The town of Selby seems to contain many large 18th & early 19th century houses, has anyone any ideas on which "industry" provided the money to build these houses?
There's no historical foundation to this so I'll probably get proven completely wrong but by putting 2 and 2 together it could be coal mining. There have been plenty of mines in the Selby area in the past. The only other thing that springs to mind is that I'm pretty sure Selby was a fair sized market town and it's on a major route out to east yorkshire, the humber and the north sea, so perhaps thats more on the right track. But they're the best offerings that this layman has to offer!
I have to put my hand up to a lack of knowledge on Selby. The coal mining seems quite likely and it would have been an inland port. I think some smal-time ship building once was present - other wise ????
