| Kirkbymoorside | |
Kirkbymoorside market place |
|
|
Kirkbymoorside
Kirkbymoorside shown within North Yorkshire |
|
| Population | 2,280 |
|---|---|
| OS grid reference | SE696865 |
| Parish | Kirkbymoorside |
| District | Ryedale |
| Shire county | North Yorkshire |
| Region | Yorkshire and the Humber |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | YORK |
| Postcode district | YO62 |
| Dialling code | 01751 |
| Police | North Yorkshire |
| Fire | North Yorkshire |
| Ambulance | Yorkshire |
| EU Parliament | Yorkshire and the Humber |
| UK Parliament | Thirsk and Malton (formerly Ryedale) |
| List of places: UK • England • Yorkshire | |
Kirkbymoorside is a small market town and civil parish in the Ryedale district of North Yorkshire, England, which lies approximately 25 miles (40.2 km) north of York midway between Pickering and Helmsley, and has a population of approximately 3,000.
Contents |
Kirkbymoorside is noted as "Chirchebi" in Domesday Book (1086). It has served as a trading hub at least since 1254, when it became a market town. There are two ancient coaching inns extant, 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.[1]
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.[2]
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.
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.[3]
The town is home to one of only two British aircraft producers left, Slingsby Aviation, the other being Britten-Norman on the Isle of Wight.
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 Section 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 anarchist poet and critic Herbert Read was born in Kirbymoorside,[4] and the area surrounding the town provided the inspiration for his only completed novel, The Green Child.[5]
Kirkbymoorside was connected to the national railway network from 1875 until 1964, when the track was lifted.
Today, bus route #128 from Helmsley to Scarborough passes through the town via West End and Piercy End. The service operates hourly on Mondays to Saturdays in peak summer, extending west beyond Helmsley to Sutton Bank. In the evenings and for most of the year the service is less frequent.
Connections to York are through either the #31X service from Helmsley or the #840 from Pickering; the #840 also calls at Kirby Misperton, the location of Flamingoland theme park and zoo, and Malton bus and railway station.
The town is in the catchment area of Ryedale School.
The Anglican 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.[6] 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.[7] There are also Methodist and Roman Catholic churches in the town. Earlier there were also Independent and Primitive Methodist chapels.[2]
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.[8] It belongs to the Pickering and Hull area meeting.[9] 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.[10]
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 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 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 [1], 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.[2] The team is also a member of the Ryedale Beckett League, and play in the top division.
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.
|
||||||||||||||||||||