English version
POCKLINGTON HISTORY AND THE FRENCH CONNECTION
Pocklington is an ancient place where people have lived and worked beside the Pocklington Beck for some 10,000 years. Pocklington is fiercely proud of its Yorshire heritage, but it has a cosmopolitan culture that includes numerous connections with France and the Continent.
c 4,000 -10,000 BC – The earliest archaeological evidence is that Mesolithic man hunted in and around Pocklington in Mesolithic times.
c 6,000 BC – It is believed that an ancient trade route to the Continent passed through Pocklington before sea levels rose and turned England into an island circa 6,000 years ago
c 2,000 BC – The find of a flint sickle in Pocklington indicates that the local farmers were growing corn here 4,000 years ago. A hoard of Bronze Age axes are believed to be buried here by a local blacksmith around this time.
c 500 BC – Pocklington is covered with sites of Iron Age round houses and square barrows. During this period the area was occupied by the Parisi – a celtic tribe believed to have originated near the centre of Paris.
71 AD – The Romans invaded and built their first road through Pocklington. Two Romano-British villas have been identified in Pocklington and there are finds from all four centuries of Roman occupation, including Samian pottery from the Auvergn region.
627 AD – The Sotheby Cross in Pocklington churchyard commemorates the conversion of the area to Christianity by Paulinus. Around this time the Saxon village took the name Poclintun, thought to come from the community’s chief ,Pocel.
1066 – Pockligton was the centre of a wide administrative district, the Poclintun Hundred. The Saxon lord of the manor, Morcar, fought with King Henry to defeat the Vikings up the road at Fulford and Stamford Bridge. But When William of Normandy conquered England, Morcar led a rebellion against the Normans and was driven into exile.
1069 – King William took possession of the manor of Pocklington but his men destroyed the settlement and all the villages around in the “Harrying of the North. It was soon rebuilt and is listed in 1089 in the Domesday Book as one of only five towns in Yorkshire with a population of some 200 people.
1070- King William gave Pocklington to his brother-in-law Odo de Champagne, and for the next 200 years Pocklington was in possession of successive Counts of Aumale.
1236 – Occasionally the Counts of Aumale fell out of favour with the king and Pocklington was temporarily taken back by the crown. The manor of Pocklington was part of the dowry of Eleanor de Provence when she married Henry III in 1236. There are carvings of the royal couple in the church.
1320 – Pocklington became prosperous because of the wool trade, and Thomas de Berwick, who susidised the start of the rebuilding of pocklington church, made a fortune from exporting wool to the Continent. However, de Berwick lent vast sums to Edward III to finance his wars against France who never repaid him.
1460 – The family legend of the Pokelyngton family claims that the Pokelyngtons left Pocklington when thy fought for Margaret of Anjou, wife of Henry VI, in the Wars of the Roses and were given lands in Nottinghamshire as a reward.
1536 – The Percy family had been given the manor of Pocklington in the 14th century but lost it when Pocklington was at the centre of the Pilgrimage of Grace, a rebellion against Henry VIII and the dissolution of the monasteries.
1570 – The manor had been given to Thomas Bishop by Henry VIII. But he was a supporter of Mary Queen of Scots and when he was involved in the “Rising of the Northern Earls” against Elizabeth I she imprisoned him in the Tower of London and beheaded his son.
1628 – The Dolman family, who had founded Pocklington school in 1514, became the town’s wealthiest citizens and bought the manor from the bishops. But their fortune declined as they were fined for supporting the king in the Civil War.
1656 – Oliver Cromwell gave the town a market charter which can be seen in the
town council chamber but the market had been existed in Pocklington for a thousand years. The people of Pocklington were still fiercely Royalist and straightaway cut Cromwell’s picture from the charter.
1750 – The Dolmans were devout Catholics and were punished for their faith and became bankrupt. Some of the family emigrated to Belgium or France to escape persecution.
1750 – 1850 – With Pocklington’s gentry families having lost their fortune and influence, the town’s most important citizens became the tradesmen and businessmen. Several people left Pocklington to make their mark on the world, including :
William Wilberforce who went to school at Pocklington before heading the movement to abolish slavery.
William Ullathorne who was born in Pocklington and went on to lead the campaign to ban transporting convicts to Australia and to half public floggings. Ullathorne ‘s memoirs include him watching the Pocklington Militia drilling on West Green circa 1810 in readiness to repel invasion from Napoleon.
Joseph Terry who was born in Pocklington went on to establish the international art auction company with a saleroom opposite the Elysée Palace in Paris.
The Byass family were Pocklington ropemakers and a branch founded the Gonzales-Byass sherry company.
1941 – Pocklington airfield became operational and went on to fly over 2,000 missions against the Nazis. In 1944 The Free French –the 501 st Tank Regiment – arrived at Pocklington to prepare for the D-Day invasion.
1989 – Pocklington is twinned with Pays de Racan and becomes the focus for numerous cultural and sporting exchange visits.