Malton, North Yorkshire
Encyclopedia
Malton is a market town
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 in 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...

. The town is the location of the offices of 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 Council and has a population of around 4,000 people.

It is located to the north of the River Derwent
River Derwent, Yorkshire
The Derwent is a river in Yorkshire in the north of England. It is used for water abstraction, leisure and sporting activities and effluent disposal as well as being of significant importance as the site of several nature reserves...

 which forms the historic boundary between the North
North Riding of Yorkshire
The North Riding of Yorkshire was one of the three historic subdivisions of the English county of Yorkshire, alongside the East and West Ridings. From the Restoration it was used as a Lieutenancy area. The three ridings were treated as three counties for many purposes, such as having separate...

 and East Riding
East Riding of Yorkshire
The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Yorkshire, is a local government district with unitary authority status, and a ceremonial county of England. For ceremonial purposes the county also includes the city of Kingston upon Hull, which is a separate unitary authority...

s of Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...

.

Facing Malton on the other side of the Derwent is Norton
Norton-on-Derwent
Norton-on-Derwent, commonly referred to as 'Norton', is a town and civil parish in the Ryedale district of North Yorkshire, England. Norton borders the market town of Malton, and is divided by the River Derwent...

. Malton Bacon Factory, Malton bus station and Malton railway station
Malton railway station
Malton railway station serves the towns of Malton and Norton-on-Derwent in North Yorkshire, England. It is currently operated by First TransPennine Express who provide all passenger train services.-Services:The typical Monday-Saturday off-peak service is:...

 are actually located in Norton-on-Derwent.

Malton is the local commercial centre. In the town centre there are lots of small traditional independent shops. The market place has recently become a meeting area with a number of coffee bars and cafés opening all day to complement the public houses.

Roman

The town stands on the site of a former Roman
Roman Britain
Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...

 settlement, although no firm conclusion has been agreed upon as to which this settlement actually was. The uncertainty surrounds, in particular, the exact location of the Roman town of Derventio. Contradictory records describe Derventio as being either 7 or 17 miles east 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...

. The former is consistent with the site of a Roman settlement known to have existed in proximity to the current village of Stamford Bridge
Stamford Bridge, East Riding of Yorkshire
Stamford Bridge is a village and civil parish on the River Derwent in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, approximately east of York.-Location and history:The village sits astride an ancient ford on the River Derwent....

, in which case the settlement at Malton is more likely to have been Delgovicia. The latter places Derventio at Malton.

If there is still academic debate about the name, what is certain is that Roman Malton was, from the second half of the first century, a busy and a lively place. Consisting firstly of the important cavalry fort whose remains lie in Old Malton under the former pasture land known as Orchard Fields, right beside a disused railway cutting, it eventually extended to include an adjoining area of civil settlement or vicus on the north bank, immediately south of the fort and sited above the necessary river crossing or bridge(s) below. Right opposite, on the southern side of the modern river Derwent (whose name is immediately traceable back to that Derventio commonly suggested as most likely place name in Roman times) was an area of ‘grid iron’ street planning and metal workshops which we know from an inscription included a goldsmith’s shop managed for its owner by a young slave. These ‘planned’ Roman streets on the south bank therefore seem natural precursor to the more industrial atmosphere and activity which modern Norton still retains to this day, whilst Roman Malton across the river could boast at least one fine townhouse that was furnished with painted walls, mosaic floors, heated rooms and sculptural architectural decoration, examples of which can all be seen in the Malton Museum in the Old Town Hall.

Likewise, what we know of Roman horse-keeping activity seems to echo modern Malton’s continuing reputation as another Yorkshire town famous for racehorse breeding and training. Derventio itself was a strategically important cavalry fort, 17 miles from the Legionary fortress at York (Eboracum) and standing at the very hub of Roman road networks extending right across North and East Yorkshire. Its known garrison, the Ala Picentiana, was a regiment or cavalry ‘wing’ of some repute, one arguably traceable from its first being raised in Gaul (modern France) under Julius Caesar himself; to its later serving in the Balkans (under a man called Picens whom the regiment is believed to be named after) before eventual posting to Britain. Marcus Claudius Bassus was a known commander of the regiment whilst in Malton, but another man called Candidus and his own links with the Ala at Derventio receive permanent record in a beautifully-lettered fragmentary dedication stone set up by the unit commander outside the south-east gate of the fort, then eventually found in 1970 before going on display in the Old Town Hall today.

