Vale of Mowbray

The Yorkshire towns of Northallerton and Thirsk are situated within the broad, beautiful Vale of Mowbray. To the west, this vale is bordered by the Yorkshire Dales of the Pennines, forming Swaledale and Wensleydale, while to the east are the North York Moors on the edge of which we find Osmotherley, Mount Grace Priory, Sutton Bank and Kilburn.

The North York Moors form the Cleveland Hills on the edge of the vale to the north. Further south, the moorland edge is formed by the Hambleton Hills that flank much of the vale, playing host to Roulston Scar, Sutton Bank and the Kilburn white horse. Further south, the Hambletons meet with the Howardian Hills east of Easingwold, near the southern edges of the vale.

As for the Vale of Mowbray itself, to the north it blends with the Tees lowlands at Sockburn and Darlington and to the south it merges with the Vale of York beyond Thirsk, as we head towards the little town of Easingwold that is also featured on this page.

Along with the other neighbouring lowlands, the Vale of Mowbray forms rich agricultural land with many farms and villages and a legion of historic churches. It shows this was a well-populated farming region back in medieval times. Place-names show the vale was extensively settled by Anglo-Saxons and later Vikings who owned and farmed much of the land before the Norman barons and bishops took control.

In fact the Vale of Mowbray is named from the de Mowbrays, a family who were Lords of Thirsk in Norman times granted lands here in the vale by William the Conqueror. The de Mowbrays held the castles at Thirsk and at Kirkby Malzeard near Ripon.

Views of the distant hills of the Pennines and North York Moors, both distinct in their own ways are a feature of the vale. Between the two uplands, the numerous pretty villages of the vale are characterised by charming cottages built with locally made bricks protected from the elements by pantile roofs.

To the east as we reach the edge of the vale and climb into the North York Moors, the farms and villages here are mostly built from the distinct yellowy-brown Jurassic sandstone of the district. It is quite different from the grey stone houses of the Pennine hills of the Dales to the west. On this page we feature places on the edge of the North York Moors that overlook the vale, such as Osmotherley and Sutton-under-Whitestonecliffe.

The two main rivers of the Vale of Mowbray are the River Swale and River Wiske. In truth, the Wiske is never anything more than a beck but along its course it links many places in the northern part of the vale together. Starting its journey north east of Northallerton, it takes a course northward then west before bending south to pass the western edge of Northallerton. It then continues its journey south before eventually joining the Swale.

Another river to note is of course the River Ure, which lies along the south western fringe of the vale as it flows south towards Ripon. There is one other notable river of sorts in this vale and it is called the Cod Beck. Although it is not a river in name it is in some ways a more significant feature than the Wiske. The Cod Beck flows through the centre of Thirsk and like the Wiske is ultimately destined for the Swale.

Both the Wiske and Cod Beck begin their separate journeys near Osmotherley and Mount Grace Priory near the edge of the North York Moors. The Wiske begins on the western side of the A19 where is fed by a stream called Carr Beck from the east side of the road near the Cleveland Tontine.

Cod Beck also starts its journey east of the A19; its course beginning at Cod Beck Reservoir in the North York Moors north east of Osmotherley. Unlike the Wiske which initially flows north, the Cod Beck flows south, passing beneath the A19 as it heads for Thirsk. It eventually joins the Swale at Topcliffe.

Northallerton

The market town of Northallerton is the administrative headquarters for North Yorkshire, England’s largest county and was historically the capital of the North Riding. The town can trace its origins back to Anglo-Saxon times.

Northallerton was originally called Alverton or Aelfereton, an Anglo-Saxon name meaning ‘the farm belonging to Aelfere’, which was a relatively common Anglo-Saxon personal name.

By the fourteenth century the place was called Northallerton to distinguish it from other places in Yorkshire called Allerton. Anglo-Saxon sculpture has been found in the church of All Saints at Northallerton, suggesting that this has long been a place of importance.

The settlement of the Anglo-Saxons here was later followed by the Vikings. A Viking ‘hogback’ sculptured stone can be seen at the church. Northallerton became the centre of a ‘wapentake’, a Viking term for an administrative district where the local Danish and Norse settlers would assemble to discuss local affairs.

Allerton Wapentake shared its boundaries with the neighbouring wapentakes of Sadberge to the north of the Tees; Gilling in Swaledale; Langbaurgh in Cleveland and Birdforth, a place to the south-east along the present A19, with which Allerton was closely connected.

Allerton’s Viking wapentake became Allertonshire in later medieval times and held the special status of a ‘Liberty’, similar to that of Richmondshire. The Allertonshire Liberty belonged to the Bishops of Durham from the reign of William Rufus who granted them the land. The bishops held special rights here, though not to the extent of their ‘Prince Bishop‘ status within the County Palatine of Durham (County Durham).

Allertonshire included the parishes of Northallerton, Osmotherley, Leake, North Otterington, Kirby Sigston, Thornton-le-Street and Birkby. Nearby, West Rounton and Sessay also formed outlying parts (exclaves) of Allertonshire. Norton Conyers, Hutton Conyers and that part of Sockburn in Yorkshire south of the River Tees were lands connected to Allertonshire that were entrusted to the Conyers family by the Bishop of Durham in return for feudal service.

The hilltop village of Crayke (see further below) forming Craykeshire directly formed part of the county and County Palatine of Durham and was not part of Allertonshire. It was one of four Durham exclaves that also included Norhamshire, Islandshire and Bedlingtonshire. In 1844 these shires became part of Northumberland but Crayke, of course, became part of Yorkshire.

Another Yorkshire ‘liberty’ connected to the Bishops of Durham was Howdenshire in the East Riding. Howdenshire, centred on the minster town of Howden to the south east of Selby, had a similar status to Allertonshire and belonged to the Bishops of Durham. Like Allertonshire, Howdenshire was part of Yorkshire and the Diocese of York and did not form part of the County Palatine of Durham.

Northallerton was once the site of a motte and bailey castle dating from the twelfth century, but this fell into ruins and now only traces can be seen in the cemetery of the church. Like Durham Castle and Auckland Castle this was a palace of the Bishops of Durham. Interestingly, the street of Allergate in Durham City (one of the old medieval streets of Durham) was originally called Alvertongate (meaning ‘Allerton Street’) and may have some connection to Allertonshire.

The bishop’s palace at Northallerton formed the capital or administrative centre for Allertonshire. The cemetery was created in 1856 partly for Church of England burials in its southern half and partly for dissenters (non Church of England) in the northern half, with two associated chapels of rest.

Northallerton’s church, towards the north end of the High Street is dedicated to All Saints and has parts dating back before 1150. It features the arms of Bishop Neville of Durham (1437-1457) in a window of the south transept. During the Civil War, King Charles I was imprisoned for a short time in a house opposite this church.

The main feature of Northallerton today is its broad main street of Georgian houses, similar to those at Yarm and Bedale. This curving High Street is nearly half a mile long. The town was historically known as a coaching stop and it has some notable pubs and inns. One of the oldest is The Fleece, where Charles Dickens stayed while writing and researching Nicholas Nickleby.

The old town hall in Northallerton’s main street dates from 1873 and was designed by John Ross of Darlington. Nikolaus Pevsner’s architectural guide didn’t like this building at all, describing it quite ungenerously as “Really irredeemable: joyless, utterly ignorant and not inventive either”.

Brompton in Allertonshire

Brompton is a substantial village situated near the north-eastern fringe of Northallerton just off the A684 road that heads east towards Osmotherley and the A19. The village is sometimes called Brompton-in-Allertonshire to distinguish it from Brompton-on-Swale near Catterick to the west. There are other places called Brompton in North Yorkshire namely Brompton-by-Sawdon near Scarborough and Patrick Brompton near Bedale to the west. Brompton means ‘settlement where broom grows’, broom being more familiarly known as gorse.

Brompton has a pleasant village green and a medieval church dedicated to St Thomas. This church is home to a collection of fascinating Viking sculptures called ‘hogbacks’ that were discovered here in 1867 during the restoration of the church. Some of these remain in the church while others are on display at Durham Cathedral.

The sculptures are tomb-sized and were possibly grave covers, perhaps built to resemble the shape of a Viking long-house, although in shape they actually resemble the sharp-spined back of a large pig (a hog). Some of the Brompton examples are decorated at either end by the carved heads of muzzled bears tightly gripping the ends of the hogbacks like a captured prey.

Hogbacks are a relatively rare phenomenon even within Viking settled Yorkshire but the highest geographical density of their occurrences in Britain is in an area stretching roughly from the Northallerton area to the Tees valley around Sockburn. Nearby places where they have been found include Crathorne, Gainford, Wycliffe, Dinsdale, Gilling West, Bedale, Pickhill, Kirby Wiske and Ingleby Arncliffe.

Hogbacks have been found, perhaps not surprisingly, in the Viking city of York and along the Cleveland coast of Yorkshire, most notably at Lythe and there are several individual occurrences of hogbacks at village churches in the Ryedale area. Other examples have been found at Burnsall in Wharfedale and across the Pennines at Penrith and nearby Lowther as well as at Kirkby Stephen and Appleby, in Westmorland and areas along the Cumberland coast. In the Scottish Borders they have been found in areas around the Teviot valley and in Berwickshire. Curiously, other than the Tees Valley they are virtually absent from Northumberland and Durham.

The name of Romanby, which adjoins the south-western end of Northallerton is another indication of Viking settlement in the Northallerton area, taking its name from a Viking called Hromund. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the Romans. The ‘by’ of the village name of course indicates the site of a Viking farm or village.

