden immediately south of the church that strikes the visitor. The map of 1851 clearly shows that it enclosed what is believed to be a vegetable garden attached to the grounds of Kilnwick Hall, and it continued to be used for horticultural purposes until 2017, when the last owner, Mr. Benwell, retired, closed his plant nursery and sold the greater part of it for redevelopment. A large contemporary house and its lawns now stands within the ancient walls, sharing the vast area with the Benwell family, who still carry on their gardening business from the gardener’s cottage, which forms part of the walls.

The church at Kilnwick is dedicated to All Saints. It consists of a four bay 12th century nave, an early 13th century north aisle, a 13th century two bay chancel, a north porch containing a Norman doorway and a western tower, the upper two-thirds of which are made of brick. The whole church was largely rebuilt in 1871. The east window is a memorial of the late Henry Grimston, Esq., and there are several tablets on the walls to members of the same family. The only original part of the early 13th century font is the narrow top of its cylindrical basin, which has been reset on an octagonal stem that narrows to a plinth resting on a modern base.

Beswick was formerly a chapelry belonging to Kilnwick parish, but in 1935 the roles were reversed and Kilnwick became part of Beswick parish. Gamal, son of Karli, under the lordship of King Edward, owned land in Beswick before the Conquest, which became the manor of Count Robert de Mortain in 1086 under the lordship of Nigel Fossard, the only manor in Beswick and Kilnwick that was not considered waste. Other lands in Beswick were in the hands of Iuli and Earl Morcar in 1066, but King William was both tenant in chief and lord by 1086. The manors passed through various hands and had become a single estate by the time the third Baron Hotham purchased it in 1838. Beswick Hall is a brick building built in c1560, which originally had two storeys and four bays, but the greater part of the house was transformed into three storeys in c1840, so that only the right bay was preserved. This retains some splendid examples of Elizabethan architecture, including stone dressings and mullioned and transomed windows. The Hall stands opposite the site that was occupied by an old thatched chapel, which was demolished in 1871 to make way for the church of St. Margaret. The new place of Worship was built by Lord Beaumont Hotham in the Early English style, consisting of a circular-ended a chancel, a nave, a south porch, and a western turret containing one bell.

Bracken lies about a mile north west of Kilnwick and was formerly a manor, whose last lords belonged to the Grimston family. It consisted of a farm with cottages, a chapel and burial ground, the remains of the two latter having since disappeared under farmland. The most recent version of Bracken Farm house is still standing, some of the outbuildings have been converted into a large property called Bracken Fold and Bracken Grange has recently been restored and extended.

Wilfholme was a hamlet lying on the west bank of the river Hull where a ferry provided a crossing to east bank. The whole area has now become a farm and the nearest crossings today are the road and foot bridges at Hull Bridge north east of Beverley.

The most prominent name associated with Kilnwick is Normanville. The first member of the family bearing that name arrived in England with William the Conqueror and probably acquired land in the village through marriage sometime in the 14th century. The main line moved within two generations to the Strafforth & Tickhill wapentake (lower division) in the West Riding, leaving a junior line in Kilnwick. The name has lived on in the area as Nornabell, e.g. William Nornabell, in 1892 a gardner in neighbouring Watton, and later Nornable. In the early 1500s Robert Normanville, the eldest son of Ralph, married Anne, the daughter of Sir William Fairfax, and his youngest brother Hugh married Adriana, the daughter of John Pickering. In c1510 Anne’s sister Eleanor married the first Sir William Pickering of the Pickerings of Oswaldkirk, so it is reasonable to assume that the three families were close and that John Pickering was either Sir William’s brother John or John’s son, though no other mention of Adriana Pickering and her husband has yet come to light.

A much later John Pickering, the son of Robert who had moved from Hutton Cranswick to Kilnwick, was baptised at All Saints church in 1753, thus founding the Pickerings of Kilnwick 2, an offshoot of the Pickerings of Holderness, though this branch soon spread to the neighbouring parishes and later further afield. The William Pickering who was born c1720 and died in Kilnwick in 1792 probably also belonged to the Pickerings of Holderness, but his parents have not been identified. I have made him the founder of the Pickerings of Kilnwick 1.

Sources:

Beverley Registration District: https://www.ukbmd.org.uk/reg/districts/beverley.html
History and Topography of Yorkshire, York, Ainsty, East Riding vol. 2, pp.507-508: https://books.google.fr/books/about/History_and_topography_of_the_city_of_Yo.html?id=3cEHAAAAQAAJ
Bulmer’s History, Topography and Directory of East Yorkshire with Hull 1892, pp. 222-223: https://specialcollections.le.ac.uk/digital/collection/p16445coll4/id/324025
Normanville surname: https://surnamedb.com/Surname/Nornable

Kilnwick:
https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/ERY/KilnwickOnTheWolds
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilnwick
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lime_(material)
https://opendomesday.org/place/SE9949/kilnwick
Kilnwick History: https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=Kilnwick%20History
Kilnwick Old Hall: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1346966?section=official-list-entry
Kilnwick Gardens: https://media.onthemarket.com/properties/3312688/doc_0_6.pdf
Church of All Saints: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1346968?section=official-list-entry
All Saints, Kilnwick, Yorkshire, East Riding: https://www.crsbi.ac.uk/view-item?i=3913&WINID=1736596774252

Beswick:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beswick,_East_Riding_of_Yorkshire
https://opendomesday.org/place/TA0148/beswick
Beswick Hall: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1103484?section=official-list-entry

Bracken:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bracken,_East_Riding_of_Yorkshire
Bracken Farm: https://media.onthemarket.com/properties/13093837/1446405246/document-0.pdf
Bracken Grange: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1030183784235171