Drax, North Yorkshire

Drax, North Yorkshire

Coordinates: 53°43′55″N 0°58′48″W / 53.732°N 0.980°W / 53.732; -0.980

Drax
Draxps.jpg
Drax Power Station
Drax is located in North Yorkshire
Drax

 Drax shown within North Yorkshire
Population 382 (Census 2001)[1]
OS grid reference SE667284
Parish Drax
District Selby
Shire county North Yorkshire
Region Yorkshire and the Humber
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 Selby
List of places: UK • England • Yorkshire

Drax is a village and civil parish in the Selby district of North Yorkshire, about 6 miles (10 km) south-east of Selby, best known today as the site of Drax power station.

Contents

History

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 Paganel founded a priory of Augustinian Canons at Drax. In 1868 it was reported that traces of the priory could still be found[2] but field work in the 1980s and 1990s has failed to find any physical remains of it.[3]

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.[4]

In 1667 Charles Read (1604–1669) founded Drax Grammar (now called The Read School) as a grammar school. Read was born at Darlton, Notts. and became a wealthy shipper in Kingston upon Hull. Two years later, Read's will endowed the school at Drax and founded further grammar schools at Tuxford in Notts. and Corby Glen in Lincolnshire.[5] The school at Drax is now called Read School[6] and is an independent boarding school.

Read also funded the building of six almshouses in Drax for elderly people, stipulating that they should be for three men and three women.[7]

Drax had two railway stations: both are now closed. Drax Hales was on the North Eastern Railway Selby to Goole Line: British Railways closed it in 1964. Drax Abbey was on the Hull and Barnsley Railway: the London and North Eastern Railway closed it in 1932. In 1974 British Rail reopened about 5 km of the H&BR from Gowdall Junction and a short length of the NER through Drax as a freight-only branch line to supply coal to Drax power station.

Drax today

The former Central Electricity Generating Board commissioned Drax power station in two phases in 1974 and 1986. It is the largest power station in the United Kingdom, producing around 8% of Britain's electricity, and is the second-largest coal-fired plant in Europe. It has a potential consumption of 36,000 tonnes of coal a day and produces 1.5 million tonnes of ash a year. It is both the United Kingdom's largest producer of carbon emissions, and one of the UK's most carbon dioxide-efficient power stations.

Drax has a Community Primary School. The village has a public house, the Huntsmans Arms. Drax had a village shop and sub-post office. The shop was closed and converted into a private home, then converted back into a village shop, and closed down again in January 2007.

References

External links

Media related to Drax, North Yorkshire at Wikimedia Commons


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