Kirkbymoorside
Encyclopedia
Kirkbymoorside is a small market town
and civil parish
in the Ryedale
district of North Yorkshire
, England
which lies approximately 25 miles north of York
midway between Pickering
and Helmsley
, and has a population of approximately 3,000.
(1086). It has served as a trading hub at least since 1254, when it became a market town. There are still two ancient coaching inns standing, the Black Swan with its carved porch and the cruck-framed George and Dragon, which originated in the 13th century. The Georgian façades point to later periods of commercial prosperity on the coaching route between York
and Scarborough.
Some Ancient British
, Viking
and Anglo-Saxon
remains have been found in the vicinity. The Norman
baron Robert de Stuteville built a wooden moated castle on Vivers Hill. The estate passed to the Wake family in the 13th century, who brought prosperity to the town. However, it was badly hit by the Black Death
of the mid-14th century, after which the wooden castle lay in ruins. Prosperity returned after 1408, when the Neville family took over, although little remains of the fortified manor they built to the north of the town. The Nevilles remained Catholic and took part in the Rising of the North
of 1569. By 1660 there was a grammar school. (The building is now part of the library.) The great Toll Booth in the middle of the town was built about 1730 with stone taken from the Nevilles' manor. The old Market Hall was gutted by fire but rebuilt in 1872. By 1881 the population of the town was 2,337.
There is some dispute as to the correct spelling (the alternative spelling being Kirbymoorside, as it is traditionally pronounced), but it is usually and officially spelled with the "k". Signposts also read "Kirkbymoorside". "Kirk" means church and "-by" is the Viking word for settlement, so the name translates as "settlement with a church by the moorside." A valley near the town is known as Kirkdale
. More recently, Kirkbymoorside was the last town in England to adopt double-yellow lines to restrict parking.
George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham
, died on 16 April 1687, in the house of a local tenant, from a chill caught whilst hunting nearby. England’s oldest fox hunt, still running today, is the Bilsdale Hunt in Yorkshire, which the Duke founded in 1668. The building, Buckingham House, is located in the town centre.
in 2005 and finished as runners up in Division One in the 2007–08 season and as a result moved up into the Wearside Football League
which is a Step7 League and part of the National Pyramid system for the 2008–09 season, finishing in mid table, with a similar finish in 2009–10. 2010–11 saw a move up to 6th place and also an appearance in the final of the historic Monkwearmouth Charity Cup which sadly ended in defeat with Ryhope CW scoring the only goal in the last minute of extra time. The club also has a reserve side which play in the Beckett Football League http://www.beckettleaguefootball.co.uk/3.0/index.asp, winning the League in 2010–11 by remaining unbeaten through the season and also winning the Scarborough FA Junior Cup, and several Junior teams.
The football club shares facilities with the town's Cricket Club who, after finishing as runners-up in the 1st Division, now play in the Premier Division of the Reader's Scarborough Beckett League. http://www.charlo140.webs.com The team is also a member of the Ryedale Beckett League, and play in the top division on Monday and Thursday evenings.
The town has a golf club with an 18-hole, par-69 course. Three-time Ryder Cup
captain Bernard Gallacher
opened its new clubhouse in November 1998. The club celebrated its unofficial centenary in 2008.
Manor Vale, a stretch of woodland managed by the town council, was formerly part of a deer park and contains the Grade II remains of the manor. It contains areas of both acidic and alkaline soil. It is home to a rare beetle species, Oedemera virescens
.
Championship in 2004 and 2008. As a result of their 2008 success, the band competed in the National Finals in Harrogate
on 28 September 2008 and claimed 3rd place overall, the best result the band had ever achieved.
The anarchist poet and critic Herbert Read
was born in Kirbymoorside, and the area surrounding the town provided the inspiration for his only completed novel, The Green Child
.
