Thornton Watlass

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Thornton Watlass is a parish in the wapentake of Hang East; 3 miles southwest of Bedale; a parochial village. Here is a seat of Sir Edw. Dodsworth, Bart. of Newland hall, who resides here occasionally. Pop. 180. The church, which is dedicated to St. Mary is a rectory in the patronage of Mark Milbank, Esq.

About half way up the church steeple, a door on the right, opens into a room with stone floor, four spaces square, in which is a fire-place and other conveniences. For what purpose this room has been used, the records of the church are silent. Probably as a watch tower, it having small windows in the sides."

A quiet village about 5 minutes west of the A1, with a village green, which completes the English rural scene with its cricket pitch.

Directions: A684 towards Bedale, B6268 towards Masham, after 2 miles turn right at crossroads to Thornton Watlass, the Hotel is situated by the Cricket Green. Thornton Watlass Hall dates from the 11th century and has been occupied by the same family for just under 1000 years.

The Hall has featured in TV dramas over the years such as the BBC’s All Creatures Great and Small and ITV’s Wuthering Heights. For the last 9 years it has also been the home to ‘Lord Ashfordly’, as Ashfordly Hall in another ITV production; ‘Heartbeat’.

Thornton Watlass is one of many small settlements in and around Wensleydale whose antiquity is demonstrated by the presence of Saxon-age remains. St. Mary's Church stands on the southern edge of the village, and contains fragments of two separate cross-heads, each of which appears to feature a carved figure that has been assumed in the past to represent the crucifixion.

The Hall is located in North Yorkshire, near to Bedale, and just ten minutes west of the A1. Trains on the main line stop at Northallerton which is 11 miles (a 20-minute drive) from the Hall.