Heritage Trail - Common by the Riverside


Two pictures taken from the same viewpoint at the bottom of Holgate Lane. As you walk down the riverside path from the graveyard behind the church, you can see the old field 'Common by the Riverside' to the left. It is now the heavily wooded slope running towards the weir. It appeared with the name 'Field 77' (use: grazing) on the 1850 Field Names map. The riverside area was more open and varied in its use at that time. The foundations of the Holgate wall can still be seen as a faint line of stones going from just in front of the trees across to the right of the modern photograph. Dam House as seen on the postcard was demolished many years ago. However, the remains of the basement structure can still be seen where the weir joins the riverbank. The site is just visible in the background of the photograph.

Field 77 appeared on the 1807 Tithe map as enclosed and owned by Samuel Taite (who built the Royal Hotel). It would be unsuitable as an arable field and not of great value. It was probably rough grazing. Did Taite donate the field to the parish after 1807 or did it retain the old name under its C19th owner? Beatrice Scott, in her history of Boston Spa, mentions only one field for the poor of Clifford, also small and marginal, situated towards the east end of Boston Spa.
*( Before Boston Spa was developed in the late C18th after the discovery of the Spa, the land belonged to the medieval and post-medieval Township, or civil parish, of Clifford.)**