Hackness Explained

Hackness is a village and civil parish in the district and county of North Yorkshire, England. It lies within the North York Moors National Park. The parish population rose from 125 in the 2001 UK census to 221 in the 2011 UK census.

Heritage

Hackness is mentioned as the site of a double monastery or nunnery by Bede, writing in the early 8th century. The present St Peter's Church is a Grade I listed building, parts of which date from the 11th century.

The church also possesses fragments of Hackness Cross dating from the late 8th or early 9th century. These preserve parts of a Latin prayer for Saint Æthelburh and an illegible inscription, apparently in the runic alphabet.^[1]

Hackness Hall and its landscape gardens were created in the 1790s. The house, a Grade I listed building, was commissioned by Sir Richard Van den Bempde-Johnstone, who had inherited the estate through his mother. A new entrance was added in 1810. Fire damage in 1910 was restored under the direction of Walter Brierley.^[2]

Governance

Hackness & Harwood Dale Group Parish Council covers a total of the six parishes: Broxa-cum-Troutsdale, Darncombe-cum-Langdale End, Hackness, Harwood Dale, Silpho and Suffield-cum-Everley.^[3] From 1974 to 2023 it was in Scarborough district.

Sports

There is a tennis club in the village with three grass courts and two hard courts, on the road to Lowdales and Highdales. The club was able to celebrate 90 years of tennis in Hackness in 2013.^[4]

Notable people

In birth order:

• Hilda of Whitby (c. 614–680), saint, died in Hackness.
• Begu (nun) (died 690), saint, lived in the Nunnery in Hackness.
• Lady Margaret Hoby (1571–1633) was lady of the manor, kept the earliest known female diary in English (1599–1605).^{[5] [6]}
• Sir Thomas Posthumous Hoby (1566–1640) was lord of the manor, as his wife's heir, and a possible inspiration for Shakespeare's Malvolio in Twelfth Night.^[7]
• Matthew Noble (1818–1876), sculptor, made the bust of William Smith (geologist), who was employed at Hackness Hall.^[8]
• Arthur Irvin (1848–1945), cricketer and clergyman

See also

• Listed buildings in Hackness

External links

• Hackness & Harwood Dale Group Parish Council website

Notes and References

1. Book: Blair, John . The Church in Anglo-Saxon Society . 2005 . Oxford University Press . 145–147 . 978-0-19-921117-3.
2. Web site: British Listed Buildings . Hackness Hall and Railings and Railings Attached to Terrace on Garden Front, Hackness . 3 September 2012.
3. Web site: Hackness & Harwood Dale Group Parish Council . 5 July 2008 . Hackness & Harwood Dale Group Parish Council . 22 January 2009 . https://web.archive.org/web/20090122054116/http://hacknessgroupparishcouncil.org.uk/index.htm . dead .
4. Web site: Lawn Tennis Association . Hackness Tennis Club . 3 September 2012 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20130928014822/http://www.lta.org.uk/Places-To-Play/Details/Overview/?p2p=1-14H-1270 . 28 September 2013 . dmy-all.
5. Margaret Hoby [née Dakins], 1571–1633. In: The Cambridge Guide to Women's Writing in English (1993). http://www.credoreference.com/entry/camgwwie/hoby_n%C3%A9e_dakins_margaret_1571_1633 Retrieved 3 September 2012.
6. Web site: 2023-08-06. 2017-08-22. Catherine. en. Meyrick. Early Modern Women. Margaret, Lady Hoby (1571-1633).
7. J. L. Simmons, "A Source for Shakespeare's Malvolio: The Elizabethan Controversy with the Puritans" in Huntington Library Quarterly, vol. 36 (May 1973), pp. 181–201
8. http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/gsl/pid/6797;jsessionid=30EB24591A75A7946FA2BE4EE6A435A2 Geological Society site