produced by
Nicholas Hawksmoor Originally, the area had been called
Hinderskelfe, and the manor lands of Hinderskelfe stretched between
Stamford Bridge, what is now Castle Howard and
Lastingham. Mentioned in the
Domesday Book of 1086, the area was home to a village and a church, both now lost, with Castle Howard being built on top of the village, and Henderskelfe/Hinderskelfe Castle. As the church had been destroyed, no clergy were assigned to the area, and it became known as an
extra-parochial area. The site of the rectory and the church now lie underneath the South Lake, and the garden respectively on the Castle Howard estate. In 1846, a private bill was passed in the
House of Commons and the
House of Lords, which effectively swapped the two parcels of land in Henderskelfe, with land in
Sheriff Hutton; the
Archbishop of York owned the parcel of land beneath the lake, and no longer needed it. The township of Henderskelfe remained in the ecclesiastical parish of Bulmer for marriages births and baptisms after it had been created as a civil parish.
Henderskelfe Castle was built during the reign of
Edward III to a quadrangular design, though it was listed as being in ruins by 1359.
Leland states in
Collectanea, that in 1070, a Scottish raiding party under
King Malcolm, "...came to a place called Hinderskelfe and slew some English nobility." At the time of the Domesday survey, the land belonged to Berengar of Tosny, who died without issue and so it passed to his sister, Adeliza, who married
Roger Bigod. Henderskelfe passed to the monarchy in 1306, when Bigod died, and all his honours were transferred to the crown. The manor was owned by the Greystoke family in the 16th and 17th centuries. Henderskelfe Castle and village were rebuilt in 1683, but destroyed by fire in 1693. The building of Castle Howard started , and some of the external walls by the gate were built from stone sourced from the ruined castle. Henderskelfe Castle and village were both located immediately west of Ray Wood, which still exists today. A map of 1694, drawn a year after fire destroyed the castle, shows the layout of the village and castle. The name of Henderskelfe has been suggested by Smith to be an
Old Norse combination of
Hildar and
skjálf; a female personal name and either
shelf or
seat. However, Morris suggests the name stems from
Hundred-Hill, as the site was the meeting place of the wapentakes of Ryedale and Bulmer. The remains of the village of Hinderskelfe/Henderskelfe were demolished when the current Castle Howard buildings were erected in 1699. A map of 1690 shows 24 houses present, though no document records what happened to the villagers. Beresford suggested that the villagers were given houses in either
Coneysthorpe or
Welburn. The area was classified as a township until 1866, when it was redesignated as a civil parish. The
Centenary Way long-distance footpath crosses the eastern side of the parish. == Governance ==