As well as York itself, their road network shows us what key strategic and social links there were for Malton to the only other important Roman town located within the territory of the local Celtic tribe, the Parisii; namely their tribal capital, Roman naval-base and major ferry-crossing sited at Brough-on-Humber (Petuaria). As the historical novelist Clive Ashman so vividly puts it in “MOSAIC – the Pavement that Walked” (Voreda Books) his fictionalised account of not only the true-life, 1948 theft of a Roman mosaic from Brough, but also the original fate of the Roman villa it came from (and of the Ala Picentiana itself): “As for the glorious Ala traceable back to Julius Caesar’s Gallic Wars, it is an inevitable truth that hundreds of years later there came one final day when its men rode jingling out of Derventio fort, never to be seen there again.”

Once the Ala had gone, it was replaced towards the end of the Romans’ 350-year occupation by an irregular unit sent up from Brough – the Numerus Supervenientum Petuarensium. This proved just a temporary measure in what became ever darker times. From 367 AD until the last Roman troops withdrew around 405 AD, Roman Malton was attacked and ruined several times – by the end it was not much better than an enclosure of fallen rubble they were vainly cutting their fresh defensive ditches around. What they made of it all we can only guess, but we do know that these people living amongst the ruins of Roman Malton were about to enter that long period known to us now as the Dark Ages.

Mediaeval Malton

In the 11th century, a wooden Norman castle was built in what is now castle Garden. This had been rebuilt in stone by Eustace de Vescy by the time Richard the Lionheart visited the castle in 1189. Other visitors included Edward II, in 1307 and Robert the Bruce in 1322. The great house subsequently became ruined.

The castle site was inherited by Lord William Eure
William Eure, 1st Baron Eure
Sir William Eure of Witton was an English knight and soldier active on the Anglo-Scottish border. Henry VIII of England made him Baron Eure by patent in 1544. The surname is often written as 'Evers.' William was Governor of Berwick upon Tweed in 1539, Commander in the North in 1542, Warden of the...

 in 1544, when he was also made a baron
Baron
Baron is a title of nobility. The word baron comes from Old French baron, itself from Old High German and Latin baro meaning " man, warrior"; it merged with cognate Old English beorn meaning "nobleman"...

.The Eure family had a long and interesting connection with the area – William's son Ralph, born in 1510, defended Scarborough Castle against the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536 and became Warden of the East Marches . He was also involved in the burning of Edinburgh in 1544. The exploits of this bloody warrior are commemorated in Sir Walter Scott's poem entitled 'Lord Eurie'. In 1569, Ralph, 3rd Lord Eure built a new house on the castle site and in 1602, the house was rebuilt in much grander style. This was a spectacular property and it was described by the diarist and gunpowder plot
Gunpowder Plot
The Gunpowder Plot of 1605, in earlier centuries often called the Gunpowder Treason Plot or the Jesuit Treason, was a failed assassination attempt against King James I of England and VI of Scotland by a group of provincial English Catholics led by Robert Catesby.The plan was to blow up the House of...

ter Sir Henry Slingsby as the rival of many other great houses, including that at Audley End.

The house was subsequently demolished 1674 and the stones divided between two sisters, Mary and Margaret Eure. They had quarrelled over their inheritance and the demolition was the settlement ordered by Sheriff Henry Marwood. The Old Lodge Hotel is the remaining fragment of the original Jacobean
Jacobean architecture
The Jacobean style is the second phase of Renaissance architecture in England, following the Elizabethan style. It is named after King James I of England, with whose reign it is associated.-Characteristics:...

 "prodigy house
Prodigy house
The term "prodigy houses" has been applied to notable English Tudor and Elizabethan houses, usually built with a view to housing Elizabeth I and her entourage as they travelled around her realm...

" and its size hints at the grandeur of the complete structure.

Parliamentary representation

In Mediaeval times, Malton was briefly a parliamentary borough
Parliamentary borough
Parliamentary boroughs are a type of administrative division, usually covering urban areas, that are entitled to representation in a Parliament...

 in the 13th century, and again from 1640 to 1885; the borough
Malton (UK Parliament constituency)
Malton, also called New Malton, was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of England in 1295 and 1298, and again from 1640, then of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800 and of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1885...

 was sometimes referred to as New Malton. It was represented by two Members of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 until 1868, among them the political philosopher Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke PC was an Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist and philosopher who, after moving to England, served for many years in the House of Commons of Great Britain as a member of the Whig party....

, and by one member from 1868 to 1885.

