Drax, West Riding

Description
Drax, a village, a township, and a parish in the W. R. Yorkshire. The township lies on the river Ouse, 5 miles N by E of Snaith. It has a station, with telegraph office, on the Hull and Barnsley railway, and a post and money order office under Selby. Acreage, 968; population, 382. The parish includes also the townships of Long Drax, Newland, and Camblesforth. Population, 1068. A priory of Black Canons was founded here in the time of Henry I. by William Paganel, and given at the dissolution to the Constables, but has disappeared. The lands around it were often inundated by the Ouse, and are still marshy, but good. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of York; gross value, £280 with residence. Patrons, the trustees of the late Lady Wheeler. The church, an ancient building in the Norman and Early English styles, is in fair condition, and there are Wesleyan and Primitive Methodist chapels. A free grammar school and an almshouse, founded and endowed in 1667 by Charles Reed, have an income of about £900.