Drax, North Yorkshire
| Drax | |
|---|---|
 Main Road, Drax, showing pub and church |
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 Drax
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| Drax shown within North Yorkshire | |
| Population | 488 (Census 2011) |
| OS grid reference | SE667284 |
| Civil parish |
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| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | SELBY |
| Postcode district | YO8 |
| Dialling code | 01757 |
| Police | North Yorkshire |
| Fire | North Yorkshire |
| Ambulance | Yorkshire |
| EU Parliament | Yorkshire and the Humber |
| UK Parliament | |
Drax is a village and civil parish in the Selby district of North Yorkshire, England, about 6 miles (10 km) south-east of Selby, best known today as the site of Drax power station. The village has a Community Primary School and a public house, the Huntsmans Arms. It formerly had another pub, The Star, two village shops, a butchers, petrol station and sub-post office. The butchers shop run by Howard Thomas was closed and converted into a private home, then converted back into a village shop, and closed down again in January 2007. The original post-office and village shop was opposite the parish church and closed in 1998. The Star closed in 1986 when the licensee took the licence of the newly built Sports and Social Club of the Power Station.
Drax has a Church of England parish church, dedicated to St Peter and St Paul. In the reign of King Henry I (1100–1135) William Paynel founded a priory of Augustinian Canons at Drax. In 1868 it was reported that traces of the priory could still be found but fieldwork in the 1980s and 1990s has failed to find any physical remains of it.
By the mid-thirteenth century, Drax was a borough of local significance. However, an inquisition held in 1405 stated that the local manor was of no value, as it had been flooded by the Ouse, and the borough was not even mentioned, leading George Sheeran to claim that flooding may have led to the abandonment of the town, or at least the end of its borough status.
However, the inquisition post mortem for Richard Lely of Drax, held in 1422, indicates that his part of the land was not completely worthless, although the mill was ruined. His son John inherited and the property then passed to John's daughter Joan, who had been born and baptised at Drax in 1424. She was married to John Babthorpe in 1441 when witnesses to her age gave depositions at York Castle, and she recovered her property out of wardship. It may be that those who held the land while she was a minor neglected it, so that there was little for her husband to pass on to their heirs. The survival of the priory until the Reformation might suggest that the area continued to be farmed.
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Wikipedia