Battle of the Standard

Two miles north of Northallerton, in a little lay-by on the east side of the Darlington road (the A167) is a stone obelisk marking the site of the Battle of the Standard.

The heart of this battle site is on Standard Hill between the A167 and a minor road heading south east to Brompton. On old maps, a hedgerow in a neighbouring farmer’s field (private land) between the two roads is marked as ‘Scotpit Lane’ with the land on the north side of this hedgerow called ‘The Scot Pits’.

Here, on the 22nd August, 1138, across this site that forms part of Cowton Moor, the Scots under King David, were heavily defeated by the barons of the North of England.

King David was supporting the interests of Matilda, daughter of Henry I, against the claims of King Stephen and had penetrated into the north of England with his army. In fact David seems to have had territorial ambitions in northern England, particularly as Cumberland at that time formed part of his kingdom.

Before the battle Thurstan, the Archbishop of York, set up a ship’s mast attached to a four-wheeled carriage to which was attached church banners or ‘standards’ associated with various northern saints.

Thurstan and the barons were so determined to drive the Scots out of England that they left their horses behind to make retreat impossible. Around 12,000 Scots were killed in the battle, mainly under the heavy onslaught of the English archers.

River Wiske : Harlsey to Kirby Wiske

The River Wiske, which is always a tiny river compared to the Swale, begins as nothing more than a little ditch or ‘stell’ near Mount Grace Priory and the Cleveland Tontine where it flows north towards the village of East Harlsey.

The Wiske’s course begins here to the north east of Northallerton but after heading north then west towards Appleton Wiske, it turns back south to run along the western side of Northallerton.

Harlsey means ‘island water meadow’ (an ‘ey’ is an island) belonging to someone with a name that was something like ‘Herel’. East Harlsey village church is dedicated to St Oswald and is mostly of the eighteenth and nineteenth century on the site of an earlier church. The local pub is called the Cat and Bagpipes. Across the A19 to the north east of East Harlsey, on the edge of the moors is Ingleby Arncliffe.

There is no settlement of significance at West Harlsey but the remains of Harlsey Castle and its moat can be seen about a mile to the south east of East Harlsey. The castle was built by Sir James Strangeways around 1423. His son, also called James, was the High Sheriff of Yorkshire.

North of East Harlsey are the villages of East Rounton and West Rounton, both on the north side of the Wiske. East Rounton is home to the church of St Lawrence, built by R.J. Johnson in 1884 and an impressive village hall of 1906 that is thought to be the work of an architect called George Jack.

George Jack was a British American-born architect who was mentored by the ‘Arts and Crafts’ architect Philip Webb (1831-1915). It was Webb who built the grand showpiece house called Rounton Grange south east of East Rounton village in the 1870s for the Teesside and Washington industrialist, Isaac Lowthian Bell. Sadly, this house was demolished in 1954. R.J. Johnson (Robert James Johnson 1832-1892) who built East Rounton church was a Stokesley-born architect renowned for his work in the North East and particularly Newcastle upon Tyne.

West Rounton is the larger of the two Rountons. Its Norman church, like that at East Harlsey, is dedicated to St Oswald. As we have noted, West Rounton historically formed an exclave of Allertonshire, that belonged to the Bishops of Durham.

Early forms of the name Rounton (both East and West) show that it was ‘Rungtun’ from the Old English word ‘hrung’ meaning ‘pole’, signifying a farm enclosed by poles. To the south of West Rounton across the Wiske is a farm called Irby Manor that means ‘farm of the Irishmen’, likely named from Norse-Gaels who arrived during the Norse colonisation of North Yorkshire.

It is at the Rountons that the little River Wiske begins to change direction, turning west at East Rounton towards West Rounton and continuing to flow west towards Appleton Wiske, a village on the river’s north bank.

In Norman times Appleton Wiske belonged to the De Brus family of Cleveland who gave it to St Mary’s Abbey in York. It belonged to the abbey up until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the sixteenth century. Later owners of Appleton Wiske were the Dukes of Suffolk and the Allan family.

Appleton Wiske lies almost within the Vale of the Tees, with Yarm to its north east and the Sockburn peninsula formed by the Tees to its north west. South of Appleton Wiske but a mile or so from the Wiske are the neighbouring villages of Deighton and Welbury.

Deighton, to the west of Welbury, was originally called ‘Dictune’ and means ‘place surrounded by a ditch’. Interestingly the square outline of a former moat can be seen on the west side of this village and was part of a fortified manor house.

Deighton’s name is possibly connected with Over Dinsdale on the Yorkshire side of the Tees, which is just to the north, beyond Great Smeaton. Based on early spellings of the place-name Dinsdale, the suggestion is that the name of Dinsdale means the ‘halh’ or nook belonging to Deighton.

Welbury, originally called ‘Welberga’ meaning ‘Spring Hill’ has a church dedicated to St John dating from the 1860s but incorporates medieval masonry from an earlier church. A little north east of Appleton Wiske is the village of Hornby, situated in land between the little River Wiske and the southern tip of the Sockburn Peninsula formed by the River Tees.

Hornby is typical of many Viking Danish place-names found in the Northallerton area with others including Kirby Sigston, Romanby, Warlaby, Crosby, Newby Wiske and Kirkby Fleetham. These Danish type ‘by’ place-names disappear quite rapidly as we cross the River Tees into County Durham, although Sockburn and Sadberge to the north were important focal points of Viking influence.

Great Smeaton, situated on the A167 Northallerton to Darlington road (the old Great North Road) to the west of Appleton Wiske and Hornby is slightly nearer to the River Wiske than the River Tees. Smeaton means ‘the blacksmith’s farm’. Its church of St Eloy is the only ancient church dedicated to this saint, who is the patron saint of blacksmiths.

Features in the village, which are illustrated on a helpful information board, include the Black Bull Inn which developed as a staging house on the Great North Road in 1739; an old school house of 1874; Smeaton Manor, built by the ‘Arts and Crafts’ architect, Philip Webb in 1877 and the eighteenth century East House.

The bridge across the Wiske at Great Smeaton dates back to medieval times and was funded by a turnpike toll from 1745. There are scant traces of ancient earthworks at Little Smeaton, a hamlet to the south.

At Great Smeaton the River Wiske makes a turn so that it now flows from north to south. To its west, beyond the East Coast Main Line, (the London to Edinburgh railway) are the Cowtons, namely West Cowton, East Cowton and South Cowton along with Moulton, Uckerby, Middleton Tyas and Scotch Corner further to their west.

West Cowton and East Cowton are villages but South Cowton is a deserted medieval village of which there is little trace. East Cowton’s village inn is called the Beeswing Inn and is named from a famous nineteenth century racehorse that was bred at Nunnykirk in Northumberland. There is even a Dumfriesshire village named after this horse. The nearby church dedicated to All Saints dates from 1910 and was built by Woolfall and Eccles of Liverpool.

However, the main historic features of interest for the Cowtons are at South Cowton, one of which is the attractive but isolated fifteenth century church of St Mary and the other being Cowton Castle, a private residence. The castle was built by Sir Roger Conyers in 1470 and the church contains an alabaster figure of a knight, who is likely a Conyers family member.

Nearby to the south is Pepper Arden Hall (now a wedding venue) built by Prescott Pepper in 1730 on land acquired by his grandfather, Sir Cuthbert Pepper. It remained in that family until it was bought by a Durham coal owner called William Stobart in the 1870s.

From Great Smeaton the Wiske heads south through the Vale of Mowbray passing Birkby, Hutton Bonville and Danby Wiske. Not far from the western edges of Northallerton it passes Yafforth, Romanby and Warlaby.

Birkby is a little hamlet with a church dedicated to St Peter dating from 1776 on the site of an earlier Norman church. Just to its west, a little stone bridge crosses the River Wiske with the East Coast Main Line nearby. Intriguingly, the name Birkby was originally ‘Bretebi’ from the Viking ‘Breta-byr’ meaning the ‘village of the Britons’ and is thought to refer to Britons from north western England who accompanied Viking settlers in their movement into Yorkshire.

South of Birkby, the River Wiske passes beneath the East Coast Main Line to its western side and the next place we encounter is Hutton Bonville. There is no village here but there is an old hall and a church dedicated to St Lawrence. Hutton Bonville was held by Robert de Boneville during the reign of Henry III.

Continuing south along the River Wiske we find Danby Wiske situated at a crossroads of minor country roads. It has a little village green and a pub called the White Swan. Danby means ‘village of the Danes’ in interesting contrast to Birkby, another Viking place-name that means ‘the village of the Britons’, to its north. The inclusion of ‘Wiske’ in Danby Wiske’s name is to distinguish it from Danby in Eskdale near Whitby.

Danby Wiske’s church, of uncertain dedication, is partly Norman. Just to its south is the old rectory within a formerly moated site and to the east across the Wiske is a seventeenth century private house called Lazenby Hall. The name of this hall indicates that it is situated on the site of a Viking settlement which. like the Lazenby near Redcar, means ‘village of the freedmen’.

Heading south, the River Wiske gently twists southward just to the west of the East Coast Main Line and reaches the little village of Yafforth to the west of Northallerton. Just north of Yafforth at Howe Hill on the west bank of the Wiske is the site of Yafforth Castle, a Norman motte without a bailey. It is thought to have been built during the civil unrest of ‘the anarchy‘ in the reign of King Stephen.

