BIRSTWITH, a township and a chapelry in Hampsthwaite parish, W. R. Yorkshire. The township lies on the river Nidd, and on the Nidd Valley railway, 3 miles WSW of Ripley. It includes the hamlets of Wreakes, Brigg, and Swarcliffe, and has a station on the railway, and a post office under Ripley. Acres, 1,670. Real property, £2,401. Pop., 655. Houses, 164.—The chapelry is not quite so extensive as the township; and was constituted in 1857. Pop., 640. Houses, 142. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Ripon. Value, £200. Patron, F. Greenwood, Esq. The church was built in 1857. There are two Methodist chapels.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))