KIPPAX, a parish in the lower division of the wapentake of SKYRACK, West riding cf the county of YORK, comprising the townships of Allerton-Bywater, Kippax, and Great and Little Preston, and containing 1765 inhabitants, of which number, 958 are in the township of Kippax, 6 miles (N. W. by N.) from Pontefract. The living is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry and diocese of York, rated in the king's books at £5. 7. 1., endowed with £200 private benefaction, and £200 royal bounty, and in the patronage of the Crown. The church is dedicated to St. Mary. There is a place of worship for Wesleyan Methodists. This place is said to have derived its name from a mount raised by the Saxons, called the Keep, whereon the village now stands, and from a remarkable ash which grew near it, hence Keep-Ash, since corrupted to Kippax. There are extensive coal mines in the parish, through which runs the river Air. George Goldsmith, in the 36th of Henry VIII., founded a free school here, and endowed it with cottages and land now producing £22 a year, for which eight children are instructed.