Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, Cawood belonged to the Liberty of Cawood, Wistow and Otley. From 1974 to 2023 it was within the district of Selby. Since 1 April 2023 it has been administered by North Yorkshire Council. For elections to the UK Parliament the village is in the Selby constituency, created for the 2024 general election.
History
The place-name is of Old English origin, the University of Nottingham's Key to English Place-Names (KEPN) derives it from cāwudu, meaning 'jackdaw wood'.[2]
According to Edmunds' "History in Names of Places" (London, 1869), the first syllable, Ca-, means a hollow, also a field. Edmunds gives Cawood of Yorkshire as an example. The last syllable -wood, is self-evident. The name, therefore, is a place-name of Anglo-Saxon origin and was first used to describe one who lived in a wooded hollow or field.
In his King's England series, Arthur Mee refers to Cawood as "the Windsor of the North".[3] Cawood was formerly one of the chief places of residence of the Archbishop of York, who had here a magnificent Palace or Castle, in which several of the bishops died.[4] It was obtained for the see of York from King Athelstan, in the 10th century, by Archbishop Wulfstan. The village surrounded its walls. Alexander Nevil, the 45th Archbishop, is said to have bestowed great cost on this palace, and to have adorned it with several new towers. Henry Bowett, the 49th Archbishop, built the great hall; and his successor, Cardinal Kemp, erected the gatehouse, the ruins of which are all that remain of this once magnificent building.[5][6]
During the Civil War the castle changed hands. Royalists retook it before Lord Fairfax captured Cawood in the spring of 1644.[7]
In the 1800s Cawood was considered a market and parish-town, "in the wapentake of Barkston-Ash, liberties of St. Peter and Cawood, Wistow, and Otley; 5 miles from Selby, 7½ from Tadcaster, 10 from York, 12 from Pontefract, 186 from London."[4] Cawood being within the Liberty of Cawood, Wistow, and Otley made the village administratively independent from the surrounding West Riding of Yorkshire. In 1864 the Liberty was brought within the jurisdiction of the West Riding following the mechanism provided by the Liberties Act, ending separate quarter sessions.[8] Market was Wednesday, with fairs held on Old May day and on 23 September, and the principal inn was the Ferry House.[4]
The local church, a peculiar, was a vicarage, dedicated to All Saints, in the deanery of Ainsty (now New Ainsty). Some of the economic changes in the following decades were also due to increased transportation and agricultural mechanization. It remained part of the West Riding of Yorkshire until 1974.
Cawood is south of the point where the River Wharfe flows into the River Ouse which subsequently forms the northern border of the village. Cawood Bridge is the village’s only crossing of the Ouse and opened on 31 July 1872, replacing a long-standing ferry service.[9]Dick Turpin is said to have forded the river when he escaped to York, which lies about ten miles north.[citation needed] The River Ouse used to flood the village regularly in winter. Since the floods of January 1982, whose height is marked on the bridgekeeper's cottage, river defences have been raised so that the fields on the northern side (Kelfield Ings) and the former Ferry Boat Inn, also on the Kelfield side, are now the only areas that flood, even at times of exceptionally high waters, such as in November 2000.[10][11][12]
Governance
Cawood is a civil parish with a parish council.[13] The village is administered by North Yorkshire Council, which became the unitary authority for the area on 1April2023 when the former district councils, including Selby District, were abolished under The North Yorkshire (Structural Changes) Order 2022.[14][15] For local government elections Cawood lies in the Cawood & Escrick electoral division of North Yorkshire Council.[16][13]
For elections to the UK Parliament the parish is in the Selby constituency, first contested at the 2024 general election. From 2010 to 2024 it was in Selby and Ainsty.[17][18]
Historically, the parish belonged to the Liberty of Cawood, Wistow and Otley, a jurisdiction of the Archbishop of York with its own quarter sessions.[21]
Geography
Cawood is located about 1kilometre downstream from where the Ouse meets the River Wharfe. The village marks a historic river crossing point that is currently traversed by Cawood Bridge, a GradeII listed iron swing bridge that opened on 31July1872 on the B1222 route.[22][23]
The medieval Bishop Dyke, now a land drain, was originally a navigable canal linking Sherburn in Elmet to the River Ouse. Cawood had a staith that remained in use until the nineteenth century.[22]
The village is surrounded by washlands and low-lying farmland. North of the village, the Ings act as flood storage for the Ouse. During the November 2000 floods, the Environment Agency carried out emergency works at Cawood to prevent the river from breaching its banks. The local gauge station continues to track water levels, recording thresholds that, when crossed, have historically meant flooding for roads and properties nearby. [24][25]