Kirkbymoorside is the home town of Jack Sails, the keyboard player of British
band One Night Only
.
place of worship is All Saints' Parish Church, a Grade I listed building dating back to the 13th century, but extensively restored
in the mid-19th century under the direction of Sir George Gilbert Scott
. There are 187 parishioners on the church's electoral role, of whom 27 are non-resident. There are two services each Sunday with a combined average attendance of 60–80. There are also Methodist
and Roman Catholic churches in the town. Earlier there were also Independent and Primitive Methodist
chapels.
The Bethel Chapel was an independent chapel built in 1792. During the period 1861-77 the minister was the former missionary John Abbs
.
The single-storey Quaker
Meeting House in West End dates from 1691. Some 20–30 people worship there on Sunday morning. It belongs to the Pickering and Hull area meeting. Among those buried in the Quaker burial ground was the evangelist John Richardson
(1667–1753), who left a lively account of his life as a preacher in Britain, Ireland and the American colonies.
The town is also home to one of only two British aircraft producers left, Slingsby Aviation
, with the other being Britten-Norman
on the Isle of Wight
.
Nowadays, bus route #128 from Helmsley
to Scarborough passes through the town via West End and Piercy End. The service operates to an hourly clockface timetable for much of Mondays-Saturdays in peak summer. In the evenings and for most of the year, there is slightly less than 1 bus per hour.
In peak summer, most services extend west beyond Helmsley
to Sutton Bank
.
Connections to York
can be made with either the # 31X service (usually 5 buses per day) at Helmsley
or the #840 at Pickering
(more frequent). #840 also calls at Kirby Misperton
(location of Flamingoland theme park and zoo) and Malton
bus/train station.
Market town
Market town or market right is a legal term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host markets, distinguishing it from a village and city...
and civil parish
Civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...
in the Ryedale
Ryedale
Ryedale is a non-metropolitan district of the shire county of North Yorkshire in England. Settlements include Helmsley, Kirkbymoorside, Malton, Norton-on-Derwent, Pickering, and Terrington.-Derivation of name:...
district of North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire is a non-metropolitan or shire county located in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England, and a ceremonial county primarily in that region but partly in North East England. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972 it covers an area of , making it the largest...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
which lies approximately 25 miles north of York
York
York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...
midway between Pickering
Pickering, North Yorkshire
Pickering is an ancient market town and civil parish in the Ryedale district of the county of North Yorkshire, England, on the border of the North York Moors National Park. It sits at the foot of the Moors, overlooking the Vale of Pickering to the south...
and Helmsley
Helmsley
Helmsley is a market town and civil parish in the Ryedale district of North Yorkshire, England. The town is located at the point where the valleys of Bilsdale and Ryedale leave the higher moorland and join the flat Vale of Pickering. It is situated on the River Rye and lies on the A170 road, east...
, and has a population of approximately 3,000.
History
Kirkbymoorside features as Chirchebi in Domesday BookDomesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
(1086). It has served as a trading hub at least since 1254, when it became a market town. There are still two ancient coaching inns standing, the Black Swan with its carved porch and the cruck-framed George and Dragon, which originated in the 13th century. The Georgian façades point to later periods of commercial prosperity on the coaching route between York
York
York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...
and Scarborough.
Some Ancient British
Britons (historical)
The Britons were the Celtic people culturally dominating Great Britain from the Iron Age through the Early Middle Ages. They spoke the Insular Celtic language known as British or Brythonic...
, Viking
Viking
The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
and Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...
remains have been found in the vicinity. The Norman
Normans
The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...
baron Robert de Stuteville built a wooden moated castle on Vivers Hill. The estate passed to the Wake family in the 13th century, who brought prosperity to the town. However, it was badly hit by the Black Death
Black Death
The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Thought to have...
of the mid-14th century, after which the wooden castle lay in ruins. Prosperity returned after 1408, when the Neville family took over, although little remains of the fortified manor they built to the north of the town. The Nevilles remained Catholic and took part in the Rising of the North
Rising of the North
The Rising of the North of 1569, also called the Revolt of the Northern Earls or Northern Rebellion, was an unsuccessful attempt by Catholic nobles from Northern England to depose Queen Elizabeth I of England and replace her with Mary, Queen of Scots.-Background:When Elizabeth I succeeded her...
of 1569. By 1660 there was a grammar school. (The building is now part of the library.) The great Toll Booth in the middle of the town was built about 1730 with stone taken from the Nevilles' manor. The old Market Hall was gutted by fire but rebuilt in 1872. By 1881 the population of the town was 2,337.
