The first written reference to Leavening is in the Domesday Book of 1086 A.D., but we know it existed in Anglo-Saxon times, as it was they who gave it its name.  Man first came to this area after the last Ice Age, about 12,000 years ago.  Their numbers would not be very large and they would not make much impact on the landscapes as they were hunter-gatherers, so they would be semi-nomadic with no permanent settlements.  This began to change dramatically during the Late Neolithic Age/Early Bronze Age (2,500-2,000 B.C.) when they discovered how to grow crops and domesticate animals.  The Wolds would have been one of the first areas to be used, as the surrounding low lying land would have been heavily waterlogged and thickly wooded.  The only disadvantage on the high Wolds would have been a scarcity of running water.  So the ideal site for a settlement would have been the lower levels of the Wolds.  Leavening also has an obvious route up the Wolds via a natural shallow valley, which leads straight to the remarkable earthwork enclosure at Aldro, located on the summit of Leavening Brow.  The enclosure itself dates back to c.2,500 B.C. and although its purpose is unknown, it was obviously of extreme importance to the people who built it.

Church of the Venerable Bede (above)  © Stephen Hardcastle

The Romans arrived in the area in 71 A.D. when they moved their Legio IX Hispana from Lincoln to Malton, where they established a large fort.  The route they used was almost certainly along the western edge of the Wolds, passing Leavening by the Brow, on the line of the modern road.  After the Romans left in 410 A.D. the Angles moved in.  It was they who gave Leavening its name.  Ing means “people of” and Leaven would be the local leader’s name (now corrupted).  They divided this part of the country into administration areas called Wapentakes (Scandinavian for “taking of weapons”).  Leavening was in the Buckrose (Bukki’s Cross) Wapentake.

It is not known when the first corn mill was built in the village.  With a reliable source of water from Leavening Beck and a small valley which would make an ideal dam, it would be unusual if one had not been established from an early date.  The last mention of a miller (John Milbourn) in Leavening, is in 1921.  The wheel, which was overshot or pitch-back, was fed from a dam.  The Mill House still exists, but the dam is now dry and is incorporated in the gardens of the houses in York Road.  It is also recalled in the name Dam Lane, which leads to it.

The village school was originally situated at the crossroads.  It was mentioned, together with its teachers, by J R Mortimer, the East Riding archaeologist, who spent part of his childhood in Leavening (from 1836-43 in the house on the Brow) as a “thatched building”.  He was there to see half its roof torn away in the Great Gale of 1839, though it would be later replaced, thatch and all.  Bulmer’s 1892 directory describes it as “the National School erected in 1850 for 76 children”  (This was the Church of England’s school system).  The present school, recorded as the Public Elementary (Mixed) and established by the State, is listed as being erected in 1907; it was situated up the back lane and had room for 100 children, though the average attendance in 1909 would be 77.  The National School was left to its other use as a village institute and a chapel-of-ease to Acklam Church and this was made its main function when, on the 31st October 1965, it was re-dedicated by the Bishop of Selby, to the Venerable Bede.

The trade directories of the 19th century show Leavening at its most self-sufficient and complete.  Twenty years into Queen Victoria’s reign, it had just recorded its highest population figure of 448 in the 1851 census.  In that year, besides the twelve farmers, there were two butchers, two bricklayers, two boot and shoe makers, two grocers, three market gardeners; and three milliners and dressmakers.  The village could also support a blacksmith, a miller, a saddle and harness maker, a wheelwright and joiner, a basket and sieve maker, a tailor and also a surgeon (John Coates of Madeira cottage).

Up to comparatively recent times the population was virtually static, with most people spending their entire lives in one location.  Generations of the same families can be traced through the 18th and 19th centuries and even into the 20th century.  Mains electricity was installed in the early 1950s.  Water was supplied via a dam on Leavening Brow.  However, in the late 1970s this was considered subject to contamination, so a new supply of very hard water was brought from the Ness (near Hovingham) borehole in the early 1980s.

Taken from “Leavening through the Ages” by Don Howarth