Dringhouses

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Dringhouses is a suburb, formerly a village, in York, England. It is situated close to the Knavesmire, an open area of land on which York Racecourse is situated. (York hosted Royal Ascot in 2005, during the refurbishment of the Berkshire Racecourse.)

The name derives from "Drengeshirses" (1109) and means "the houses of the drengs", a "dreng" being a man who held land by a particular kind of free tenure. This evidence indicates the villagers were the descendants of Halfdan - the Viking leader who had taken the area from the Saxons and had shared the land among his warriors in 876.

The free land of the Drengs became a Norman manor - ultimately owned by Archbishop Walter de Gray who granted it to his brother Robert in 1244.

There was a long dispute over the Wapentake of the Ainsty - which included Dringhouses - from the early Middle Ages. In 1276 the Courts of Edward I dealt with a claim by the York Corporation that:- "... the citizens of York hold the wapentake of Ainsty and the city of York of the King...". The claim was based on a Charter of the reign of King John and the case was lost on the grounds that the extent of the land was not specified and, more seriously, that the Charter contained erasures. For this the Mayor was held responsible and was imprisoned for a short time.

The claim was revived in 1448 and upheld. From that date until 1832 the people of the Ainsty and therefore Dringhouses were under the authority of York Corporation.

The first chapel was built in 1472 (according to Darrell Buttery - local historian) and replaced in 1725. It was on the site of the present Holiday Inn and was dedicated to St.Helen - hence the road opposite down the side of the Cross Keys pub and leading to the Dringhouses County Primary School and the bridge over the railway is called St.Helen's Road. The present church (dedicated to St.Edward the Confessor) was built alongside in 1849. The latter was designed by Vickers and Hugall of Pontefract and the spire was replaced with a fibreglass replica in the late 1960s due to problems with the original stone structure. The church contains some fine Mousie Thompson carvings.

The original school was founded in 1849 - adjacent to the church. In 1852 a new school was built and is now the local library. It then moved into the old school house on its present site next to the railway in 1904.

Other features: In St.Helen's Road the house next to the Cross Keys car park, with the carved wood verandah, was Club House for the 9 holes Golf Course on Knavesmire, which later moved, as the York Golf Club to Strensall, leaving their trophies to the Railway Golfers, who repaired first to Hob Moor and finally to Pike Hills, where a Lycett-Green Cup is still played for annually. The building was taken over by a race horse trainer and owner, given its proximity to the Kanvesmire. You can still see the rooves of the (now disused) stables from the pub car park.

The house next door with the wall of ivy was home in the 1960s, 70s and 80s to Harland Miller, acclaimed artist from the Jay Jopling and Sam Taylor Wood camp, and author of the best-selling rite-of-passage novel "Slow Down Arthur Stick to 30".

The present shops on Tadcaster Road were originally a row of cottages known as Meek's Buildings, nicknamed "Washing Tub Row" because those who lived there took in washing for the gentry.

Present status: Dringhouses village was incorporated into the City in 1937. The present Marriott Hotel (formerly the Chase Hotel) stands at the boundary of the village nearest to the City and was the terminus for the trams in their heyday. The electric trams replaced the horse bus in 1911.

The last Lord of the manor died on 13th January 1941. He was a Col. Wilkinson. The subsequent break-up of the estate meant that most of the land in the village was no longer owned by one family.

The village/suburb is presently the site of a National Trust office, in the former home of the Terry family, famed chocolate makers. (Terry's chocolate factory was closed in 2005 and its production has shifted to factories in Europe.[1])

In addition York College also has its campus at the former Tollcross at the southwestern edge of the village.