There is some dispute as to the correct spelling (the alternative spelling being Kirbymoorside, as it is traditionally pronounced), but it is usually and officially spelled with the "k". Signposts also read "Kirkbymoorside". "Kirk" means church and "-by" is the Viking word for settlement, so the name translates as "settlement with a church by the moorside." A valley near the town is known as Kirkdale
Kirkdale, North Yorkshire
Kirkdale is a valley in North Yorkshire, England, which along with Sleightholmedale makes up the larger Bransdale and carries the Hodge Beck from its moorland source near Cockayne to the River Dove and onto the River Rye in the Vale of Pickering....
. More recently, Kirkbymoorside was the last town in England to adopt double-yellow lines to restrict parking.
George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham
George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham
George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, 20th Baron de Ros of Helmsley, KG, PC, FRS was an English statesman and poet.- Upbringing and education :...
, died on 16 April 1687, in the house of a local tenant, from a chill caught whilst hunting nearby. England’s oldest fox hunt, still running today, is the Bilsdale Hunt in Yorkshire, which the Duke founded in 1668. The building, Buckingham House, is located in the town centre.
Sport and leisure
Kirkbymoorside is home to Kirkbymoorside Football Club which has been in existence since around 1890. After many years playing in the Scarborough & District League they moved to the Teesside Football LeagueTeesside Football League
The Teesside Football League is a football competition based in northern England. It consists of two divisions and covers levels 12 and 13 in the English football league system. The Teesside League is a feeder to the Step 7 Wearside League...
in 2005 and finished as runners up in Division One in the 2007–08 season and as a result moved up into the Wearside Football League
Wearside Football League
The Wearside Football League is a non-league football competition based in England. It consists of a single division which sits at step 7 of the National League System and is a feeder to the Northern League Division Two. Following the 2007-08 season, Whitehaven moved up to the Northern League, as...
which is a Step7 League and part of the National Pyramid system for the 2008–09 season, finishing in mid table, with a similar finish in 2009–10. 2010–11 saw a move up to 6th place and also an appearance in the final of the historic Monkwearmouth Charity Cup which sadly ended in defeat with Ryhope CW scoring the only goal in the last minute of extra time. The club also has a reserve side which play in the Beckett Football League http://www.beckettleaguefootball.co.uk/3.0/index.asp, winning the League in 2010–11 by remaining unbeaten through the season and also winning the Scarborough FA Junior Cup, and several Junior teams.
The football club shares facilities with the town's Cricket Club who, after finishing as runners-up in the 1st Division, now play in the Premier Division of the Reader's Scarborough Beckett League. http://www.charlo140.webs.com The team is also a member of the Ryedale Beckett League, and play in the top division on Monday and Thursday evenings.
The town has a golf club with an 18-hole, par-69 course. Three-time Ryder Cup
Ryder Cup
The Ryder Cup is a biennial golf competition between teams from Europe and the United States. The competition is jointly administered by the PGA of America and the PGA European Tour, and is contested every two years, the venue alternating between courses in the United States and Europe...
captain Bernard Gallacher
Bernard Gallacher
Bernard Gallacher, OBE is a Scottish professional golfer.Gallacher was born in Bathgate, Scotland. He took up golf at the age of eleven. In 1965 he won the Lothians Golf Assocation Boys Championship. He won the 1967 Scottish Amateur Open Stroke Play Championship and turned professional the same...
opened its new clubhouse in November 1998. The club celebrated its unofficial centenary in 2008.
