Appleton Roebuck is a township and straggling village in the ecclesiastical parish of Acaster Selby, 6 miles east from Tadcaster and 2 north-east from Bolton Percy railway station; Tadcaster union and county court district.  The parish church (All Saints) was erected in 1868 by subscription, at a cost of £2,000; it is a handsome stone building in the perpendicular style, has a chancel, nave and bell turret containing 2 bells; the interior is highly decorated; an organ was erected in the year 1876; the east window is the gift of Mr Richard Creyke in memory of his aunt.  The living is a vicarage, joined by an Order in Council in October 1875 to that of Acaster Selby, joint yearly value about £400, in the gift of the Archbishop of York and held by the Rev. James Roy B.A. of London University and T.A.K.C.L.  There is a parish and Infant school.  There is a Wesleyan chapel, built in 1818.  Nun Appleton, 2 miles south from Appleton Roebuck, near the river Wharfe, a noble ornamental brick mansion situated in an extensive and well wooded park, is the property of Sir William Mordaunt Milner, Bart. Chief landowner and lord of the manor; the mansion, which was enlarged in the year 1860, is now occupied by W Beckett Dennison, Esq. M.P.   The soil is strong loam; the subsoil clay and gravel.  The chief crops are wheat, barley, oats, beans, turnips and seeds.  The area is 2923 acres; rateable value £5,358; and the population in 1871 was 477.
POST OFFICE: John Foster, receiver.  Letters arrive from Tadcaster at 9am; despatched at 3.45pm week days only.  Tadcaster is the nearest money order office.     
National School: Thomas Dixon, master, Mrs Ann Smithers, infants’ mistress.

CARRIERS TO YORK: Joseph Mortimer, John Cooper & Joseph Popplewell Saturday

From this we see that Appleton Roebuck was a thriving community with a wide range of trades and craftsmen, as well as farmers; a typical Ainsty village.  Its population had risen rapidly– in 1801 it was 406 , increasing by 179 in the next 20 years and peaking in 1851 at 683.  This was due to the enclosure of the open fields at the beginning of the century along with rapidly improving farming methods which in turn supplied the demand for food from the rising population of the newly industrialised towns and cities.  The resulting agricultural boom brought many more men into the farms and villages to work the land.