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The first reference to 'Dringhouses', the area of York in which St. Edward's is located, appeared in 1109 in connection with land owned by descendants of Halfdan, a Viking leader who distributed some of his conquests to his warriors.
As time passed, the land became a Norman manor which passed through several hands until in 1546 a Chantry Report noted the existence of the church of St. Helen in Dringhouses, being in the parish of Acomb and located where the library now stands. (Helen was a popular saint in Yorkshire as she was was the mother of Constantine the Great, who was proclaimed Roman Emperor in York.)
At this time Dringhouses was not in York, but formed one of the many little villages that surrounded the city, although it and the church were lucky to survive the Reformation. A Chantry was an institution set up to remember a prosperous and benevolent person who left money to build and maintain a public amenity or service, for example a bridge or school, and for a priest to pray for the soul of the founder. This was considered Papist by the Protestants who generally stole the endowments that paid for the priests. But Dringhouses survived and would have become a Protestant church.
Records specifically addressing the church or its surrounding area are sparse and much must be inferred from the history of York and all the surrounding area, although it is known that in 1507 one Richard Plompton left property to improve the income of the priest, amongst other things.
The church and surrounding village survived the Civil War of the 17th Century, although by 1704 there was an ale house at one end and a tavern at the other.
In 1725 a new church, also dedicated to St. Helen, was built by the Lord of the Manor, but the area of Dringhouses was split between 4 other parishes and within a few years there were complaints that there were hardly any services taking place in it. Little is known of this part of the church's history, although a record of 1828 suggests that it was a simple building and not particularly attractive. It was also recorded that no marriages or baptisms were taking place and there were only services on the first Sunday in the month.
In the early years of the 19th Century the population was growing and this may have been a spur to Mrs Frances Leigh to build a new church here in memory of her husband. The Reverend Edward Trafford Leigh had been the Lord of the Manor through his marriage to Frances, although at the time of his death he was Rector of Cheadle in Cheshire, whilst his wife was the great granddaughter of Francis Barlow, who built the second church.
The foundation stone was laid in November 1847 and the church was consecrated on 8th August 1849, Edward Leigh's birthday, having cost £500. To recall her husband's name, Frances Leigh had the church dedicated to St. Edward the Confessor, and it was only on the completion of the new church that the old one was demolished. Four years later, in 1853, St. Edward's became a parish in its own right.
The passage of the 19th Century saw the village formally retain its separate status from the growing City of York with the passing of the Parliamentary Act in 1832, when eligible inhabitants could vote in the West Riding, rather than York and the Muncipal Corporations Act of 1835 which defined the city boundary, leaving Dringhouses outside. However, the village was also growing, with a school, also provided by Mrs. Leigh in 1849, gas (1844) and piped water (1846).
From the middle of the 19th Century there was also a Methodist Chapel in the village of Dringhouses. A report from 1911 notes there were friendly relations between Church and Chapel, with the vicar sending flowers to the Methodist Harvest Festival and methodists attending services at the Parish Church. This was despite considerable ill-feeling elsewhere in the country over a recent Education Act. Around the same time it was not uncommon for summer services to be held outside the church on a nearby green, the harmonium and pews being carried from the church. However, not everything at that time went so smoothly. One evening a man was seen to be lying in the gutter. He was assumed to be drunk, but turned out to be the vicar, who had fallen off the pavement into the road in the dark, there being no street lamps.
Some 29 members of the village failed to return from the First World War, including a member of the church choir. Their names, along with those who died in the Second World War, are inscribed on the War Memorial located beside the church. The church hall was rebuilt in 1936 with dances being held there. The revellers shuttled between the hall and the Cross Keys pub across the road.
There was minimal work carried out on the church for much of the 20th Century, although in 1962 a new vicarage was built on the site of one that had been in existence since at least 1922. However, in 1970 it was noticed that the stone church spire was not as vertical as it should be. The Diocese Authorities were slow in agreeing to its removal, until it was observed that they would be liable for any injuries that resulted from its falling. It was then quickly removed and replaced with one made from fibre glass! More major work was carried out in 1995 -6 when a large extension was added to the church to provide a further 90 seats in the nave, as well as offices and meeting rooms, for both church and external use. (In comparison with the original cost of the church, this extension cost £383,500.)