In the village itself is Yafforth church, dedicated to All Saints. It was built by J.P Pritchett of Darlington in 1870 incorporating some material from the earlier Norman church. Pritchett built the Victorian church of St Nicholas in Durham Market Place which is also on the site of a Norman church. Yafforth Hall, a private house just north of the church is thought to be partly sixteenth or seventeenth century.

A stone bridge crosses the River Wiske east of Yafforth linking the village to Northallerton. Originally there would have been a ford here as Yafforth’s name derives from ‘ea-ford’ which means ‘river ford’.

South of Yafforth, the Wiske continues flowing south, a little to the west of the outskirts of Northallerton. Near Warlaby it is joined on its east side by the Willow Beck from Northallerton and Romanby. Warlaby seems to mean ‘Waerlaf’s village’ which is an unusual combination of an Old English name with the Viking suffix ‘by’ meaning farm or village.

Just west of Warlaby are the villages of Ainderby Steeple and Morton-on-Swale. Ainderby Steeple is half way between the River Wiske and River Swale. The word ‘steeple’ actually refers to the local church tower which doesn’t have a spire in the modern sense of the word. The word ‘steeple’ in its old sense could simply mean ‘tower’.

This is a lovely church, dedicated to St Helen with an exterior mostly of the early 1300s. Richard Scrope, the renowned Archbishop of York (1398-1405) was once the rector at Ainderby Steeple. As Archbishop he was executed for rebelling against King Henry IV.

The place-name Ainderby, like that of Ainderby Quernhow near Thirsk and Ainderby Mires near Catterick, contains the Old Norse or Old Danish personal name ‘Eindrithi’ so that Ainderby means ‘Eindrithi’s farm or village’. The village of Ainderby Steeple has a little village green, pleasant brick houses and a pub called the Wellington Heifer.

South of Warlaby and Northallerton, the River Wiske passes the hamlet of North Otterington on its east side and Solberge Hall on its west side. Solberge Hall, now a wedding venue was built in 1824 by a local landowner of Newby Wiske called John Hutton. There had been a moated site here in earlier times at a location called Sowber Hill which derives from the Viking name ‘solberg’ meaning ‘sunny hill’. It is a deserted medieval village.

North Otterington has a small Norman church dedicated to St Michael. The place-name Otterington is first recorded as ‘Otrintun’ and may incorporate an Old English personal name ‘Oter’ or an Old Norse personal name ‘Ottarr’.

To the south of Solberge Hall are the villages of Newby Wiske and South Otterington linked by a bridge across the River Wiske. Newby Wiske has a Viking name meaning ‘new village’.

The site of a manor house, Newby Wiske became the setting for Newby Wiske Hall, built by the Northumbrian landowner, William Reveley in 1684. Several houses in the village are of the eighteenth century and are estate houses associated with the hall. An especially attractive building is the Methodist Chapel of 1814.

Later owners of Newby Wiske Hall in the nineteenth century included a Colonel Mitford in the 1820s but later in that decade it became the home to a wealthy Liverpool businessman called William Rutson. In the 1920s the hall was acquired by the Sunderland shipping magnate Albert Doxford and in 1954 it became a training centre for the police. Since 1977 the hall has been the headquarters for North Yorkshire Police.

South Otterington, on the east bank of the Wiske, is home to a large neo-Norman church of the 1840s built by Anthony Salvin. If we now continue south along the River Wiske we reach Kirby Wiske close to where the Wiske joins the River Swale.

River Swale : Kiplin to Kirby Wiske

The River Swale, after flowing eastward through Swaledale leaves its dale behind at Richmond, passing beneath the A1(M) motorway where it has entered the Vale of Mowbray near Catterick. Here it begins to flow southward with the River Wiske, Northallerton and Thirsk to its east.

Just east of Catterick, on the north side of the Swale, is Ellerton Park and its lake. To the north of Ellerton Park are the villages of Scorton, Uckerby and Moulton with the Cowtons to their east and Scotch Corner to the north-west. Scorton is apparently derived from a Norse word ‘skor’, a word for a ravine that is possibly a reference to the Scorton Beck. Uckerby may be derived from Ut-Kari (out Kari) a possible Norse personal name but this is by no means certain.

Across the Swale from Ellerton on the south side of the river are the remains of a motte and bailey castle near the river just north of a farming settlement called Killerby. This place should not to be confused with the village of Killerby between Darlington and Staindrop.

To the south of these villages along the north bank of the Swale to the east of Catterick is Kiplin Hall on the Kiplin Beck just above the Swale. Its name seems to derive from an Anglo-Saxon tribal or family group called the Cyppellings. The surname Kipling derives from this place.

Kiplin Hall itself was built near the site of this settlement in 1625 by George Calvert, Lord Baltimore. Calvert was the founder of Maryland who gained the charter for the establishment of that American state. Kiplin remained a property of his descendants until the 1720s. Later owners included the Crowes, Carpenters and Talbots. Today the hall, its gardens and tearooms can be visited by the public and is maintained by the Kiplin Hall Trust.

South east along the Swale is Great Langton, with a Norman church dedicated to St Wilfrid that is somewhat detached from the village. Inside, the church includes a fifteenth century effigy of a priest wearing a chasuble.

Along the Swale to the south is a late Georgian house called Langton Hall in its own grounds on the east bank of the river. The Swale loops and twists considerably here in a series of meanders as it traverses this part of the Vale of Mowbray.

Across to the western side of the Swale but set some distance away from the river is the village of Kirkby Fleetham with its lovely village green and a pub called the Black Horse Inn.

The village church, dedicated to St Mary, is in the grounds of the eighteenth century Kirkby Hall to the north of the village and contains the effigy of a knight that is possibly Nicholas Stapleton who fought at Bannockburn.

The hall and church are at the site of the original farm or village of Kirkby which means ‘church-farm’ or ‘church-village’. Fleetham was a separate place but the names of the two villages were combined. Fleetham derives from ‘fleot-ham’ meaning ‘homestead near a stream’.

On the south side of the village are the remains of the mound and moat of Kirkby Fleetham Castle, built by Sir Henry Le Scrope in 1314.

South of Kirkby Fleetham are the tiny villages of Great and Little Fencote and to their south, a little nearer the Swale is Scruton. The village of Scruton has a large Norman church with the unusual dedication to St Radegund.

St Radegund was a female princess of Thuringia in what is now part of Germany. She married the Frankish king, Clotaire, who murdered Radegund’s brother, who was the last remaining member of the Thuringian royal family. Radegund fled, seeking refuge at Poitiers, where she founded a nunnery. Only five churches in England are dedicated to St Radegund.

Scruton’s name comes from a Scandinavian personal name Scurfa (meaning ‘scabby’ or something similar) combined with the Old English word ‘tun’ and has a similar meaning to the village of Sheraton just off the A19 near Castle Eden in County Durham.

Before the Norman Conquest, Scruton consisted of two manors belonging to Cnut and Torfin. After the Conquest, the village was given to Picot de Lascelles, a vassal of Alan, Duke of Brittany (the Lord of Richmond). The Lascelles family held Scruton until the thirteenth century with their successors being the Markenfields and the Danby family of Thorp Perrow.

South of Scruton village is Scruton railway station on the Wensleydale Railway (a heritage line) and to the south west near the A1 (M) motorway are Leeming and Leeming Bar. Beyond the Swale to the east of Scruton is the village of Morton-on-Swale with the nearby village of Ainderby Steeple, that we have already visited, towards the River Wiske to the east.

A little to the south, the Swale is joined on its east bank by the Bedale Beck which has passed neighbouring Leeming. Incidentally, the name ‘Leeming’ is thought to derive from a Celtic river-name so we may presume that the Bedale Beck was once perhaps called ‘the River Leam’.

A little further along the Swale, the next place we meet is Gatenby. This is thought to be a Viking place-name containing the Old Irish personal name Gaithen. It may be a Hiberno-Norse (Norse-Gael) name, recalling a Viking with Irish roots. Another name of this type is Melsonby near Scotch Corner. The surname Gatenby, incidentally, derives from the village of Gatenby. So we have a place-name that derives from a forename and a surname that derives from that place-name.

The next villages we encounter as we travel south along the Swale are Maunby, Pickhill and Kirby Wiske. Maunby Hall, just south of Maunby village, is home to the Hill-Walker family, whose family members included Alan Richard Hill-Walker (1859-1944) who was awarded the Victoria Cross. Maunby means ‘village belonging to Magni’.

Across the Swale, west of Maunby near a farm called Low Swainby once stood a Premonstratensian monastery called Swainby Abbey, founded in 1189. South of the abbey site and also west of the Swale, is Pickhill, a village that was originally ‘Pichal’ meaning ‘nook belonging to Pica’. Its church, dedicated to All Saints is part Norman but contains a fragment of an Anglo-Danish sculpture featuring a dragon. Pickhill was once the site of a motte and bailey castle just west of the church. The old course of a former railway cuts through its site.

Over to the west of the Swale from Pickhill, on the adjoining River Wiske is Kirby Wiske. In truth, the Wiske is never anything more than a little stream, even here where it joins the Swale.

Like other places called ‘Kirby’ or ‘Kirkby’, the Kirby in Kirby Wiske means ‘church-village’. Kirby Wiske’s Norman church, probably on the site of an earlier one, is dedicated to Sir John the Baptist. The Tudor scholar, Roger Ascham, was born at Kirby Wiske around 1514 and later served in the administrations of Edward VI, Queen Mary I and Elizabeth I, to whom he taught Latin and Greek.

