Background

Brafferton & Helperby Parish Council was created on 1 April 2019 when the two parishes of Brafferton and Helperby were merged into one larger Brafferton & Helperby parish.  This came about as the result of a petition to merge the parishes supported by over 60% of parishioners from both parishes and presented to Hambleton District Council in March 2018.  Initially, from 1 April 2019 the new parish council was represented by Ward Councillors from Easingwold.  This situation continued until the Parish Council elections on 2 May 2019 when six councillors were elected and Brafferton & Helperby Parish Council came ‘fully’ into being.  It met for the first time on Wednesday 15 May 2019.

Council Meetings

Members of the public and press are invited to attend meetings of the Brafferton & Helperby Parish Council meetings.

Meetings are usually held in the Dr Waud Room in Helperby Village Hall at 7.30pm. You are cordially invited to come along and hear discussion of local topics.

An agenda for each meeting will be displayed on this website and on the council notice board on Main Street, Helperby.

Meeting Dates

The Council usually meets at 7.30pm on the third Wednesday of each month in the Waud Room in Helperby Village Hall, Main Street, Helperby, York, YO61 2NS

Monthly meeting dates in 2025/26 – each third Wednesday except those in June and December:

• 19 Feb, 19 Mar, 16 Apr, 21 May, 11 Jun, 16 Jul, 20 Aug, 17 Sep, 15 Oct, 19 Nov, 10 Dec, 21 Jan 26, 18 Feb 26, 18 Mar 26, 15 Apr 26 and 20 May 26.

The Council’s Lands & Maintenance committee generally meets quarterly on a first Wednesday of May and November

• 5 Nov 25 and 6 May 26.

Meet the councillors

Lych gate at St Peter’s Church, Brafferton

Declaration of Councillors’ Pecuniary Interests

Councillors are required by the Localism Act (2011) to adopt a Local Code of Member Conduct and to register any Disposable Pecuniary Interests which may influence their actions as a Parish Councillor.

This Register is held by the Monitoring Officer at North Yorkshire Council and details may be viewed here.

Council Documents

The Smaller Authorities Transparency Code (2015) requires local councils to display certain accounts information on the internet. This information, plus agendas, minutes, Standing Orders and Policies can be found via the pages and labelled links above.

A Little Early History of Brafferton and Helperby

Brafferton and Helperby is located in North Yorkshire some 15 miles northwest of York.  The first settlers were probably Roman (70A.D. – 400A.D.) as the Roman road from Malton to Aldborough passed through the area of the village to cross the River Swale here at a ford. This will have given rise to the derivation Brafferton, ‘Broad-ford-tun’, or a town at the broad ford. Fords were always good places for an entrepreneur to set up trade. The ‘ton’ in the name indicates the Saxon origin of the village, thus making it older than its sister village Helperby.

St Paulinus, a follower of St Augustine, after converting in 625 Edwin, the Saxon King of Northumbria to Christianity and before becoming the first Bishop of York, chose the River Swale at Brafferton as a place of baptism. At Christmas, in the year 626, ten thousand people entered the river to be baptised and it is recorded that no casualty resulted, even though the numbers were so great. In fact, those who entered having some ‘feebleness and infirmitie’ or deformity, returned from the river ‘whole and reformed’. Following the baptism, it is believed that Paulinus preached a sermon on St Augustine’s instructions from the highest point in the village, which became known as St Augustine’s Mount or Austin’s Hill, as it is now known. Others believe that he preached the sermon where the church was built overlooking the river. As Paulinus carried out similar baptisms at other places on the river – notably Catterick – the Swale became known as the ‘River Jordan of England’.

Helperby was a Danish settlement, probably in the period 875-950, by a Danish chief apart from the main Saxon village.  As the years have passed Helperby has grown and is now much larger than Brafferton.  There is a legend that the name Helperby comes from the River Swale providing St Paulinus with ‘help hard by’ or ‘Helper-by’ when he needed water for the baptisms.  It is, howeer, only a story.  The name is believed to originate from that of a Viking land-owner, Hjalpa, unusually a woman, as most place names were derived from males at that time.  The ‘-by’ ending is derived from the Scandinavian term for a farmstead or hamlet.

Both Brafferton and Helperby are mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086.  We read that’ … in the manor of Bradfortune, Gospatric had five carucates to the geld (i.e. to be taxed), land to two ploughs.  There is now a church and a priest there, with one plough; half a league long and half a league broad. … In the same Helpribi St Peter’s had and has 3 carucates of land to the geld.  There is land for one plough and a half. …

Clerk

Tony Whiting

2 Main Street
Helperby
York
YO61 2NS

Tel:01423 209045

Email: clerk@braffertonhelperby-pc.gov.uk