The parish of Reighton 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, but the parish has undergone administrative changes: in 1894 it became part of Bridlington and has formed part of the North Yorkshire since 1974. The name Reighton is appropriate – hrycg is the Anglian word for spine or ridge – as the village is situated just below the top of the chalk Wolds, where their northern flank dips down to the boulder clay cliffs facing the North Sea, opposite the cleft called the Reighton Gap.

Gamal, son of Karli, and Tholf held a manor in Reighton before the Conquest, which was probably waste by the time it was taken over in 1086 by King William as both lord and tenant in chief. The Aumale family held it briefly before it was granted to local families. In 1066 the archbishop of York was the overlord of a second, larger manor at Reighton, of which Wulfgeat was the lord. The archbishop retained it after the Conquest but transferred it to the canons of St. John of Beverley as part of their holding in Foston-on-the-Wolds. The estate was split up around 1400, one of the holders being the Constable family of Flamborough in 1441. Thereafter it passed through various families until the Sir William Strickland started buying land in the area in the late 1700s. His son Sir George Strickland married Mary, the daughter of Charles Constable of Wassand, and the estate descended in the Strickland-Constable family until it was broken up and sold in the 1920s.

The church at Reighton is dedicated to St. Peter. The style of its exterior is puzzling until one realises that the nave and tower were clad in sandstone blocks around 1900. The interior is more conventional has some surprising features. It consists of a 13th century chancel which was restored in the 1830s, a Norman chancel arch leading to a Norman nave, also restored on the south side in the 1830s, and three Norman arches separating the nave from the north aisle, a sandstone clad south porch and a two stage tower with a coped parapet and diagonal buttresses containing two bells, one of which bears the date 1012. A rare feature is the slanting apertures or squints in the wall between the chancel and the north aisle, designed either for confessional purposes or to enable lepers to attend mass. But the church’s pièce de résistance is its square font with columns at each angle and different carvings on each face, one pattern said to be found only in the Catacombs of Rome. It stands in the tower space where the floor is covered with cobble stones.

Owing to the proximity of the two villages, I have considered the Puckerings who lived in Reighton to be a branch of the Puckerings Flamborough, despite the flimsy documentary evidence. Between the 3rd and 8th generation many life events of this branch took place in Reighton, before they dispersed mainly to other parts of the East Riding, but also further afield, including Australia – as convicts…

Sources:
https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/ERY/Reighton
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reighton
Old English Translator: https://www.oldenglishtranslator.co.uk
https://opendomesday.org/place/TA1275/reighton
Victoria History of the County of York, East Riding, vol. 2, pp. 305-307
Bulmer’s History, Topography and Directory of East Yorkshire with Hull 1892, pp. 254-255: https://specialcollections.le.ac.uk/digital/collection/p16445coll4/id/324025
History and Topography of Yorkshire, vol. 2, York, Ainsty, East Riding, pp. 487-488: https://books.google.fr/books?redir_esc=y&id=unEKAQAAMAAJ
The Buildings of England, York and the East Riding, pp. 653-654: https://archive.org/details/yorkshireyorkeas0000pevs/page/653
Church of Saint Peter: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1296580?section=official-list-entry