Just south of Kirby Wiske on the west side of the Wiske is Sion Hill, an Edwardian house of the Arts and Crafts era. The hall was built in Neo-Georgian style in 1913 by Yorkshire architect Walter Brierley for the Stancliffe family. It stands on the site of the earlier Kirby Wiske manor, whose owners once included the Smithsons (also of Stanwick and Alnwick), who were Dukes of Northumberland. In medieval times it belonged to the Lascelles family.

Leeming Bar, Bedale and Crakehall

The A1(M) motorway cuts through the Vale of Mowbray west of Northallerton and the River Swale. For motorists heading to Leyburn and Wensleydale the junction at Leeming is the place to turn west, bypassing the little town of Bedale along the way. However, Bedale and its neighbouring villages on the immediate west side of the motorway belong to the vale rather than the dale so we will cover them here along with the two Leemings that are just over on the east side of the motorway.

Bedale Beck separates Leeming Bar from Leeming village and RAF Leeming to its south. The Leemings are on the old course of the Roman Dere Street, called ‘Roman Road’ or ‘Leeming Lane’ hereabouts, but now bypassed by the motorway at this point. Leeming Bar was the one-time site of a toll gate (‘the bar’) on the Great North Road that followed the course of Dere Street here. The bar seems to have been removed in the 1840s.

Leeming is a Celtic river-name and likely the old name for the Bedale Beck. This beck undergoes several name changes along its course briefly called Bellerby Beck, Burton Beck and Newton Beck but in the Finghall area seven miles west of Leeming, it is called Leeming Beck. Bedale Beck eventually joins the Swale east of Leeming Bar, after skirting the northern fringes of the RAF airfield.

South of Leeming Bar and all close to the western side of the motorway are the villages of Exelby; Burneston; Carthorpe and Kirklington all featuring brick-built village houses typical of the Vale of Mowbray. Exelby (‘Eskel’s farm’) has a ‘local’ called the Green Dragon pub but there is no church other than a former Methodist chapel that has been converted into a private home.

Burneston (it means ‘Bryning’s Farm’) has a medieval church dedicated to St Lambert with a recessed spire or ‘broach’ set within its tower. Just across the road from this church are former almshouses, the Robinson Almshouses, of 1680.

Carthorpe (‘Kari’s village’) to the south of Burneston has no church. There is a brick manor house of around 1700 at the east end of the village and a pub called the Fox and Hounds across the road. Between Exelby and Burneston is a farmstead or hamlet called Theakston from which the surname Theakston originates. It includes the late Georgian Theakston Hall.

Kirklington (from a personal name Cyrtla – ‘Cyrtla’s farm’), to the south, has a particularly large village green. Its medieval church is dedicated to St Michael. Kirklington Hall just north west of the village was built in 1570 by Sir Christopher Wandesford.

To the west of Kirklington towards the River Ure are the villages of Thornborough and Nosterfield near the prehistoric Thornborough Henges and to the south is the village of Sutton Howgrave. Across to the east of the motorway from Kirklington are the villages of Sinderby, Pickhill and Ainderby Quernhow with the River Swale to their east, which we will come back to in a moment.

Back on the western side of the motorway, just across from the Leemings is the town of Bedale. The Bedale Beck flows eastward passing this town and separating it from the village of Aiskew just across a bridge to the east. ‘Aiskew’ derives from a corruption of ‘Eiki Skogr’ meaning ‘oak wood’ and is home to a visitor farm attraction for families called ‘The Big Sheep and the Little Cow’.

Bedale, ‘the gateway to the dales’ is a pretty market town with an Anglo-Saxon name meaning ‘Beda’s Halh’, from being a secret corner or retreat belonging to someone called Bede, though probably not the famed Venerable Bede of Jarrow.

Bedale’s Georgian high street of traditional brick houses is comprised of a stretch called market place along with continuations called North End and South End. The high street is similar to that of Yarm and Northallerton and a market has been held here since 1251.

The fourteenth century church of St Gregory that dominates the northern end of Bedale High Street is noted for its bell taken from the ruins of Jervaulx Abbey. The bell is thought to be one of the oldest in the country still in use.

Near the church at the northern terminus of Bedale’s High Street is Bedale Hall which faces away from the town. It is described by Pevsner as being “really a country house placed in a town” and dates from the 1730s.

North west of Bedale are the side-by side villages of Little Crakehall and Great Crakehall which are respectively situated north and south of the Bedale Beck. Crakehall refers to a nook of land belonging to a Norseman called Kraki. From Norman times it was associated with the Earls of Brittany at Richmond.

Crakehall’s village watermill, on the site of an earlier mill owned by the Nevilles of Middleham Castle, dates from the seventeenth century and was restored as a visitor attraction in the 1980s.

In times past the manor of Crakehall was held by the Crakehall family who took their name from the village. The present Crakehall Hall on the village green of Great Crakehall is an early eighteenth century house and was once the country home of the Duke of Leeds. Also situated on the village green is the church of St Gregory which dates from 1840.

Just west of the Crakehalls are the villages of Patrick Brompton and Newton-le-Willows. Before the Norman Conquest a man called Ghile Patric (a Hiberno-Norse name) was landowner at Patrick Brompton and it may be named from him. Interestingly, the church is dedicated to St Patrick and dates from the thirteenth century. It is one of only two Anglican churches dedicated to St Patrick in Yorkshire, the other being at Patrington in Holderness, East Yorkshire, a town with a name likely linked to St Patrick.

The ‘le-Willows’ of Newton-le-Willows to the south of Patrick Brompton distinguishes this Newton from other Newtons. Presumably several willow trees once grew here.

West and north west of Patrick Brompton, we are heading in the direction of Leyburn and Wensleydale. Here we find the villages of Constable Burton and Finghall and the nearby Akebar Park all of which are covered on our Wensleydale page.

North of Patrick Brompton if we stray slightly towards Catterick Garrison we find the villages of Arrathorne, Hornby and Hackforth. Hornby is home to a large Norman church dedicated to St Mary and is also home to Hornby Castle, built by the St Quentin family in the fourteenth century.

Hornby Castle was owned by the Conyers family in the fifteenth century and much altered and restored during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This Hornby should not be confused with the Hornby near Great Smeaton where the neighbouring Sockburn peninsula was also connected to the Conyers family.

Hackforth was the birthplace of a sixteenth century Prince Bishop of Durham called Cuthbert Tunstall, whose family name presumably comes from the village of Tunstall, a little further to the north, towards Catterick Garrison.

Snape Castle and Thorp Perrow

Snape village, south of Bedale, is home to Snape Castle, a private residence that is not open to the public. In early times the castle was home to a branch of the Neville family but initially a manor house was built here by Ralph FitzRanulph of Middleham whose daughter married Robert, the 2nd Baron Neville of Raby.

Snape Castle has connections to three Queens of England and its residents included two queens associated with King Richard III. One of these was Richard’s mother, Cecily Neville, who was known as ‘The Rose of Raby’ (she was also mother of Edward IV). The other was Richard’s wife, Anne Neville, the daughter of Warwick ‘the Kingmaker’. In later years the castle was home to Catherine Parr, the future wife and queen of King Henry VIII.

The first castle at Snape seems to have been built by George Neville, 1st Baron Latimer (died 1469). George was the son of Ralph Neville of Raby Castle, the 1st Earl of Westmorland. George’s mother was Joan Beaufort, daughter of John of Gaunt who was one of the most powerful figures in England’s medieval history.

Upon George’s death the family seat od Snape Castle passed to his grandson, Richard Neville, 2nd Baron Latimer (1468-1530). The castle subsequently became the principal seat and home of Richard’s son, John Neville, 3rd Baron Latimer (1493-1543). John’s third wife was Catherine Parr, who would later become Queen of England as the sixth and final wife of King Henry VIII.

During the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1537 the castle was stormed and Catherine Parr was taken hostage along with the children of her husband, John Neville, but their release was negotiated by Neville. In 1577 the castle passed through a Neville marriage to Thomas Cecil, Lord Burghley who was the 1st Earl of Exeter. He undertook much restructuring of the castle, adding the towers that we see today.

Close by, the old castle chapel still serves as a Chapel of Rest, but the castle itself is a private property. Snape village is a pretty place made all the more picturesque by the castle at its western end.

The village is centred on a village green with a little beck running along its southern edge that is crossed by little bridges with neighbouring water pumps. The north side of the village is bordered by a road called Meadow Lane and on the south side by ‘The Avenue’.

A prominent building at the centre of the village is the village institute of 1885 with a Methodist chapel close by. At the east end of the village is the eighteenth century Castle Arms and a monument that looks like a market cross. The monument was erected to the memory of  Lady Augusta Milbank of Thorp Perrow who died in 1874.

Thorp Perrow, to the north of Snape village, is a large, late eighteenth century house in beautiful grounds that are famed for their arboretum. In 1798, a William Milbank purchased Snape Castle and its estate from the descendants of Thomas Cecil and at the same time he acquired the neighbouring estate of Thorp Perrow from Sir Robert Danby.

Lady Augusta Milbank, the wife of William’s son and heir, Mark Milbank, began a collection of exotic conifers that she planted in the grounds during the mid-nineteenth century. In 1927 Thorp Perrow was purchased, along with Snape Castle, by William Ropner. Ropner was the son of Sir Robert Röpner (1838-1924), who was a wealthy shipbuilding and ship-owning magnate of Hartlepool and Stockton-on-Tees.

