Stonebeck Up is a civil parish in Harrogate district, North Yorkshire, England. Historically it was a township in the ancient parish of Kirkby Malzeard.[1]
The only village in the parish is Middlesmoor.
The parish occupies the highest part of Nidderdale. It is bounded on the south side by Stean Beck, from which the parish takes its name (stean being a dialect form of "stone"), and which separates it from the parish of Stonebeck Down.[2] To the west and north it is bounded by a ridge, including the summits of Great Whernside and Little Whernside, and to the west it is bounded by Masham Moor, a ditch known as Mere Dike, and the River Nidd. The parish includes Angram and Scar House Reservoirs, and large areas of grouse moor.
In the middle ages Stonebeck Up formed part of the lands of Byland Abbey, which established granges at Middlesmoor, Limley, Newhouses, Woodale, Lodge, Angram, Haden Carr and Scar House.[3] The granges survived as farming communities into the twentieth century, although some were submerged by the reservoirs.