Boroughbridge

Coordinates: 54°05′42″N 1°23′53″W / 54.095°N 1.398°W / 54.095; -1.398

Boroughbridge (/ˈbʌrəbrɪdʒ/) is a small town and civil parish in the Harrogate district of North Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is situated approximately 16 miles (26 km) north-west from the county town of York. Until its road bypass was built, the town lay on the main A1 road from London to Edinburgh. The A1 crosses the River Ure here.

The civil parish includes the villages of Aldborough and Minskip.

History

Toponymy

The origin of the name "Boroughbridge" lies in its location relative to Aldborough, the principal settlement during the Roman period and known as Isurium Brigantum. Dere Street, the Roman road heading north from York, originally crossed the River Ure just north of Aldborough, but at an unknown date the road was diverted to cross the river at Boroughbridge. The place was first mentioned in 1155 in the Latin form pontem de Burgo, and by 1298 in the English form Burghbrig ("the bridge near Burgh or Aldborough"). A new town grew up at the bridge and the Old Town became known as the "Ald-Borough".

Boroughbridge (UK Parliament constituency)

Boroughbridge was a parliamentary borough in Yorkshire from 1553 until 1832, when it was abolished under the Great Reform Act. Throughout its existence it was represented by two Members of Parliament in the House of Commons.

The constituency consisted of the market town of Boroughbridge in the parish of Aldborough (which was also a borough with two MPs of its own). By 1831 it contained only 154 houses, and had a population of 947.

Boroughbridge was a burgage borough, meaning that the right to vote was vested in the tenants of certain specified properties, of which there seem to have been about 65 by the time the borough was abolished. Since these properties could be freely bought and sold, the effective power of election rested with whoever owned the majority of the burgages (who, if necessary, could simply assign the tenancies to reliable placemen shortly before an election). For more than a century before the Reform Act, Boroughbridge was owned by the Dukes of Newcastle, who controlled around fifteen seats across the country; however, in the 1790s, they sold one of the seats for £4,000 to the banker Thomas Coutts, who used it to put his son-in-law, Francis Burdett, into Parliament.