William Ropner’s son, Colonel Sir Leonard Ropner (1895-1977), succeeded his father at Thorp Perrow and in 1931 he created the extensive 85 acre Thorp Perrow Arboretum in the grounds, incorporating the earlier collection of conifers made by Lady Augusta. The arboretum is open to the public and is also home to a Bird of Prey Centre.

There is no apparent village at Thorp Perrow but it is mentioned in the Domesday Book in 1086 when it was simply called ‘Torp’, a Viking word for a secondary settlement. Later it was held by lords of the name ‘Pirrow’ whose name derived from a place near Ditchingham in Norfolk. A Helewise de Perrow is recorded as holding land at Thorp Perrow in 1285.

North west of Thorp Perrow are the villages of Cowling and Burrill and to Thorp Perrow’s west is the village of Thornton Watlass. Cowling was originally called Torneton (Thornton) in the Domesday Book but then became ‘Thornton Collinge’ some time before 1270, due to its feudal ownership. The ‘Thornton’ part of the name was later dropped and Collinge came to be called ‘Cowling’. Burrill is thought to mean ‘burh-hill’, the ‘hill of the fortified manor’.

Thornton Watlass was originally two separate villages but Thornton absorbed the village of Watlass in the thirteenth century. Watlass is thought to derive from the Old Norse ‘vatn-lauss’ meaning ‘water-less’. Thornton belonged to Ribald, the brother of Alan, the Earl of Richmond, at the time of the Domesday Book.

In 1415 Thornton Watlass and its lands came under the ownership of the Dodsworth family. Parts of Thornton Watlass Hall, in extensive grounds to the north of the village, date from this time. Isolated from the village to the south is the partly medieval church of St Mary. Sculptured cross-heads from before the Norman Conquest have been found here at the church. The village itself has an extensive village green with the Pennines of Wensleydale providing a beautiful backdrop on the western side.

To the west of Thornton Watlass is the village of Thirn (meaning thorn-bush) and nearby is the neighbouring farmstead of Rookwith both about half a mile or so north of Wensleydale’s River Ure. Less than a mile to the west of them is Kilgram Bridge with Thornton Steward and Jervaulx Abbey further to the west, beyond.

South of here the River Ure heads south-west past the town of Masham and the village of West Tanfield, on its way towards the little city of Ripon. Just north of West Tanfield and south of Snape are the villages of Well, Nosterfield and Thornborough. The last of these is situated close to the famed Thornborough Henges that date from prehistoric times.

Beyond Ripon the River Ure continues south east passing under the motorway to Boroughbridge to the east of which it takes in the waters of the River Swale near Myton on Swale about 10 miles south of Thirsk. Having absorbed the Swale the river continues under the name of the Ure for a short while before it becomes the River Ouse as it begins to approach York. We will now head back up the River Swale and follow its course southward from Kirby Wiske.

The Swale : Wiske to Topcliffe

South of Kirby Wiske we now follow the valley of the River Swale southward from the mouth of the River Wiske (where it joins the Swale) to the mouth of the Cod Beck near Topcliffe. East of the Wiske’s mouth but away from the Swale is the site of Breckenbrough Castle, a spot now occupied by a farm. It was the stronghold of the Lascelles whose guests once included Anne of Denmark, the Queen of James VI of Scotland or James I of England.

South of Breckenbrough is Sandhutton which has a village green; a Victorian church and a brick-built Methodist chapel of 1815 similar to that at Newby Wiske.

To the south of Sandhutton is a roundabout where the A167 and A61 meet. Here roads head east to Carlton Miniott and Thirsk; south to Topcliffe and west to the little village of Skipton-on-Swale, where a bridge built by John Carr of York in 1781 crosses the Swale. Like Skipton in Craven (also in Yorkshire) the name of this Skipton means ‘sheep farm’.

A memorial stone in the village at Skipton-on-Swale marks the site where a disabled Canadian Halifax bomber crashed during the Second World War in August 1944, killing two crew members and a civilian.

Across the bridge north west of Skipton-on-Swale is Ainderby Quernhow which like Ainderby Steeple, means ‘village belonging to Eindrithi’ which is a Viking personal name meaning ‘sole-ruler’. There is also a farm called Ainderby Mires over on this side of the motorway but it is further to the north, beyond Bedale.

Quernhow, was historically spelt ‘Whernhowe’ or ‘Whernou’. It means ‘mill-hill’, from the Norse ‘kvern’ meaning ‘mill stone’. ‘How’ or ‘Howe’ means ‘hill’. The ‘Quernhow’ was a small mound (a tumulus) on the nearby Roman Road of Dere Street but this part of Dere Street is now the A1(M) motorway. The mound marked a boundary between the parishes of Ainderby and Middleton Quernhow, near Wath just beyond the motorway. North of Ainderby Quernhow are the villages of Sinderby, Holme and Pickhill.

Heading south, downstream along the Swale from Skipton-on-Swale we find Baldersby village to the west of the river which derives from a personal name Balder rather than the Norse god of that name. It lies between the Swale and motorway to the west. Further south is the village of Catton on the east bank of the Swale with the village of Baldersby St James to the west of the river.

Here, the river turns eastward with Baldersby Park, a house of 1720 built for Sir William Robinson on the south bank. It has been home to St Mary’s boarding school since 1985. To the east of here the river reaches the substantial village of Topcliffe, named from its bank top setting above the River Swale.

Topcliffe’s church is dedicated to St Columba and parts date back to the twelfth century, likely on the site of an earlier church. Its dedication to the saint of the island of Iona with its missionary links to St Aidan and Lindisfarne is intriguing.

Topcliffe was the original home and seat of the Percy family long before they were associated with Northumberland and the castles of Alnwick and Warkworth. To the east of the village, in a narrow neck of land where the Cod Beck joins the Swale are earthworks called ‘Maiden’s Bower’. This was the site of the motte and bailey castle of the Percys, built by William Percy in 1071 and strengthened in 1174. The Percys arrived in England at the time of the Norman Conquest. Their name comes from Percy-en-Auge, near Caen, in the Calvados area of Normandy in northern France.

Across the Swale south of Topcliffe is the village of Asenby with the village of Rainton to its west and Dishforth to its south west. From Asenby the Swale flows south passing Cundall, Brafferton and Helperby before joining the River Ure at Myton on Swale.

The Thorntons

Situated along the A168 between Northallerton and Thirsk, to the east of the Otteringtons and towards the Cod Beck are three villages called ‘Thornton’. From north to south they are Thornton-le-Beans; Thornton-le-Moor and Thornton-le-Street.

The name ‘Thornton’ shows these were places where thorn bushes grew. The French element ‘le’ has been added to distinguish these places from each other.

Thornton-le-Beans, the most northerly of the three and nearest to Northallerton was apparently identified by the Normans as a place where horse beans (broad beans) were grown. Interestingly, at the time of the Norman Conquest it was called Gristorentun or Grisethornetune incorporating the Viking personal name Griss – meaning ‘Thornton belonging to Griss’ whose name may mean ‘pig’.

Thornton-le-Moor lies between the other two villages and is the only one of the three situated to the west of the A168 rather than to its east. The village of South Otterington is just to its west.

Thornton-le-Street is the most southerly and smallest of the three Thorntons. Situated north of Thirsk, its name means ‘Thornton on the Roman road’. Here the old A168 road that links the three Thorntons follows part of a Roman road sometimes called ‘Cades Road’ linking Roman Newcastle (Pons Aelius) to the Roman fort of Petuaria Parisorum at Brough on Humber.

North of the Thorntons and east of Northallerton, there are only farms and tiny hamlets. The main settlements here are Bullamoor, east of Northallerton and Kirby Sigston, further to its east. The nearest substantial village is West Harlsey to the north. There are few houses at Kirby Sigston but there is a church of St Lawrence dating to Norman times with a neighbouring nineteenth century rectory. To the east, across the other side of the Cod Beck is a manor house. Kirby Sigston is the constituency home of the former Conservative Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak.

To the north are earthworks of a moated castle established by John de Sigston in 1336 and to its west, a farm called Stank Hall, a small part of which dates to the 1580s. ‘Stank’ is a medieval term for a pond or pool. Upstream, on the Cod Beck north of Kirby Sigston are the farming hamlets of Foxton and Ellerbeck with the village or little town of Osmotherley over on the other side of the A19 to their east.

Mount Grace Priory

At Mount Grace Priory north of Osmotherley on the edge of the moors to the east of A19, we find the remains of the finest example of a Carthusian monastery in England. It was one of only nine Carthusian priories (known as Charter Houses) in the country and was the only one in Yorkshire.

Mount Grace was founded by Thomas of Holland, the Duke of Surrey (nephew of Richard II), in 1398. Thomas was later executed at Cirencester for plotting against Henry IV and was buried at Mount Grace.

The Carthusian order of monks obeyed a strict order of silence and monks were strictly separated from one and other in cells. Each cell had a little garden attached and a hatchway for food to be passed to the monks. Around twenty monks were based at the priory and they only ate together on Saturdays.

The remains of the monastery including its priory church and the associated hall are quite extensive and have a beautiful setting in grounds maintained by English Heritage.

Part of the priory guest house became the manor house of Mount Grace in the seventeenth century and later came into the possession of the wealthy and influential nineteenth century industrialist Sir Isaac Lowthian Bell.