Recent history

In 1982 Malton was the scene of an 800-man police siege when gunman Barry Prudom
Barry Prudom
Barry Peter Prudom was an English electrician and multiple murderer who became the subject of a police manhunt and what was at the time the largest armed police operation Great Britain had ever seen, involving 12 police forces. Prudom became a fugitive after killing Police Constable David Haigh on...

 hid in the village having murdered three people. Prudom briefly kidnapped three villagers, eventually shooting himself when his hideout was found by police.

Today

Attractions in modern Malton include the signposted remains of the Roman fort at 'Orchard Fields', the Malton Museum
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...

 and Malton Priory
Malton Priory
Malton Priory, Old Malton, North Yorkshire, England, is near to the town of Malton. A surviving fragment of a rare example of a monastery of the Gilbertine Order, founded by Eustace fitz John in about 1150....

 a Gilbertine priory
Priory
A priory is a house of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. Priories may be houses of mendicant friars or religious sisters , or monasteries of monks or nuns .The Benedictines and their offshoots , the Premonstratensians, and the...

. Eden Camp, a military themed museum, is located just outside the town.

Both towns are known in connection with Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...

 who made regular visits to the area to see his friend Charles Smithson, he also wrote the famous novel A Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol is a novella by English author Charles Dickens first published by Chapman & Hall on 17 December 1843. The story tells of sour and stingy Ebenezer Scrooge's ideological, ethical, and emotional transformation after the supernatural visits of Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of...

 while staying in Malton. There have been recent revivals of Dickens-related festivals.

Malton and the neighbouring village of Old Malton provide the settings for the collection of stories told in the book, "All is Bright - A Yorkshire Lad's Christmas" by Dave Preston.

In 2007 WSP Group and Atisreal for Ryedale District Council and Yorkshire Forward revealed new regeneration plans for Malton.

These plans include;
  • The Mount Hotel - to be modified and renovated into high quality Residential Apartments
  • York House - to be changed for community use/offices/Tourist Information/museum?
  • Livestock Market - area to be relocated to Pasture Lane. Once completed the old livestock market area will be in mixed use for retail, residential and parking.
  • The Market Place - Improved public realm and new pedestrian priority areas
  • Wheelgate - Improved pedestrian / shopping environment
  • Greengate - New delivery route for eastern section of Wheelgate
  • East Mount - New residential apartments and housing
  • Wentworth Street Car Park - Mixed use development (supermarket / residential / parking)


However, major property owners, the Fitzwilliam Estate, considers that taking a more traditionalist approach is a more appropriate option for the town.

Malton holds a market every Saturday, as well as a farmers' market
Farmers' market
A farmers' market consists of individual vendors—mostly farmers—who set up booths, tables or stands, outdoors or indoors, to sell produce, meat products, fruits and sometimes prepared foods and beverages...

 once every month. The town has a war memorial and several historical churches (Norton-on-Derwent also holds large church buildings). The town is served by Malton railway station
Malton railway station
Malton railway station serves the towns of Malton and Norton-on-Derwent in North Yorkshire, England. It is currently operated by First TransPennine Express who provide all passenger train services.-Services:The typical Monday-Saturday off-peak service is:...

.

Malton is a popular destination for people visiting North Yorkshire because of the nearby village of Kirby Misperton, the location of the largest amusement park in the region, Flamingo Land Theme Park and Zoo
Flamingo Land Theme Park and Zoo
Flamingo Land is a theme park and resort located in North Yorkshire, England. It attracts about 1.8 million visitors per year. Flamingo Land is also the 12th most visited theme park in Europe.Some of the major attractions at Flamingo Land include:...

.

Malton is the middle-ground 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...

, 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...

 (access to the North Yorkshire Moors and also a terminus of the North Yorkshire Moors Railway
North Yorkshire Moors Railway
The North Yorkshire Moors Railway is a heritage railway in North Yorkshire, England. First opened in 1836 as the Whitby and Pickering Railway, the railway was planned in 1831 by George Stephenson as a means of opening up trade routes inland from the then important seaport of Whitby. The line...

), Scarborough, Filey
Filey
Filey is a small town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. It forms part of the borough of Scarborough and is located between Scarborough and Bridlington on the North Sea coast. Although it started out as a fishing village, it has a large beach and is a popular tourist resort...

 and Whitby
Whitby
Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in the Scarborough borough of North Yorkshire, England. Situated on the east coast of Yorkshire at the mouth of the River Esk, Whitby has a combined maritime, mineral and tourist heritage, and is home to the ruins of Whitby Abbey where Caedmon, the...

.

