"Ellerker is a village and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is situated approximately 10 miles (16 km) west of Hull city centre and 13 miles (21 km) east of the market town of Howden. It lies 1 mile (1.6 km) south of the A63 road junction with the A1034 road.
According to the 2011 UK Census, Ellerker parish had a population of 307, a decrease on the 2001 UK Census figure of 320. Ellerker lies within the Parliamentary constituency of Haltemprice and Howden an area that mainly consists of middle class suburbs, towns and villages. The area is affluent and has one of the highest proportions of owner-occupiers in the country.
'Ellerker' means a "marsh where alder trees grow", from Old English alor or aler "alder" and Old Norse kjarr "marsh". The name was recorded as Alrecher in the 11th century and Alekirr in 1139. Same name as Orcher (Normandy, Aurichier 12th century).
In 1823 Ellerker was in the parish of Brantingham and the Wapentake of Howdenshire. Village population was 249, including eight farmers, a corn miller, a shopkeeper, a tailor, a shoemaker, and a carpenter. Also listed in directories were three yeomen and a curate of the village church. Once a week a carrier operated from the village to Hull and Wilton.
The village church is dedicated to St Anne and is designated as a Grade II listed building.
Sir Rafe Ellerker is cited in Part 1 of title 'The Last Years of a Frontier' - DLW Tough, concerning his survey of the Border Marches 1541."
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"The name probably means "Alder Marsh". The "ker" ending is related to "carr", meaning common marshland; and Alders are wet-Land trees. This interpretation certainly fits with the village's historic Location - at the very foot of the Wolds close to the edge of the Humber Estuary shoreline. Prior to the drainage of Wallingfen in the 18th Century and the reclamation of land that followed, the area of land between the village and the Humber was estuary floodland. The two lanes "Ings Lane" and "Sands Lane" are also pointers to the village's ancient geographical Location. * "Ings" = Floodland. Certainly, it is known that the shoreline of the Humber was much further north in Roman times - approximately half its present distance from the village. The remaining land would undoubtedty have been marshy Land flooded during periods of heavy rain and high tides.
The village's name also has affinities with similar names in Denmark and Sweden. This points to a possible origin during the Danish invasions and settlement. Its accessibility by boat would have made this easily possible. Certainly, the village appears to have been in existence in the late 11th Century, for a John Ellerker is recorded as having built a chapel in AD 1101.
The other geographical features that have been significant in the village's past are: the Beck, supplying running water; and the Limestone ridge just to the north of the village, supplying stone for buildings and roads, providing an elevated position in an open Landscape suitable for the Location of a windmill, and creating the small escarpement at Mill Hill which provided an ideal location for a water mill, Both the Wind and Water Mill were still in existence at the beginning of the 20th Century.
Thus, though hardly obvious, the village had several ingredients to enable Life to exist: fishing, farming, milling and quarrying.
It appears to have had a fairly stable population for many centuries: 40 families in 1743; 249 people in 1825; and 295 in 1971. From records, the village never appears to have been an estate village with a Squire-Landlord; and its random, well spaced and varied architectural character tends to confirm this, pointing rather to a history of slow growth by individuals within an agriculturally based community. (The population census of 1811 showed 40 families Living in Ellerker, of which 36 were in farming, with 4 as traders)."
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