West Butterwick

Click photo for old West Butterwick pics

Originally a township in Owston Ferry parish, West Butterwick lies four miles up the Trent and four and a half miles from. Epworth. The land was part of the Manor of Epworth and included the farms of Yousters and Newland. On the opposite side of the Trent stands East Butterwick and there was a ferry between the two. West Butterwick was also a stopping point on the Hull - Gainsborough ferry route and a stop over for the Humber Keels who traveled further down the Trent. Although there is little sign of it now, brick making was a major village industry, the bricks being taken away by river. The church of St. Mary was built in 1841, there were three chapels in operation in 1872, Wesleyan, Primitive Methodist and General Baptist. The Baptists had 19 acres of land, part of which income went to the support of poor Baptists. Both West Butterwick and the neighbouring hamlet of Kelfield belonged to the Sheffield family, who had a seat there and owned a great deal of land in the vicinity of the Trent bank.