Kirkbymoorside - Ryedale
04 August 2010
Kirkbymoorside - "Church dwellings beside the moor" - this small market town has a wide main street, cobbled on either side and flanked by fine Georgian houses and welcoming hostelries. Situated just south of the North York Moors National Park on the A170 midway between Helmsley and Pickering. The town is an ideal location for a walking based holiday, being so near to the beautiful scenery of the moorland area.
Kirkbymoorside has a long history, the manor dating back to at least 1086 AD when it is known that it already included ten farms, a mill and a church. Farming has already been one of the main occupations in this area and indeed is still very important today, but there are many other industries too, particularly in the field of high technology and aviation. There is an Industrial Estate at nearby Kirby Mills, where in earlier days linen was produced from the locally-grown flax.
In Crown (or Red Lion) Square to the east of the Market Place, there is an early 16th century market cross. The two names by which the square is known stem from former inns that were sited there. The town still has six public houses, two of which (the George and Dragon, dating back to medieval times and the Kings Head, built in 1760) had their own breweries. Buckingham House, next to the Kings Head, was names after George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham who died there in 1687, from catching a chill whilst hunting on the nearby moors.
Behind the square stands the Parish Church of All Saints, dating back to Saxon times. It is known to have been rebuilt several times and there are 12th, 13th and 14th Century fragments to be seen around the building. Close by is the library, originally built in the 17th Century as a Grammar School. Methodist and Roman Catholic Churches are situated off Piercy End between the Market Place and the main road. The Friends Meeting House in West End was built in 1652.
The town has two castles, but sadly today there is very little evidence of either. The first was built in the 12th Century for Robert de Stuteville, who established nuns in Keldholme Priory. It was a wooden ditch-enclosed structure positioned on a hill above the church, overlooking the town. The last person to live in it was reputed to have been murdered and rumour has it that her ghost roams the small wood next to the castle site. The second castle was constructed in stone during the 15th Century for the Nevilles in the Castlegate / Manor Vale area - much of the stone was later used to build a hug toll booth, itself destroyed by fire in 1871. The last member of the Neville family to live in castle was banished by Queen Elizabeth for his part in the Pilgrimage of Grace (Rising of the North). A story is told that he managed to escape his captors by getting a local blacksmith to shoe his horse the wrong way round, so that there were no obvious tracks of his getaway route! The blacksmith was rewarded by only having to pay one arrow head per year as rent for his family home.
The town comes alive on Wednesdays as market traders sell fine produce from their stalls, and locals gather to exchange gossip. A walk up Vivers Hill, originally the site of one of Kirkbymoorside's’ two castles, offers a wonderful view over the town and of the Vale of Pickering. The town has an excellent brass band, which has won many accolades, and regularly plays at events in the area. A nearby attraction is the Ryedale Folk Museum at Hutton-le-Hole, a collection of rescued and restored historic buildings, which display the rich cultural history of Ryedale.