Lowthian Bell (1816 – 1904), who also lived for a time at Rounton Grange Near East Rounton, had industrial connections to Tyneside, Wearside (Washington) and Teesside with links to the iron industry and chemical industry.

He was also a keen promoter of the arts with an interest in the Arts and Crafts movement. He extended the manor house at Mount Grace and decorated it with numerous Arts and Crafts features by the artist and designer William Morris.

Osmotherley

In legend Osmotherley, on the fringe of the Cleveland Hills five miles east of Northallerton, was associated with a young Saxon prince of Northumbria called Osmund. The prince was warned by an astrologer of an evil curse which would cause him to be drowned on a certain day.

When the day arrived Osmund’s mother took him to Roseberry Topping, in the Cleveland Hills, where it was thought he would be safe from danger. Strangely, by some miracle as the poor prince lay sleeping on the top of the hill, a huge fountain of water gushed from the rock of Roseberry Topping’s distinctive summit and drowned the young man.

Osmund’s body was taken to Osmotherley for burial and that is how it is said to have got its name – from ‘Osmund lies here’ – corrupted to Osmotherley. Sadly, there is no evidence to support this legend. It is far more likely that Osmotherley means the clearing or ley belonging to a Viking called Asmund or a Saxon called Osmund, but there is no proof that Osmund was a Saxon prince.

In early records there have been a number of variations in the spelling of the name Osmotherley down the centuries including Asmundrelac, Osmundeslay, Osemunderl, Osmonderlay and Osmtherley.

The church of St Peter in Osmotherley stands on the site of an earlier Anglo-Saxon church but the oldest parts of the present church are Norman. During the late Anglo-Saxon period the church seems to have come under Viking influence as part of an Anglo-Danish cross shaft and Viking hogback tombstone have been found here.

Osmotherley is a pretty village that is popular with visitors to the North York Moors. It consists of lovely stone cottages and a little green that has been much divided by the roads that pass through here.

Historically Osmotherley was a chartered market town and there is still a market cross at its centre near the green. The present cross, dating from 1874, replaced an earlier fourteenth century cross.

Alongside the cross is the stone ‘barter table’ which possibly dates from the sixteenth century and from which produce such as butter and cheese was once sold. A regular market has not been held in Osmotherley since 1823.

To the south of Osmotherley is the village of Thimbleby built with the typical yellowed-brown sandstone of the North York Moors coupled with red panelled roofs.

Also in the moors further to the south, reached by roads off the east side of the A19 are Over Silton and Nether Silton to the north of Leake. Both are pretty villages, Over Silton being the larger of the two. The ‘Sil’ of their names is thought to derive from a Danish personal name that also occurs in the name of Silpho north west of Scarborough. St Mary’s, the part Norman church of Over Silton is somewhat detached from the village in fields to the east.

South of the Siltons is the farming hamlet of Kepwick, with a chapel of 1894 and nearby the charming village of Cowesby. Single storey stone houses at the east end of Cowesby are former almshouses. The village has a Victorian church (St Michael) built by the architect Anthony Salvin in 1846 who also built Cowesby Hall of 1832 to the east of the village. From Cowesby and the Siltons roads head west towards the A19 near the historic church of Leake.

Leake : Church of the Prince Bishops

Three miles south of Mount Grace and Osmotherley along the A19 towards Thirsk, we find the isolated and enigmatic church of St Mary at Leake in a somewhat lonely location on the east side of this busy road. Leake church is Norman in origin while the nearby farmhouse called Leake Hall is of the seventeenth century.

From the time of William Rufus (and Bishop William Carileph of Durham) Leake belonged to the Prince Bishops of Durham who used it as a resting place on their travels between Durham and York. The Norman style architecture of the church has similarities to that of the church at Norham on the River Tweed in north Northumberland, which was another outlying place associated with the Prince Bishops.

Leake is the site of a deserted medieval village, that perhaps suffered from plague, Scottish raids or simply failed economically. The name Leake (which includes a nearby farm with the amusing name of Little Leake) is in fact related to the word leak as in dripping water and was known as Leche (letch) in medieval times. It is probably named from the neighbouring trickle of a stream called the Leak Stell, also known as Woundales, to the south of Leake.

Intriguingly a lane known as ‘Danes Lane’ near the Leake churchyard is said to have been the site of the massacre of five hundred Danes by local women, though what truth there is in this and when or if it took place is hard to say. A significant quantity of human bones thrown together was discovered hereabouts in the 1850s.

Though Leake church no longer has a village it serves as the parish church for the villages of Borrowby and Knayton on either side of the A19 which were both part of Allertonshire and historically belonged to the Bishops of Durham.

Knayton is an Anglo-Saxon place-name that derives from a female personal name Cengifu. Borrowby (on the west side of the A19) is of course a Danish place-name meaning ‘barrow-by’ or ‘the hill village’.

Another Viking place-name is Upsall, on the edge of the moors, a mile east of Knayton. Its Norse name is from ‘up-salir’ meaning ‘high dwellings’. It has the same meaning as the Swedish city of Uppsala. Upsall Castle, a house of the 1870s, is built on the site of an original moated caste of which there are scant traces. An extensive earthwork called the ‘Paled Dike’ surrounds much of the land to the south. Upsall should not be confused with the Upsall on the northern edge of the North York Moors near Nunthorpe, Middlesbrough.

Staying in the moors, other villages of note near Upsall include Kirby Knowle to the east. Kirby Knowle Castle, a house of 1653, built for James Danby, was originally called ‘New Building’ and stands on the site of the earlier Kirby Knowle Castle. Kirby Knowle’s church is Victorian on the site of an earlier church that gave Kirby its name. It is dedicated to St Wilfrid.

South of Upsall and Kirby Knowle, towards Sutton-under-Whitestonecliffe, are the villages of Boltby, Felixkirk and Thirlby. Boltby means the farm of a Viking called Boltr. Nearby at Boltby Scar a mile to the south east of the village is the ancient cliffside earthwork of a camp or fort that predates Roman times.

Felixkirk, as we would expect, has a church dedicated to St Felix. It is partly Norman and includes the effigy of a knight and lady within. Just east of the village is Mount St John, a house of 1720 on the site of the medieval Preceptory of the Knights Hospitallers of St John. To the east of Felixkirk is the farmstead of Ravensthorpe where there was once a moated manor house. Close by is Thirlby village, just north of Sutton-under-Whitestonecliffe.

Now heading back to Knayton, we continue southward along the A19 and approach the outskirts of Thirsk near North Kilvington and South Kilvington. The name Kilvington means ‘Cylfa’s farm’. North Kilvington is a farmstead situated on the Cod Beck that flows here from Thornton-le-Street to the north.

At North Kilvington, the Cod Beck is joined by Spital Beck from the east. Within an angle between the two streams once stood the moated Kilvington Hall. A little lane with the intriguing name of Lucky Lane links North Kilvington Farm to the A168 (the Roman road from Thornton-le-Street) just across the Cod Beck to the west.

South Kilvington, off the A19 near the outskirts of Thirsk, has a village green and has two main streets. One street is Stockton Road (the old route to Stockton-on-Tees) and the other is Upsall Lane heading east to Upsall and Felixkirk in the moors. The village church at South Kilvington, dedicated to St Wilfrid, is partly Norman.

Thirsk

The town of Thirsk has a Viking name that derives from the word ‘Thraesk‘ meaning lake or fen. It is now a small market town located within the Vale of Mowbray, to the south of Northallerton, north east of Ripon and north of Easingwold.

This is a busy market town with a large cobbled market square. There are interesting inns and houses, many of the eighteenth century when Thirsk was an important posting station.

Thirsk is divided by the Cod Beck, a tributary of the River Swale which may have formed marshy ground in Viking times. As well as being at the centre of a rich agricultural vale, Thirsk had developed into an important coaching stop in the eighteenth century.

It was at the centre of a crossroads as well as being located on a major north to south route, so it came to be noted for its many coaching inns.

At the heart of the town is the market place with its prominent clock tower that dates from 1896. The market square hosts Thirsk’s oldest inns, the Three Tuns, dating back to 1698 and The Golden Fleece, that is thought to partly date back to Tudor times.

At the east end of the market place are Finkle Street and Millgate which both lead to bridges across the Cod Beck and at the west end of the Market Place is Castlegate, a reminder that Thirsk was once the site of a castle that belonged to the Mowbrays, who were Lords of Thirsk.

This Norman castle stood nearby and would have been a major impetus for the growth of Thirsk. The castle was besieged by Henry II after Roger de Mowbray and his sons Nigel and Robert rebelled against the king. It was confiscated in 1175 and subsequently demolished but Thirsk continued. The title, Lord of Thirsk was held by Nigel’s son, William de Mowbray (1173-1224), an opponent of King John who was one of the executors of the Magna Carta.

Thirsk was the birthplace of Thomas Lord (born 1755), the founder of Lords Cricket Club in London. Lord was born at 16 Kirkgate and this house is now the home of the Thirsk Museum which celebrates the local history of the town.

The museum includes historic farming items and cricket memorabilia. It is diagonally just across Kirkgate from the old house and veterinary practice of James Herriot, which is also a museum.

James Herriot, whose real name was James Alfred Wight (1916 – 1995) known simply as ‘Alf’ was a writer who immortalised the countryside and characters of rural North Yorkshire. In the James Herriot stories created by Wight, Thirsk is the fictional town of ‘Darrowby’, a central location in the tales featuring the life of a Yorkshire vet.