Manor Vale, a stretch of woodland managed by the town council, was formerly part of a deer park and contains the Grade II remains of the manor. It contains areas of both acidic and alkaline soil. It is home to a rare beetle species, Oedemera virescens
Oedemerinae
Oedemerinae are a subfamily of the false blister beetles , also known as pollen-feeding beetles. The Nacerdinae are sometimes merged here.The phylogeny of this family is not robustly deduced in detail...
.
Music and culture
The town is home to Kirkbymoorside Town Brass Band, which has achieved success on a national level, most recently winning the North of England Brass Band First SectionBrass Band Sections in Britain
There are five main brass band sections in the United Kingdom: Championship, First, Second, Third, and Fourth. The top bands are in the Championship section, and the bottom ones are in the Fourth section...
Championship in 2004 and 2008. As a result of their 2008 success, the band competed in the National Finals in Harrogate
Harrogate
Harrogate is a spa town in North Yorkshire, England. The town is a tourist destination and its visitor attractions include its spa waters, RHS Harlow Carr gardens, and Betty's Tea Rooms. From the town one can explore the nearby Yorkshire Dales national park. Harrogate originated in the 17th...
on 28 September 2008 and claimed 3rd place overall, the best result the band had ever achieved.
The anarchist poet and critic Herbert Read
Herbert Read
Sir Herbert Edward Read, DSO, MC was an English anarchist, poet, and critic of literature and art. He was one of the earliest English writers to take notice of existentialism, and was strongly influenced by proto-existentialist thinker Max Stirner....
was born in Kirbymoorside, and the area surrounding the town provided the inspiration for his only completed novel, The Green Child
The Green Child
The Green Child is the only completed novel by the English anarchist poet and critic Herbert Read. Written in 1934 and first published by Heinemann in 1935, the story is based on the 12th-century legend of two green children who mysteriously appeared in the English village of Woolpit, speaking an...
.
Kirkbymoorside is the home town of Jack Sails, the keyboard player of British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
band One Night Only
One Night Only (band)
One Night Only is a British Indie rock band from Helmsley, North Yorkshire formed in 2003.-History:One Night Only formed in summer 2003, consisting initially of Mark Hayton, Daniel “Pob” Parkin, Sam “Gunner” Ford and Kai "Kai" Smith. The band did not have a vocalist until George Craig, a friend of...
.
Places of worship
The AnglicanAnglicanism
Anglicanism is a tradition within Christianity comprising churches with historical connections to the Church of England or similar beliefs, worship and church structures. The word Anglican originates in ecclesia anglicana, a medieval Latin phrase dating to at least 1246 that means the English...
place of worship is All Saints' Parish Church, a Grade I listed building dating back to the 13th century, but extensively restored
Victorian restoration
Victorian restoration is the term commonly used to refer to the widespread and extensive refurbishment and rebuilding of Church of England churches and cathedrals that took place in England and Wales during the 19th-century reign of Queen Victoria...
in the mid-19th century under the direction of Sir George Gilbert Scott
George Gilbert Scott
Sir George Gilbert Scott was an English architect of the Victorian Age, chiefly associated with the design, building and renovation of churches, cathedrals and workhouses...
. There are 187 parishioners on the church's electoral role, of whom 27 are non-resident. There are two services each Sunday with a combined average attendance of 60–80. There are also Methodist
Methodism
Methodism is a movement of Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations, claiming a total of approximately seventy million adherents worldwide. The movement traces its roots to John Wesley's evangelistic revival movement within Anglicanism. His younger brother...
and Roman Catholic churches in the town. Earlier there were also Independent and Primitive Methodist
Primitive Methodism
Primitive Methodism was a major movement in English Methodism from about 1810 until the Methodist Union in 1932. The Primitive Methodist Church still exists in the United States.-Origins:...
chapels.
The Bethel Chapel was an independent chapel built in 1792. During the period 1861-77 the minister was the former missionary John Abbs
John Abbs
Rev. John Abbs was an English missionary. Sent out by the London Missionary Society, he spent twenty-two years in Travancore, Southern India, a period rarely exceeded by European missionaries at that time...
