Barmby on the Marsh: Where the great rivers come together

While few of the region’s villages stand at the foot of a dead end lanes, a number of those that do have access to navigable rivers. It’s thought Barmby on the Marsh, at the confluence of two of Yorkshire’s great rivers, the Derwent and the Ouse, was established by a Viking named Bjarni who may well have arrived by ship.

The Derwent and Ouse forms an upturned V-shape just to the west of the village, where the only functioning lock remaining on the navigable Derwent allows pleasure craft less than 18.3m long, 3.2m high and with a beam under 4.5m to explore upstream for 15 miles.

For the past half-century the lock with radial gates has formed part of a huge concrete flood relief barrage, preventing the Ouse’s tidal water from flowing up the Derwent, protecting supplies at Yorkshire Water’s Loftsome Bridge water treatment works two miles upstream.

Beside the barrage there’s Barmby on the Marsh Wetlands, a small wetland nature reserve which floods at high tide, leaving pools of standing water, recreating the habitat of the surrounding wetlands before 1975.

The three-hectare sanctuary is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, designated for its importance for wildfowl populations of ducks and geese and lowland waders such as lapwings and snipe as well as forming the southern tip of the Lower Derwent Valley National Nature Reserve.

Despite the protections, the reserve’s avian population has declined, due to the spread of willow drying out of large areas, leading to the Environment Agency working with Yorkshire Wildlife Trust to eradicate threats to the ecosystem such as giant hogweed.

Recent restoration works, which saw great water parsnips, tansy plants, water mints and plantain planted in expanded scrapes, have further improved the habitat for wetland species.

Weekends in particular see walkers and naturalists drawn to Barmby on the Marsh for its tranquil reserve and flat, riverside routes leading from the village.

With the 105m-high cooling towers of the country's largest renewable power station, Drax, being less than two miles to the south-west across the floodplain, they feature prominently on the horizon.

Aside from the industrial landmark and the village of Old Drax on the Ouse’s opposite bank, views from the western end of the High Street extend over a vast expanse of arable land. Alongside modern developments, there’s plenty of evidence of the village’s development during the 18th and early 19th centuries. Some of the best examples include the 1864 West End Farm and the 18th century South View, featuring English garden wall bond brickwork. While builders view the decorative pattern, which uses three courses of stretchers between each course of headers, using fewer bricks, as only suitable for modest structures, in Barmby on the Marsh it is used in a number of properties that have stood the test of time, including the 18th century Bankfield Farmhouse, off Stocks Lane and East End Farmhouse, off South Street.

Modern developments indicate it is a rapidly growing community. The first decades of this century saw its number of residents swell by more than 25 per cent to 433.

The village has a number of key non-residential properties. One of the most popular venues, on the High Street, is Lorenzo’s Italian restaurant. Formerly the King’s Head pub, the Campaign for Real Ale says Lorenzo’s is “well worth finding”, featuring a bar with a stone-flagged floor and reputation for its “quality food using locally sourced ingredients”.

Nearby, is the brick Garlthorpe Institute, which has been repurposed as a community venue from what was built as a National School, shortly before Victoria ascended to the throne.

The village also continues to benefit from a charity set up to administer a bequest of 60 acres of land and a house by 15th century Barmby on the Marsh resident Richard Garlthorpe.

Recent years have seen the Garlthorpe Charity consider grants for elderly, sick, disabled and poor residents and education.

In its most recent Oftsed inspection, the village school, now on the High Street, was found to be “at the heart of village life”. It stated: “Pupils are encouraged to be caring citizens, with pupils making and delivering chocolate parcels to elderly residents in the surrounding area at Christmas.”

A further school room also forms part of the village’s second Primitive Methodist Chapel, which was built in 1902 on High Street, with seating for 100. The chapel continues to host regular Sunday services and a number of groups for the village’s youngest and oldest residents. Another distinctive historic place of worship, set behind properties on South Street, the Church of St Helen, has an unusual Georgian hand-made red brick tower and a copper cupola that can be seen above rooftops. It boasts ancient yews beside trompe-l’oeil panelling at its northern entrance and graffiti dating to the 18th century at its south door.

Although records show a chapel at the site from the late 14th century, it was nearly a century later that Barmby on the Marsh residents petitioned Rome, successfully, for an expanded church and a resident clergyma n. The church has records of all its vicars from 1322 until 2007, when it was closed by the Diocese of York and later scheduled for demolition.

However, the Friends of Friendless Churches charity has since taken over the historic building’s management and carried out a major restoration programme.

Artefacts found inside the church include a grave digger’s kit from the 18th cent ury. Its large, airy vestry contains a medieval parish chest made from a huge hollowed out tree trunk.

The south-west of the graveyard has been linked with the site of one of two “hol y wells” in the village, which historian Thomas Allen described in 1831 as “extraordinary springs of sulphuric and chalybeate water”.