Aldborough, West Riding

Description
Aldborough, a decayed ancient town, a township, and a parish in the W. R. Yorkshire. The town stands on the river Ure and on Watling Street, near the Boroughbridge and Pilmoor railway, 1 mile E by N of Boroughbridge, and it has a post office under York; money order office, Boroughbridge. It was the capital of the Brigantes, the Isurium of the Romans, and the Ealdburg of the Saxons. It became a borough in the time of Queen Mary, and sent two members to Parliament till disfranchised in 1832. It anciently covered about 60 acres, within defensive walls about 12 feet thick, but it is now a mere village, irregularly built. Some vestiges of the walls remain, and many Roman coins, urns, utensils, and other relics have been found. A Roman citadel is supposed to have stood in its centre; a Roman bridge crossed the Ure contiguous to it; and Roman works of art, including sculptures, wall-paintings, baths, and fine pavements, have left sufficient remains to show that it must have been a scene of luxury and power during a considerable period of the Roman occupation. Many of the relics have been preserved. The parish church, which adjoins the site of the supposed citadel, is an edifice of some antiquity, and was partly built with materials from the ancient town. It was restored in 1865. A statue of Mercury occurs in the outside of the vestry wall, and a gravestone, believed to be Saxon, is in the churchyard. Aldborough Hall is near the site of the east gate of the ancient town, and Aldborough Manor, the property of the Lawson family, who are lords of the manor and chief landowners, marks the site of the west gate. The township includes the village. The parish includes also the townships of Boroughbridge, Rocliffe, Minskip, Ellenthorpe, Higher and Lower Dunsforth, Branton Green, and part of the township of Humberton-with-Milby. Acreage, 2241; population of civil parish, 507; of ecclesiastical, 881. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Ripon; net value, £370. Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of York.