Holgate, a township in the West Riding, now forms part of the western portion of the extended city.

HOLGATE (or Holdgate) is a township in the parish of St. Mary, Bishophill Junior, York, Northern division of the Riding, but being in Ainsty wapentake is, for parliamentary purposes, included in North Riding, York union and county court district, a mile south-west from York, situated on the Wetherby, Boroughbridge and York roads and on a small rivulet, which is crossed by a stone bridge. The township has several good houses, among which is the one in which Lindley Murray died in 1826. The extensive nurseries of Messrs. James Backhouse & son are situated here. Francis Barlow esq. is lord of the manor. The land is held by a numerous body of small owners. The area is 299 acres; rateable value, £4,276; population in 1871, 296.

Austonley, in the township of Holme, is a township; it is governed by a Local Board of Health of 9 members. There is a township school at Austonley Hall. The Wesleyans and the United Methodist Free Church have chapels at Hinchliff Mill. Here are several woollen, scribbling and fulling mills. In this township is situated the Bilberry Reservoir, which caused great damage in 1852 by the sudden bursting of the embankment, formed across a deep glen a little below the junction of two ravines, thus inundating the Holmfirth valley below and destroying the lives of 81 persons, besides mills and dwelling-houses; the embankment was, in 1855, replaced by one more solid and substantial. S. W. Lane Fox esq. is lord of the manor. The principal landowners are the Messrs. Roberts and Barbers. A great part of the township is mountainous moorland. The chief crops are wheat and oats. The area is 1,313 acres; rateable value, £5,676; and the population (1871), 1,535.