Dunkeswick

Dunkeswick is a hamlet in the civil parish of Kirkby Overblow, in North Yorkshire, England, just north of the River Wharfe, off the A61, around a kilometre north of Harewood and two kilometres south of Kirkby Overblow.

Dunkeswick
Dunkeswick Location within North Yorkshire
OS grid reference	SE3046
Civil parish	Kirkby Overblow
Unitary authority	North Yorkshire
Ceremonial county	North Yorkshire
Region	Yorkshire and the Humber
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
List of places UK England Yorkshire 53°55′03″N 1°31′54″W / 53.9174°N 1.5316°W / 53.9174; -1.5316

Etymology

The name of Dunkeswick comes from the Old English words cēse ('cheese') and wīc ('dwelling, specialised farm'), and thus once meant 'farm specialising in cheese production'. The fact that keswick begins with [k-] rather than the [tʃ] sound of cheese, however, reflects the influence of Old Norse pronunciation on the local language. The additional element Dun seems to have been added to distinguish the settlement from other places called Keswick, such as the nearby East Keswick.^[1]: 42

History

The war memorial from Dunkeswick Methodist Chapel was housed in Harewood Methodist Chapel after the closure of Dunkeswick chapel.^[2][3] Harewood Methodist Chapel has since closed.

Dunkewsick Moor is noted as the site of the Knight Air Flight 816 crash in 1995. On 24 May 1995, this scheduled flight from Leeds Bradford Airport to Aberdeen crashed shortly after takeoff, with the loss of all 12 passengers and crew on board.^[4]

Dunkeswick was formerly a township in the parish of Harewood,^[5] in 1866 Dunkeswick became a separate civil parish, on 1 April 1937 the parish was abolished and merged with Harewood.^[6] In 1931 the parish had a population of 136.^[7] From 1974 to 2023 it was in Harrogate district.

References

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dunkeswick.

1. Harry Parkin, Your City's Place-Names: Leeds, English Place-Name Society City-Names Series, 3 (Nottingham: English Place-Name Society, 2017).
2. Wharfedale Family History Group, Dunkeswick Methodist Chapel 11 April 2020 at the Wayback Machine, accessed 11 April 2020
3. Airedale and Wharfedale Family History Society, Dunkeswick Methodist Chapel, accessed 10 March 2022
4. "The tragic air disaster which shook a rural Yorkshire community". Yorkshire Live. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
5. "History of Dunkeswick, in Harrogate and West Riding". A Vision of Britain through Time. Retrieved 29 November 2023.
6. "Relationships and changes Dunkeswick CP/Tn through time". A Vision of Britain through Time. Retrieved 29 November 2023.
7. "Population statistics Dunkeswick CP/Tn through time". A Vision of Britain through Time. Retrieved 29 November 2023.