A Walk Around Kirkbymoorside Town
Take a stroll around the town and discover its treasures
All Saints Church
The market town of Kirkbymoorside takes its name from its parish church, as the town name means 'the church at the head of the moors', which describes the location perfectly. A busy, warm and welcoming church, in addition to regular worship and candlelit Taizé services, it hosts many secular events throughout the year.
​
The first record of a church is from the 10th century, but there was almost certainly a church here at least 200 years before that when a timber church was built on the site of a pagan temple: the timber building was destroyed in a Viking raid.
The church was mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, but the present building was built around 1250, with additions throughout the medieval period.
The earliest parts of the building are the nave and aisle arcades built in the 13th century. The aisles and porch date to around 1450 and the porch has a ‘parvise’, or priest's room over the arch, accessed by a staircase beside the south door. The roofs of the nave and aisle date to the 15th century.
​
The tower was rebuilt in the Georgian period and the whole church was restored in 1874 by Sir George Gilbert Scott who added the vestry, Lady Chapel and the carved pulpit and screen. The chancel screen was designed by Scott's pupil Temple Moore in 1919 as a war memorial.​
​
There are some fascinating old graves, including a Grade II Listed Chest Monument , the 'Little Dutch Boy's grave, and the graves of elderly London 'street walkers' evacuated to Kirkbymoorside during WWII. Behind the church is the Millennium Garden, a peaceful place to sit a while, and the home of the Community Kitchen Garden.
Kirkbymoorside Windmill
Glimpsed from afar and then lost from sight, the Kirkbymoorside Windmill stands at the rear of houses on West End. It was originally built in 1839 for the Rivis family of Yoad Wath Mill at a cost of £1,000.
In 1875 the sails were removed and sent to Hawsher Mill and it was given a pitched roof and powered by a paraffin engine. Later, it was converted into a house and became Grade II listed in 1976.
Kirkbymoorside Library
Managed and run by dedicated and enthusiastic volunteers Kirkbymoorside Community Library and Information Centre is the very heart of the community, providing a safe place for contact, information and support to all. The library is open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday 09:30 – 12:30, Wednesday 08:30 – 5:30 and Friday 09:30 – 5:00.
​
Free to join, you can borrow books, e-books, audio books and large-print editions (including an up to date selection of books for children and teens): a home library service is available for those not able to access the library. There is lots of local information, bus timetables, local history books and public use computers, with friendly staff ready to help with online form filling, printing or photocopying.
​
A bright and welcoming children's area has regular storytelling sessions and other parent and child events. Meeting rooms are available to hire and the library hosts lectures, exhibitions, meetings and music evenings. The offices of the Town Clerk are housed within the building.​​
Manor Vale Woodland / Neville Castle
An ancient woodland, Manor Vale Woodland is extensively used by the local community for quiet recreation and has open public access. It is located on the northern edge of Kirkbymoorside it is accessed via the bridlepath leading from Castlegate, Manor Vale Lane off Dale End, and via the public footpath from Gillamoor Road. Around a thousand years ago, Manor Vale Wood was part of a Norman deer park. The park was a large space, but fully enclosed to control the deer - as a result of which it also protected areas of natural woodland, forming a continuous link between the earlier and current landscape. The huge Manor Vale Ash is probably the largest and oldest tree here, thought to have begun life in the early 1600's.
Manor Vale Wood was once part of a much larger estate, at the centre of which stood Neville Castle, home of the powerful Neville family (holders of the Manor of Kirbymoorside) from the beginning of the 15th century until 1569. Its ruins can be seen in the south-east corner of the wood next to Castlegate Lane. Excavations in the 1960's / 70's uncovered a complex sequence of buildings, starting with a timber cruck framed hall which was occupied until about the end of the 15th century, when it was replaced by a larger, more grandiose set of stone buildings arranged around a courtyard. Pottery remains show that the site was occupied as long ago as the 12th century.
_edited.jpg)
Black Swan Hotel
The Black Swan in the Market Place, with its half-timbered porch, dates from 1634. It served as a coaching inn in the early 19th century, and as a pub for many years, although the right-hand section was divided later in the century to become a shop.
At one time, a small lean-to next to the porch (now demolished) sold take-home alcohol.​ It served as an Indian restaurant in the early 2010s before again becoming a pub. The building was Grade II listed in 1955.