Fitzwilliam (Malton) Estate

The Fitzwilliam (Malton) Estate owns and manages commercial, residential and agricultural property in and around the town of Malton. The Estate, whilst it has a commercial property business to manage, has a strong community focus with the aim of improving the town both socially and economically for the benefit of its tenants and the wider community.

Local community organisations are supported by charitable donations through the Earl Fitzwilliam Charitable Trust.

We Love Malton

The ‘We Love Malton’ campaign was launched in March 2009. It aims to reinvigorate the town of Malton as a 'Food Lovers' destination and raise its appeal with both residents and tourists. We Love Malton host events throughout the year, the flagship of these being the Malton Food Lovers Festival. This annual event entices over 10,000 visitors to the North Yorkshire town and features Michelin-starred and celebrity chefs and patrons. As well as this there are over 100 producers stalls, beer, wine and cider festival and family entertainment. The festival is now know as Yorkshire's Best.
The next Food Lovers Festival will take place on 19 and 20 May 2012.

Education

There are two secondary schools in Malton and Norton, Malton School
Malton School
Malton School is an 11-18 mixed comprehensive school of some 760 students , serving the market town of Malton and the surrounding area in Ryedale, North Yorkshire, England....

, founded in 1547, and Norton College
Norton College
Norton College is a mixed secondary school, sixth form, specialist humanities college in Norton, North Yorkshire, England. There are approximately 780 children on roll. The school was inspected by Ofsted in November 2007 and received an 'outstanding' assessment....

, a DCSF “High Performing” Specialist School and an Ofsted designated “outstanding” school. The town is served by St Mary's RC Primary School‎, Norton Community Primary School‎ and Malton Community Primary School. Woodleigh School the nearest independent school, drawing much of its intake from Malton and Norton.

Climate

As with the rest of the British Isles
British Isles
The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and...

 and Yorkshire, Malton possesses a maritime climate with cool summers and mild winters. The nearest Met Office weather station for which records are available is High Mowthorpe, about 6 miles east of the town centre. Due to its lower elevation, the town centre is likely to be marginally warmer than High Mowthorpe throughout the year.

By road

Malton is on the A64
A64 road
The A64 is a road in North and West Yorkshire, England which links Leeds, York and Scarborough. The A64 starts as the A64 ring road motorway in Leeds and then is a dual carriageway for the rest of its route, except parts of the road from Malton to Scarborough.The road approximates a section of the...

, which runs from Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

 and 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...

 to Scarborough, at the junction with the A169 to 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 Whitby
Whitby
Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in the Scarborough borough of North Yorkshire, England. Situated on the east coast of Yorkshire at the mouth of the River Esk, Whitby has a combined maritime, mineral and tourist heritage, and is home to the ruins of Whitby Abbey where Caedmon, the...

. A by-pass was built in 1979, but the narrow streets through the town centre are still very congested.

By train

Malton railway station
Malton railway station
Malton railway station serves the towns of Malton and Norton-on-Derwent in North Yorkshire, England. It is currently operated by First TransPennine Express who provide all passenger train services.-Services:The typical Monday-Saturday off-peak service is:...

 is on the TransPennine Express route, with fast trains every hour running from Scarborough 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...

, Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

, Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

 and Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

.

There are plans to re-open the rail link between Malton and 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...

, which would create a new service from Malton to Whitby
Whitby
Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in the Scarborough borough of North Yorkshire, England. Situated on the east coast of Yorkshire at the mouth of the River Esk, Whitby has a combined maritime, mineral and tourist heritage, and is home to the ruins of Whitby Abbey where Caedmon, the...

.

By bus

Malton is home to Coastliner
Yorkshire Coastliner
Yorkshire Coastliner is a bus operator based in Malton in North Yorkshire, England. It is owned by the Blazefield Group who also own, amongst others, Harrogate & District and Keighley & District in Yorkshire....

 (website), a division of the TransDev bus group. Buses run from Leeds and York through Malton to Pickering/Whitby, Scarborough, and Bridlington. There are also regular buses to Castle Howard
Castle Howard
Castle Howard is a stately home in North Yorkshire, England, north of York. One of the grandest private residences in Britain, most of it was built between 1699 and 1712 for the 3rd Earl of Carlisle, to a design by Sir John Vanbrugh...

 and Hovingham
Hovingham
Hovingham is a large village and civil parish in the Ryedale district of North Yorkshire, England. It is on the edge of the Howardian Hills and about 7 miles south of Kirkbymoorside....

, and a number of other local bus routes.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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