The entire parish of Yearsley is within the Howardian HillsArea of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It was, and remains, a predominantly agricultural village with significant forestry on the moors to the north of the village.
The name 'Yearsley' is recorded in the Domesday Book as 'Eureslage' and then, in the Pipe Rolls of 1176, as 'Euereslai'. The origins of the name, however, are probably Anglo-Saxon, from a word meaning Boars' Wood. Following the Norman invasion, the lands of Yearsley fell into the hands of a Norman knight, Roger de Mowbray, who, by 1160, passed the estates to another Norman nobleman, Thomas Colville (from Colleville-sur-Mer on the Normandy coast). The heirs of Thomas Colville (also all called Thomas) owned the lands of Yearsley until 1398 when the next heir, William Colville, took the step of calling himself by the name of his English, rather than erstwhile Norman lands, and became William Yearsley.[1][a] The manorial estates of Yearsley passed to Sir William Yearsley (who was Clerk of the Wardrobe to Henry VI) and, in 1482, to a third heir, Thomas Yearsley, who died without male heirs in 1497. Through marriage, the estates of Yearsley then passed (by Thomas Yearsley's daughter, Thomasin) to William Wildon of Fryton.[1]
Yearsley is the site of a number of barrows and other early earthworks.[2] Yearsley was also the site of the pottery of William Wedgewood, a relation of the famous Staffordshire Wedgwood family of potters. The village was part of the Newburgh Priory estate of the Wombwell family until 1944.
^The source book used; Yearsley - The Early Yearsley Part 1, should be considered a Fictional History of the Surname. There may be references in the book that suggest a link to Gloucestershire and other parts of England from Yorkshire but, this is only a supposition. No Genealogical proven links have been made,only suggested. No yDNA links have been made. Use this book with caution and for reading purposes only and not as a solid base for Research of the Yearsley Surname.
References
^ abYearsley: A Genealogical Story Part 1: The Early Years. ASIN1521282757.