Bilsdale Kirkham, North Riding

Description
Bilsdale-Kirkham, a township and a parish in the N. R. Yorkshire, 12 miles from Helmsley station on the N.E.R. Post town, Ingleby Greenhow, Middlesborough; money order and telegraph office, Stokesley. The parish includes the hamlets of Chopgate, Crossett, and Urra, and the township of Midcable and the Constablewick of Raisdale. Acreage, 14,290; population, 596. Midcable is a wide tract of sparsely populated moorland, with no church or village, stretching little less than 13 miles between Helmsley and Bilsdale-Kirkham. The latter has a handsome rural church dedicated to St Hilda. The term Midcable is supposed to be derived from a former wayside (non-existent) chapel (media capella), belonging to and served by the monks of Rievaulx, near to Helmsley. The living of Bilsdale is a vicarage in the diocese of York; net value, £181 with residence, in the gift of the Earl of Faversham, who is lord of the manor and chief landowner. Ironstone and jet abound in the hills. There is a Wesleyan chapel.