The World of James Herriot museum occupies the original surgery of Alf Wight who lived and worked as a vet in the town for more than fifty years. Wight was born in Sunderland but grew up in Glasgow where he qualified as a vet in 1939. He was briefly a vet in Sunderland before heading for a practice in Thirsk in 1940 where he would live the rest of his days.

He retained a passion for Sunderland Football Club throughout his life and was made Honorary Life President of the club in 1991. Wight’s books, which have been famously adapted for television, capture life in the rural farming communities of North Yorkshire in times gone by.

Kirkgate takes its name from the church of St Mary that stands at its north end. This large, almost cathedral-like church was described by the architectural historian, Nikolaus Pevsner as “the most spectacular Perpendicular church in the North Riding of Yorkshire”.

The church was begun in 1430 on the site of an earlier church after a chantry had been founded in the town by Robert Thirsk earlier that century. The church was completed in the sixteenth century and is said to have been partly built using material from the demolished Thisk Castle.

Near the church is Thirsk Hall, partly dating to the 1720s with wings added by the York architect, John Carr, in the 1770s. The site formed the manor house of Thirsk although in earlier times this status was held by the Three Tuns in the market place.

Thirsk Hall was built for Ralph Bell, a Thirsk merchant of nearby Sowerby who purchased the manor from the Earl of Derby. Ralph’s father, Robert, was a Thirsk MP,  which Ralph himself would also later become. The grounds of the hall host a sculpture park established in 2021.

Away from the town centre, across the Cod Beck, the eastern part of Thirsk forms ‘Old Thirsk’ centred on the streets of Ingramgate, Long Street and a village green called St James’ Green.

Over on the west side of Thirsk, on the road out towards Thirsk railway station and Carlton Miniott (held by the Miniott family in the fourteenth century) is Thirsk racecourse. The present racecourse opened in 1923 but racing has been held at this site since 1855. Racing was recorded at Thirsk as early as 1612 but the official right to hold races at the present site in Thirsk was transferred from a racecourse at Hambleton in a lofty location at the top of Sutton Bank where an official racing licence had been granted in 1740.

Norse names near Thirsk

Between Northallerton and Thirsk numerous names suggest that the area was once heavily overgrown with thorns or thorn trees such as perhaps Hawthorn. Thus we have High Thornborough; South Thornborough; Thornborough Farm; Thornton House as well as the three Thonrtons: Thornton-le-Beans; Thornton-le-Moor and Thornton-le-Street that we have already mentioned.

Like the Northallerton area, Viking place-names around Thirsk are also very prominent. We have names of Danish or Norse origin, not surprising when we consider Thirsk’s location in the vale to the north of York, the old Viking capital of the north.

Most of the Danish place-names are revealed by endings in ‘by’, signifying the site of a Danish farm or village. Examples include Borrowby, Sowerby, Crosby, Bagby, Thirkleby, Thirlby, Cowesby, Thormanby, Baldersby, Thimbleby, Busby Stoop and Boltby.

Sowerby, now a part of Thirsk has a name that derives from ‘Saur-by’ meaning the muddy or boggy farm, a reminder that Thirsk itself means ‘marshy place’. The ‘Sowerby’ element of Temple Sowerby in Westmorland has the same meaning.

Sutton Bank

Thirsk is centrally located in the Vale of Mowbray with the lowland sections of the River Swale only five miles to the west. In the other direction, the North Yorkshire Moors are only two or three miles to the east of Thirsk and rise suddenly from the vale, most notably at Sutton Bank.

Sutton-under-Whitestoncliffe is situated in the Hambleton Hills on the edge of the North York Moors near one of the most dramatic changes from lowland to upland. The name Hambleton, incidentally means ‘scarred hill’.

Sutton-under-Whitestoncliffe was granted to Hugh the son of Baldric following the Norman Conquest but had previously belonged to Orm, the son of Gamal.

The full name of the place translates as ‘The southern farm near the white stone cliff’. It claims to be the longest place-name in England and rivals Blakehopeburnhaugh in Redesdale, Northumberland which challenges Sutton by not having hyphens.

This lovely village of Sutton-under-Whitestoncliffe is situated on the Sutton Beck (another Swale tributary) just before the road heading east from Thirsk begins to ascend the steep gradient of Sutton Bank. Sutton Hall near the centre of the village was once the home of the Smyth family but is now a resort.

Nearby, we find a number of places which have Viking origins – Osgoodby, Thirkleby, Bagby and Thirlby. Sutton-under-Whitestonceliffe is famous as the location for the impressive Sutton Bank, home of a gliding club and the very steep incline of the A170 road that struggles to make its way up the hill on the way east towards Ryedale and Scarborough.

It is well worth the climb. There are excellent views from Sutton Bank of the surrounding countryside down towards the vale. There is an extensive car park at the top (though it can sometimes be full) and a North York Moors National Park Visitor Centre.

There are well-marked walking routes highlighting the best viewpoints including the one that James Herriot (Alf Wight) described as “the finest view in England”. The view encompasses the Vale of Mowbray way below, with the Pennine Hills of the Yorkshire Dales beyond in the distance. Penhill and Great Whernside are amongst the distant hills that can be picked out.

A small stone monument with a plaque close to the car park and visitor centre commemorates the site of the ‘Battle of Byland’ (or Battle of Old Byland) that was fought here between the English and the Scots at the top of Sutton Bank on October 16, 1322.

King Edward II, emboldened by his victory over the rebel barons at the Battle of Boroughbridge earlier that year, launched an invasion on Scotland. It was not a success as the Scots under Robert the Bruce had stripped the Lothians south of the Firth of Forth of all livestock, burning crops and provisions that forced the starving English army to retreat.

It was a humiliation for the English king, who had been defeated by Robert the Bruce at Bannockburn in 1314. King Edward sought refuge at Rievaulx abbey and was still there in October 1322 when the Scots launched a surprise attack in an attempt to capture the English king.

The Scots had raided via the Eden valley after crossing the Solway into Cumberland and their army included many Scottish highlanders. An army of Scots under James Douglas climbed the hill to attack the English forces at the top of Sutton Bank and a battle broke out. It must have been an extraordinary event as the English had probably felt secure on home ground in this lofty location.

However, perhaps the experience of the highland contingent fighting in steep and difficult terrain helped the Scots who also employed a strategy of sending a separate contingent around the other side of Roulston Scar to surprise and outflank the English. The strategy worked and the English were routed, with the king himself narrowly escaping capture and taking flight. It was an extraordinary victory for the Scots.

The view from Sutton Bank takes in the nearby Gormire Lake, just to the north, which is one of only a small number of natural lakes in Yorkshire. Just to the south is a conical-shaped hill called Hood Hill and close by is the dominant outcrop of Roulston Scar.

Kilburn and the White Horse

Roulston Scar is where the White Horse of Kilburn is cut into the escarpment on its south facing side (looking towards Kilburn) and can be seen from miles around.

This is seemingly not an ancient hill carving as it only dates from 1857. It was carved by the village school master, Thomas Hodgson, using local labour and is 314 feet long.

Unlike the horse, a plain of land on the hill-top above the horse at Roulston Scar does have ancient roots. In recent years a huge iron age hill fort was discovered here that rivals North Yorkshire’s other great iron age fort at Stanwick near Scotch Corner. Covering about 53 acres it consisted of ramparts stretching more than a mile and dates from around 400BC.

Kilburn village, lower down the hill was famous as the home of Robert Thompson (1876-1955) known as ‘Mousey Thompson’, a wooden furniture maker who incorporated a carving of a mouse into each of his creations, as a trademark. His work, including the mouse, can often be found in church pews.

Kilburn’s Mouseman Visitor Centre commemorates Thompson’s work and here the family business of his descendants, Robert Thompson Craftsmen Ltd, still manufacture wooden furniture.

Close to the workshop is the Forrester’s Arms pub and Kilburn’s pretty church of St Mary which is part Norman. Kilburn Hall, a farmhouse in the village, dates from at least the seventeenth century.

Above Kilburn village on a hilltop just to its east is a smaller village called High Kilburn clustered around a broad and rugged village green.

Coxwold and Newburgh Priory

Coxwold, about three miles south of Kilburn was once the wold (wolds are usually a range of relatively low lying hills of chalk or limestone) belonging to an Anglo-Saxon called Cucha. The village has an impressive and quite distinct fifteenth century church built in the Perpendicular style, with monuments inside dedicated to the Belasis (or Belasyse) family.

As well as their connections to Coxwold, the Belasis family who included the Viscounts Fauconberg, have historic Yorkshire inks to nearby Newburgh and also to Yarm. The family also had links to County Durham, notably Henknowle near Bishop Auckland and Belasis near Billingham from which they took their name.

Coxwold is an attractive village near the Hambleton Hills on the edge of the North York Moors. To its north is Kilburn with its famous white horse. The town of Thirsk is about six miles to the north west while Easingwold is four miles south of Coxwold.

Shandy Hall on Thirsk Bank at the western edge of Coxwold village was the home to the writer and vicar of Coxwold, Laurence Sterne, from 1760 until his death in 1768. His most famous works were Tristram Shandy and a Sentimental Journey. Shandy Hall was a fifteenth century timber-framed house, later modified by Sterne who named it Shandy Hall.

Other buildings of note in the village include a house called Coalville Hall behind the church that dates from the early seventeenth century and the old hall opposite the church which once served as a grammar school.

