According to Edmunds' "History in Names of Places" (London, 1869), the first syllable, Ca-, means a hollow, also a field. Edmunds gives Cawood of Yorkshire as an example. The last syllable -wood, is self-evident. The name, therefore, is a place-name of Anglo-Saxon origin and was first used to describe one who lived in a wooded hollow or field.
In his King's England series, Arthur Mee refers to Cawood as "the Windsor of the North". Cawood was formerly one of the chief places of residence of the Archbishop of York, who had here a magnificent Palace or Castle, in which several of the bishops died. It was obtained for the see of York from King Athelstan, in the 10th century, by Archbishop Wulstan. The village surrounded its walls. Alexander Nevil, the 45th Archbishop, is said to have bestowed great cost on this palace, and to have adorned it with several new towers. Henry Bowett, the 49th Archbishop, built the great hall; and his successor, Cardinal Kempe, erected the gatehouse, the ruins of which are all that remain of this once magnificent building.[3]
In the 1800s Cawood was considered a market and parish-town, "in the wapentake of Barkston-Ash, liberties of St. Peter and Cawood, Wistow, and Otley; 5 miles from Selby, 7½ from Tadcaster, 10 from York, 12 from Pontefract, 186 from London."[3] Cawood being within the Liberty of Cawood, Wistow, and Otley made the village administratively independent from the surrounding West Riding of Yorkshire.
Market was held each Wednesday. Fairs were held on Old May day and 23 September. The principal inn was named the Ferry House. The local church, a peculiar, was a vicarage, dedicated to All Saints, in the deanery of Ainsty (now New Ainsty). Notice of the union of the Liberty of Cawood, Wistow, and Otley with the West Riding of Yorkshire was published in the London Gazette on 21 March 1864. Some of the economic changes in the following decades were also due to increased transportation and agricultural mechanization. It remained part of the West Riding of Yorkshire until 1974.
Cawood is south of the point where the River Wharfe flows into the River Ouse which subsequently forms the northern border of the village. Cawood Bridge is the only bridge from the village which spans the river. The bridge was opened in 1872: before then the only means of crossing was by use of a ferry. Dick Turpin is said to have forded the river when he escaped to York, which lies ten miles north of Cawood. The River Ouse used to flood the village regularly in winter. Since the floods of January 1982, whose height is marked on the bridgekeeper's cottage, river defences have been raised so that the fields on the northern side (Kelfield Ings) and the former Ferry Boat Inn, also on the Kelfield side, are now the only areas that flood, even at times of exceptionally high waters, such as in November 2000.
The Anchor, Thompson's Arms and Bay Horse public houses in Cawood have closed. The Jolly Sailor is on Market Place; the Ferry Inn is near Cawood Bridge, and the Castle Inn is on Wistowgate.[citation needed]
.svg)