.
The single-storey Quaker
Religious Society of Friends
The Religious Society of Friends, or Friends Church, is a Christian movement which stresses the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Members are known as Friends, or popularly as Quakers. It is made of independent organisations, which have split from one another due to doctrinal differences...
Meeting House in West End dates from 1691. Some 20–30 people worship there on Sunday morning. It belongs to the Pickering and Hull area meeting. Among those buried in the Quaker burial ground was the evangelist John Richardson
John Richardson (Quaker)
John Richardson was an English Quaker minister and autobiographer.-Early life:John Richardson was born in 1667, probably in the village of North Cave, East Riding of Yorkshire, where his father, William Richardson , a shepherd, had been converted to Quakerism by William Dewsberry or Dewsbury in...
(1667–1753), who left a lively account of his life as a preacher in Britain, Ireland and the American colonies.
Transport
Kirkbymoorside was connected to the national railway network from 1875 to 1964 (when the track was lifted). However, the service was infrequent and not acceptable compared to today's level of service for public transport.The town is also home to one of only two British aircraft producers left, Slingsby Aviation
Slingsby Aviation
Slingsby Aviation is a British aircraft company based in Kirkbymoorside, North Yorkshire, England. The Slingsby business was founded on the building and design of gliders and sailplanes. From the early 1930s to about 1970 it built over 50% of all British club gliders and had success at national and...
, with the other being Britten-Norman
Britten-Norman
Britten-Norman is a British aircraft manufacturer owned by members of the Zawawi family from the Sultanate of Oman, making it the last remaining UK independent commercial aircraft producer....
on the Isle of Wight
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...
.
Nowadays, bus route #128 from Helmsley
Helmsley
Helmsley is a market town and civil parish in the Ryedale district of North Yorkshire, England. The town is located at the point where the valleys of Bilsdale and Ryedale leave the higher moorland and join the flat Vale of Pickering. It is situated on the River Rye and lies on the A170 road, east...
to Scarborough passes through the town via West End and Piercy End. The service operates to an hourly clockface timetable for much of Mondays-Saturdays in peak summer. In the evenings and for most of the year, there is slightly less than 1 bus per hour.
In peak summer, most services extend west beyond Helmsley
Helmsley
Helmsley is a market town and civil parish in the Ryedale district of North Yorkshire, England. The town is located at the point where the valleys of Bilsdale and Ryedale leave the higher moorland and join the flat Vale of Pickering. It is situated on the River Rye and lies on the A170 road, east...
to Sutton Bank
Sutton Bank
Sutton Bank, also known as Roulston Scar, is a hill in the Hambleton District of North Yorkshire in England. It is a high point on the Hambleton Hills and the North Yorkshire Moors with extensive views over the Vale of York and the Vale of Mowbray...
.
Connections to York
York
York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...
can be made with either the # 31X service (usually 5 buses per day) at Helmsley
Helmsley
Helmsley is a market town and civil parish in the Ryedale district of North Yorkshire, England. The town is located at the point where the valleys of Bilsdale and Ryedale leave the higher moorland and join the flat Vale of Pickering. It is situated on the River Rye and lies on the A170 road, east...
or the #840 at Pickering
Pickering, North Yorkshire
Pickering is an ancient market town and civil parish in the Ryedale district of the county of North Yorkshire, England, on the border of the North York Moors National Park. It sits at the foot of the Moors, overlooking the Vale of Pickering to the south...
(more frequent). #840 also calls at Kirby Misperton
Kirby Misperton
Kirby Misperton is a small village and civil parish in the Ryedale district of North Yorkshire, England.-Geography:It is located about 4 miles south from Pickering by road and about 7½ miles north from Malton. It is just west of the A169 road....
(location of Flamingoland theme park and zoo) and Malton
Malton, North Yorkshire
Malton is a market town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. The town is the location of the offices of Ryedale District Council and has a population of around 4,000 people....
bus/train station.