Barkston Ash

Barkston Ash
Main Street junction with the A192, Barkston Ash
Barkston Ash  Barkston Ash shown within North Yorkshire
Population	370 (2011)[1]
OS grid reference	SE491361
Civil parish	Barkston Ash
District	Selby
Shire county	North Yorkshire
Region	Yorkshire and the Humber
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	TADCASTER
Postcode district	LS24
Police	North Yorkshire
Fire	North Yorkshire
Ambulance	Yorkshire
EU Parliament	Yorkshire and the Humber
List of places UK England Yorkshire

Coordinates: 53°49′09″N 1°15′16″W / 53.819220°N 1.254460°W / 53.819220; -1.254460

Barkston Ash is a small village and civil parish close to Selby in North Yorkshire, England. Until recently it was officially called Barkston. A local legend has it that the ash tree which stands in the centre of the village and gives it its name also marks the exact centre of Yorkshire, and that anyone who spits at this tree will be struck by lightning a year and a day later. The Barkston Ash Folly, a rumbustious and disorganised team game played by the young men of the village with pigs' bladders and "lighteners" (wooden staves), commemorated a mythical figure known as Jack Foll whom this accident is said to have befallen; the last recorded Barkston Ash Folly was in 1753.

Church of the Holy Trinity, Barkston Ash

The Barkston Ash wapentake was named after the village. Barkston Ash was also the name of the local parliamentary constituency of Barkston Ash up until 1983, when its boundaries were redrawn to divide the area into Elmet and Selby. The Barkston Ash constituency was traditionally a safe Conservative seat, though both successive constituencies elected Labour MPs in 1997.

References

External links

• Media related to Barkston Ash at Wikimedia Commons
• The Ancient Parish of Sherburn in Elmet at GENUKI: Barkston Ash was in this parish