A stunning 400-year-old map showing the Dringhouses and Knavesmire areas of York as they were in 1624 will go on display at a local library for a day next week.
The map was hand-drawn by Samuel Parsons exactly 400 years ago. And it is so detailed that it includes the individual strip fields that covered much of what is now Dringhouses – with the names of the farmers who held the land inked carefully into each.
There’s also a detailed drawing of ‘Ye Bishop’s House’ – what we now know as Bishopthorpe Palace – nestling against the banks of the River Ouse. And there’s a representation of the village of Middle Thorpe – with drawings of individual houses, each with their owner’s name.
The map is an early example of what are known as ‘manorial maps’.
And it is so accurate that it perfectly matched the Ordnance Survey map of 1852 produced more than 225 years later.
So detailed that it names the 130 farmers who worked the strips of common land in the parish, it acts as a kind of census of adult males in the Dringhouses parish area in early Stuart England, Explore York archivists say.
One Alderman Breary was clearly a particularly wealthy man - many fields, and quite a few houses, are recorded in his name.
Interestingly, the map is drawn ‘upside down’ to what we would expect today - with south at the top.
The Knavesmire is recorded on the map as 'Knares Myre Common'.
The hand-drawn and hand-coloured map – one of the oldest original maps kept in York and said to be of national significance – is usually kept in the archives strongroom at York Explore central library.
But for one day only next week – on Thursday May 23 – it will be on display at Dringhouses Library as part of Local History Month.
The Friends of Dringhouses Library will provide refreshments in the morning – and at 10.30am Dringhouses local historian Elizabeth Smith will give a talk about the map, including looking at features recorded on it that are still visible today.
A self-guided tour guide to modern Dringhouses, incorporating features of Parsons’ map into a short walking route, will be available to purchase on the day.
And there will also be a special Lego ‘Map Attack’ event beginning at 3.30pm aimed at local children aged 4-11 years.
Dr Julie-Ann Vickers, Explore York’s Head of Archives, said: “We are delighted to be taking the Samuel Parsons’ map for a trip outside the archive strongroom and back to Dringhouses!
“This is a rare opportunity for the local community to visit early seventeenth-century Dringhouses via the extraordinary detail captured in Parsons’ survey; then take a step outside the library to witness four hundred years of change in the blink of an eye.”
The event is free and unticketed. To find out more, email dringhouses@exploreyork.org.uk or call 01904 552674.
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