Memorial Hall
The Memorial Hall, built in 1695 with stone taken from the ruined Neville Castle, was previously known as the Toll Booth. Originally it had three floors: at street level the Market Hall which housed shops, a courtroom on the next floor and a number of workshops on the top floor. There were stone steps leading from the Market Place down into a vaulted cellar that served as the town prison or ‘hoppit’.
In 1871 a dreadful fire gutted the Toll Booth, the horse pulling the fire engine from Helmsley dying in the street before it reached the burning building. When it was rebuilt in 1872 it was decided not to replace the top floor.
Because of heavy death duties payable by the Feversham / Duncombe family, the Tollbooth building, along with the Wednesday Market Charter and the annual Fair Rights, were sold to the town in 1919 and it became known as the Kirkbymoorside War Memorial Hall.
After World War I, returning soldiers used what is now called the Dugout as a meeting place. The names of the fallen from World War I and World War II are commemorated on plaques in the Hall.
From the 1920s until the 1960s, it was partly used to house the Electric Cinema, with a projection booth built out on the side of the building to reduce the fire risk from flammable film.
The building was Grade II listed in 1955 and is used as an events venue, and to host a weekly market.
Shopping for Antiques
Kirkbymoorside is a great place to spend an afternoon browsing for antiques and collectables. The home of the 'Yorkshire Auctioneer,' Angus Ashworth, Ryedale Auctioneers (next to Daisy Garden Centre on the A170) hold regular specialist auctions - for details see https://www.ryedaleauctioneers.com/upcoming-auctions/ (please note that the auction house is only open to the public on viewing and sale day).
In the town are also three antique / collectables shops: Tony Popek Antiques, Market Place, (open Mon, Wed, Fri and Sat 10.00 - 16.00), Number Five, West End (open at 10.00 on Wed and Sat) and Court Yard Collectables Showroom (part of Pickering Antiques), Piercy End, (open Wed - Sat 10.00 - 16.00).
Buckingham House
Built in the 17th century, the house became known as Buckingham House after George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, died in the house in 1687, following a hunting accident. George Villiers (1628-1687) was an English courtier, politician and writer whose political career was marked by scandals, intrigues and feuds.
Alexander Pope claimed he died "in the worst inn's worst room", but J. Gibson of Welburn Hall instead stated it was "the best house in Kirkby Moorside, which neither is nor ever was an alehouse" [this comment makes sense as there were over a dozen pubs in Kirkbymoorside].
The house was later extended to the rear, and subdivided, splitting off Garth End House and a shop (now the town's Post Office). The building was Grade II listed in 1985.
The Town Pinfold
Located on Manor Vale Lane, just off Dale End, is the site of the town's 'pinfold' or pound, an enclosure to hold stray animals found wandering or grazing on common land without the right to do so. Owners would have to pay a fine and the bill for feeding the animal to get them back. Each town employed a 'Pinder,' a man paid to round up and care for stray animals: between 1858 and 1874 the last two Pinders appointed in Kirkbymoorside were Thomas Lealman and then George Atkinson.
​
The pinfold was also used to house animals overnight when drovers passed through on their way to auction marts. Close to the pinfold there was once a row of tiny cottages call The Lallies used by Lowland (or Lallan) Scots drovers overnight.
​
Commissioned by the Town Council, the current occupants of the pinfold were made by Michael Bennett of MUST Forge.
​
Animals were also sold at market in Kirkbymoorside, and the town has a number of 'ginnels' or narrow alleyways where dogs could get ahead of any runaways to round them up. In 1868 it was recorded that 'Fairs are held on Whit-Wednesday and on the 18th September for horses and cattle, also a statute fair for hiring servants on the Wednesday after the 5th November'.
The Buttercross
A buttercross is a type of market cross where people would gather to buy locally produced butter and other dairy products, laid out and displayed on the circular stepped base of the cross.
​
Located in Crown Square, at the corner of 'The Shambles' (back of the Memorial Hall), in 1904 Kirkbymoorside's Buttercross was the setting for a photograph of group attending a Quakers summer school, with one man perched primly on the top of the cross. The photograph it thought to include a rare picture of philanthropist Joshua Rowntree (who set up the Quaker summer schools) in the centre of the group.