Demographics
The civil parish had 1,429 residents at the 2001 census, 1,549 at the 2011 census and 1,655 at the 2021 census.[1] The built-up area of Cawood, which covers a smaller footprint than the civil parish, recorded 1,502 residents at the 2021 census.[26]
Economy and amenities
The Ferry Inn Pub
Cawood has a small range of local services and community facilities centred on land managed by the parish council, including the Castle Garth open space, the playing fields and the cemetery.[27][13] The playing fields host village football, cricket, bowls and tennis clubs and include a children’s play area and other amenities.[28][29]
The gatehouse of Cawood Castle is operated as holiday accommodation by the Landmark Trust, bringing visitors to the village.[30] The village has several public houses, including the Ferry Inn near Cawood Bridge, the Jolly Sailor on the Market Place and the Castle Inn on Wistowgate.[31][32][33]
Cawood Castle is at the centre of the village and was a residence of the Archbishops of York until the English Reformation. The remaining buildings comprise of: a three-storey stone gatehouse built for Archbishop Kemp in the mid 15th century and the adjoining two-storey banqueting hall. Both structures are Grade I listed.[6][34]
Following the English Civil War the palace was largely demolished, the remains together with the Castle Garth are designated as a scheduled monument.[5] The scheduled monument includes the palace gardens with five fishponds and a quarry pit, and retains well-preserved below-ground structures from the medieval complex.[5]
The gatehouse is owned by the Landmark Trust, which acquired it in 1985, restored the building and lets it as holiday accommodation.[35][36] The Trust has carried out repairs to the adjoining banqueting hall, it is kept secure and roofed but remains unused.[36]
The Castle Garth open space is owned by Cawood Parish Council and managed as public open land.[37] Within it, a rectangular inner enclosure of about 1.6 hectares, formerly moated on at least three sides, preserves the plan of an early garden that is probably seventeenth-century or earlier.[38]
Cawood Bridge
The B1222 crosses the River Ouse on the Cawood Bridge, a swing bridge made of wrought iron. It is listed at GradeII and opened on 31July1872.[23]
Plaques on the bridge record the opening on 31 July 1872 and name Robert Hodgson as engineer, with T. B. Nelson and John Butler as contractors.[39]
All Saints’ Church
Cawood's parish church is called All Saints’ Church. All Saints’ was first listed at Grade I on 17 November 1966. The south porch was rebuilt in 1935, and inside is a life-size demi-figure monument to Archbishop George Montaigne, who died in 1623.[40]
Kensbury or Keesbury moated site
A separate scheduled monument within the parish preserves the moated site known as Kensbury or Keesbury Hall, identified as the seat of the de Cawood family. The monument includes the moated island, an associated fishpond and fragments of medieval ridge-and-furrow.[41]
Transport
Cawood lies on the B1222, which crosses the River Ouse at Cawood Bridge.[23] Construction of the swing bridge to replace the ferry was authorised by a local Act in 1870, and the bridge opened on 31 July 1872.[42][23]
Arriva Yorkshire operates a regular bus service between Selby, the village and York via route42.[43]
When the Cawood, Wistow and Selby Light Railway first opened in 1898, Cawood served as its terminus. On 1January1930, passenger services were discontinued, however, a goods service persisted until 1960.[44][45] The Selby to Cawood branch hosted the North Eastern Railway’s pioneering petrol-electric “autocar” in the early 1900s, when one of the experimental units was transferred to work services on the line.[46][47]
Henry Monson (1793–1866), founding settler of Dunedin, New Zealand, and its first full-time gaoler.[64]
Claude Anson (1889–1969), Yorkshire cricketer, died in Cawood in 1969.[65]
Michael Lyons (1943–2019), sculptor, lived at Cawood in later life and died there, Vice-President of the Royal British Society of Sculptors, 1994 to 1997.[66][67][68][69]
↑ "York floods of November 2000 – account by Mark Fuller"(PDF). Environment Agency. 9 November 2020. Retrieved 7 November 2025. Environment Agency staff working at Cawood ... emergency sandbag wall at the edge of the Ings and major flooding was avoided.
↑ "Floods in Cawood". Cawood Heritage. Retrieved 7 November 2025. The highest recorded flood was in 2000 at 7.90 m. A flood bank now protects the village; washlands (Ings) take excess water.
↑ "Cawood Castle – Gatehouse Gazetteer". Gatehouse Gazetteer. Philip Davis. Retrieved 9 November 2025. Licence to crenellate granted 1 March 1272 (Calendar of Patent Rolls Henry III, vol. 6, p. 632)
1 2 "Cawood Castle – History album"(PDF). The Landmark Trust. Retrieved 9 November 2025. Archbishop Henry Bowet rebuilt the great hall; Archbishop Alexander Neville "bestowed much cost... building divers towers."
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