Eggborough


Eggborough is a village and civil parish of 750 homes, in the Selby district of North Yorkshire, England, close to the county borders with South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and the East Riding. The village is situated at the intersection of the A19 and the A645, approximately east of Pontefract and south-west of Selby. It is also located close to the M62. Primary age children attend Whitley and Eggborough Primary School which lies in Learning Lane on the other side of the M62.

History

Eggborough is mentioned in the Domesday Book and was formerly in the Wapentake of Osgoldcross. The name derives from Ecga's Burh; a fortification which belonged to a person named Ecga. It was historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire until 1974.
There is a pub in the village; the Horse and Jockey. There is also a sports and leisure complex based in the grounds of the nearby Eggborough Power Station. The sports and leisure complex offers a nine-hole golf course, two miniature football pitches, two full size football pitches, a bowling green, a children's play area, a miniature railway, a licensed bar, snooker, pool, a green room and a concert hall.
The Spar shop which is located next to the Horse and Jockey is run by Claire Smith. The centre of the village used to be the location of a Bowman's Flour Mill, but this ceased production in 2016.
Close to Eggborough is the site of French-owned Saint-Gobain Glass, Europe's leading producer of float glass. The plant, which opened in 1998, employs over 170 people and produces of flat glass per year.
The large village hall on Selby Road is well used by residents and it is a shared facility with the residents of Whitley Bridge who have no village hall of their own. Other activities take place at the Methodist Hall and the Westfield Centre. Although the village is situated within the boundaries of North Yorkshire, the postal address for Eggborough is "Eggborough, Near Goole, East Yorkshire". It has a DN postcode and the STD telephone code is 01977.
The village also has its own football team called , which is based at the Eggborough Sports and Leisure Complex. The Eggborough Eagles was founded in 2011 by Chairman James Lancaster, Secretary Michael Corr and Manager Michael Shaughnessy. They came 4th in their first ever season recognised in the .

Power stations

The village is the site of the coal-fired Eggborough Power Station, built in the 1960s and once owned by British Energy. Its 4 turbines could produce a total combined output of 1960 MWe. The power station was due to be closed in 2016, but won a reprieve as a back up generator of power until March 2017 and then again until March 2018, when it shut down for good. The current owners are applying for permission to convert the power station to a gas-fired power plant.
There was also a short lived biomass power station, ARBRE Power Station, built by the Kelda Group, owners of Yorkshire Water, which cost £30 million. The site was developed to burn willow wood grown by local farmers and turn it into gas, however, by August 2002 had gone into liquidation. The capacity of the station was rated at 8 MW per year. In 2015, DRENL gained approval to convert the old ARBRE site into an Energy from waste plant that would process of waste per year to generate 10 MW of electricity.

Transport

The A19 and the A645 intersect in the village with the A19 being on a north/south axis and having a junction on the M62 just south of the village. To the south of the village lies the Aire and Calder Navigation. Eggborough is served by railway station on the Pontefract line, but services are limited to just two trains a day to and only one through to.

Governance

An electoral ward in the same name exists. This ward stretches north to West Haddlesey with a total population of 3,763.
It has a parish council consisting of four members. Eggborough is represented on Selby District Council by husband and wife couple John and Mary McCartney who are Independents. John is also the North Yorkshire County Councillor for the ward which includes Eggborough.