Further along the village in the main street is Coxwold’s village pub which is simply called The Fauconberg.  Further still along the street but on the opposite side is the Fauconberg Hospital which are almshouses that were established in 1662. They include the arms of the Fauconberg family above the date of foundation.

Places of interest near Coxwold include Newburgh Priory and Byland Abbey and a little further to the east are Ampleforth and East Gilling which are covered on our Ryedale page.

Newburgh Priory was founded by Augustinian canons around 1150 and passed into the hands of the Belasis family in 1529 (later the Lords Fauconberg). It was converted into a house by the family but retained the name Newburgh Priory.

The first Belasis to own the priory was Anthony Belasis, chaplain to Henry VIII. The house still remains in the hands of Anthony’s descendants. One Lord Fauconberg married Oliver Cromwell’s daughter and it is claimed that a tomb within the house contains Cromwell’s body.

To the south of Newburgh Priory, on the road towards Easingwold and Crayke, is the village of Oulston, which is recorded in early forms as Ulfeston. It means the ‘farm of Ulf’, which is either a Scandinavianised form of the Old English personal name Wulf or an actual Old Norse name Ulfr, which is a related name.

Byland Abbey

Byland Abbey, once Britain’s largest Cistercian church, lies to the north of Coxwold and east of Kilburn near the village of Wass. Now a ruin, the abbey was founded on its present site in 1177.

It was established in Yorkshire by monks from Furness Abbey across the Pennines, who had initially tried to establish a daughter monastery at Calder in the Copeland area of Cumberland.

Later, in 1143, they moved to a new site, this time in Yorkshire, at what is now called Old Byland, a location half way between Rievaulx and Sutton Bank. This was the place that gave its name to the Battle of Byland that we have already mentioned.

However, by the time of that battle the monks had already moved to a new site, where we find the present Byland Abbey, which was established in 1177. The apparent reason for the relocation was that the older site was too close to Rievaulx Abbey, causing confusion for the monks when the bell was tolled at the nearby monastery.

The ruins of Byland Abbey, including its abbey church, are extensive and impressive. They are in the care of English Heritage but free to enter and explore with the usual helpful display boards explaining the layout. Just opposite the ruins is a charming pub called the Abbey Inn.

The village of Wass just north of Byland Abbey has an Anglo-Saxon name that is thought to mean ‘mud’ or ‘swamp’. It is situated at a point where three streams meet.

An alternative suggestion is that Wass is a pluralised Middle English form of the Norse word ‘wath’ meaning ‘ford’. There were two fords near the village, so the name Wass may actually be derived from ‘waths’. There is a pleasing tiny little church in the village dedicated to St Thomas and a village pub called the Stapylton Arms. East of Wass is the village of Ampleforth, home to Ampleforth Abbey and Ampleforth College featured on our Ryedale page.

Raskelf and Easingwold

The A19 road south from Thirsk gradually passes from the Vale of Mowbray into the Vale of York. It passes close to the village of Bagby to the east of the road and then the adjoined villages of Great and Little Thirkleby also to the east of the A19 on the road out to Coxwold. Thirkleby means ‘farmstead belonging to Thurkel’. Great Thurkel has a church (All Saints) with a prominent spire. Dating from 1850, the church was described by Pevsner as “a veritable riot of forms, perverse and mischieveous”.

Further away to the west of the A19 are the villages of Little Hutton; Sessay and Hutton Sessay. Sessay is thought to derive from ‘Secges-eg’ meaning the well-watered land belonging to Secg.

Just off the A19 itself near Hutton Sessay is the village of Birdforth which gave its name to one of the historic wapentakes or administrative divisions within the North Riding of Yorkshire. Ridings and Wapentakes were both terms of Viking origin.

South of Birdforth and also just off the A19 is Thormanby, one of many Viking place-names in the area. Old spellings suggest that it belonged to a Viking called Thormoth. Respectively to the east of Birdforth and Thormanby are the villages of Carlton Husthwaite and Husthwaite where roads lead east onwards to Oulston and Coxwold. ‘Thwaite’ is Viking for ‘a clearing’, while ‘hus’ means ‘house’.

Further south still along the A19, the village of Raskelf lies to the west and is thought to derive from the Old Norse ‘skjalf’ meaning ‘shelf’ and the word ‘ra’ meaning ‘roe’. The village is situated on a ridge of land overlooking a stream called ‘The Kyle’ which becomes the Carle Beck and then the ‘River Kyle’ further downstream. Raskelf has a part Norman church, dedicated to St Mary.

The villages of Tholthorpe, Alne, Tollerton and Flawith to the south of Raskelf all lie within the valley of the River Kyle and its tributaries which form part of the Vale of York. These places are nearer to York than they are to Thirsk. Alne derives from a Celtic river-name also found at Alnwick in Northumberland so Alne was perhaps an older name for the Kyle. The Kyle eventually joins the River Ouse at Newton-on-Ouse north west of York.

Heading back north, across the A19 to the east of Raskelf is the town of Easingwold. The main features of Easingwold are its partly cobbled market square and some fine Georgian buildings.

In an island of buildings at the centre of Easingwold’s market square is the brick-built Town Hall of 1864 with a narrow bell turret, while surrounding the market place are several Georgian houses and two pubs called ‘The Commercial’ and ‘The York’.

The main streets of Easingwold are Long Street to the south of the Market Place which becomes Thirsk Road to the north west, while to the north east of the market place is the street of Uppleby, marked on old maps as ‘High Street’ and forming part of what was once a presumably separate settlement.

To the west, Uppleby becomes Church Hill, hosting Easingwold’s parish church of All Saints and St John. Further to the east, after passing a crossroads where it meets with Thirsk Road and Long Street, Church Hill continues west as Raskelf Road.

Easingwold was ‘the wold belonging to an Anglo-Saxon called Easa’. The hilly areas around Easingwold and Coxwold may be described as wolds, but the true Yorkshire Wolds are much further to the south-east in East Yorkshire, between Hull, York and Malton.

Crayke

The village of Crayke, to the east of Easingwold, has a peculiar history and a remarkable setting. Approaching it from Easingwold you can see Crayke Castle set upon a rock with a steep cliff. In fact the name ‘Crayke’ derives from the Britonic or Welsh Celtic word ‘cerrag’ or ‘craic’ meaning ‘the rock’. It is thought to have been a defended site associated with the Brigantes in ancient times.

From a distance it looks like somewhere you might expect to find in northern Northumberland and close up the castle still gives the impression of a border pele tower.

However, in the village itself, the brick stone houses and pantile roofs are a reminder that this is a place in the centre of Yorkshire or at least it is now. Historically, Crayke was located in the Kingdom of Northumbria as was true of all Yorkshire, however Crayke did not become part of the county of Yorkshire until 1844 and before that time formed an outlying part of the County of Durham.

Crayke was given by King Ecgfrith of Northumbria to St Cuthbert around AD 685 as a resting place for the saint on his visits to York. A monastery is thought to have been founded here by the saint that was later the home to saint and hermit called Echa who died around AD 767. In later times another Northumbrian king called Aelle is thought to have used Crayke as the headquarters for his defence against the invading Danes in AD 867. The Danes would of course ultimately take control in Yorkshire.

This was a tumultuous period of Viking and Scottish raiding. The monks of Lindisfarne, who had fled from one such raid, carrying with them the coffin of St Cuthbert came this way around ten years later later and took refuge at Crayke, presumably with knowledge of Crayke’s defensive qualities.

It was through its links to St Cuthbert that Crayke came to be connected with Durham and its Prince Bishops. One such bishop, arguably the most powerful of all the Prince Bishops, was Bishop Pudsey who came to Crayke in 1195, after being summoned south to answer to King Richard I for spending funds intended to pay a ransom for the release of the king, who had been imprisoned in Austria.

After eating supper at Crayke, Bishop Pudsey took seriously ill, perhaps from food poisoning. He died the following day on March, 3, 1195, at his manor of Howden in Howdenshire to the north of Doncaster.

The castle at Crayke is thought to have been built on the site of the earlier monastery founded by St Cuthbert and was the Bishop of Durham’s residence. The original castle was possibly built by Bishop Pudsey himself. However, the Tudor historian, Leland, attributed the building of the present castle to Robert Neville, who was Bishop of Durham from 1438 to 1457.

What remains of Crayke Castle consists of two fifteenth century buildings, one of which is the tower house that is still inhabited and the other, a ruin that was once of similar size to the tower. The relationship between the two buildings isn’t clear.

The nearby church in Crayke is of course dedicated to St Cuthbert as we would expect from any location where the monks of Lindisfarne had sought refuge while carrying the saint’s body and sacred relics around the North.

Crayke parish was considered a part of the County Palatine of Durham and was not transferred into Yorkshire until 1844. Unlike Northallerton and Allertonshire which had also once belonged to the bishops, the bishops’ powers as ‘Prince Bishops‘ directly applied to Crayke.

There are some excellent commanding views across the neighbouring Yorkshire countryside from Crayke Castle which give a great sense of setting.

Crayke village itself is pretty and typical of many in Yorkshire but the village pub called the Durham Ox is another reminder of Crayke’s historic links to County Durham. It is likely named from the famous Durham Ox that was bred at Brafferton near Aycliffe in County Durham rather than the Dun Cow of Durham’s foundation legend, though perhaps there is a connection to both.

To the east of Crayke are the Howardian Hills forming an Area of Outstanding National Beauty stretching as far east as the magnificent country house of Castle Howard near Malton. Both the house and the hills are named from the Howard family. This area is covered on our Ryedale page.

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