50 Facts about Ryedale
Fifty (maybe more, we haven't counted them) unique
and unusual facts that you might not have known about Ryedale - our
heritage, folklore, residents and environment.
If you have an interesting fact about Ryedale, or if you
think we've got one of our facts wrong, please get in touch using
the email address or the feedback form below.
One of the largest known gooseberries was grown by Mr Bernard
Harland of Pickering. In 1994 he showed a Yellow Woodpepper
Gooseberry, weight of 31drams 22 grains, at the Egton Gooseberry
Fair and won first prize.
The highest point in Ryedale? The
crown of Round Hill (454m) is just a few yards outside Ryedale
though the boundary around there may be just below the 450m mark.
Certainly the Urra Moor general area is higher than Bilsdale Moor
which rises to about 420m. Round Hill (above Ingleby Greenhow)
is said to be the highest point on the Cleveland Way.
Over 14,000 sandbags were used when the River Derwent burst its
banks in and around Malton and Norton in March 1999.
If you hear somebody talking about Fat Betty, Young or Old
Ralph, don't worry these are just stone crosses in the North York
Moors.
King Billy, Uncle Sam's, Monkman's Slaughter, Scoresby Stour,
Backwood's Bitter, Two Pints, Olde Bob, Double Chance are all
current or past locally brewed beers from the Cropton Brewery and
Malton Brewery Company and take their names from local fables and
facts.
The tallest lime tree in Britain can be found at Duncombe Park,
Helmsley - measuring 46 x 3.7 metres.
The North Riding Forest Park, now known as Dalby Forest, is
the largest upland heath forest in the country.
The North York Moors National Park has the largest expanse of
heather upland in England.
You can find a bridge over nothing on the village green at
Sinnington, along with the world's first stainless steel
maypole.
The North Yorkshire Moors Railway runs steam trains along 18
miles of track from Pickering to Grosmont and is the longest steam
operated railway in Great Britain.
Richard III held court at Sheriff Hutton Castle. The tomb of
Edward, Prince of Wales, Richard III's only child can be found at
the Church of St Helen in Sheriff Hutton.
The Battle of Byland was fought in 1322, two miles from the
Abbey. King Edward II was surprised (and almost captured) by an
invading Scottish army as he sat dining with the Abbots
The longest lime tree avenue in Europe can be seen on the drive
up to Castle Howard.
Hovingham Hall was the childhood home of HRH the Duchess of
Kent. Her brother Sir Marcus Worsley still lives in the family
home.
King Ethelwald is allegedly buried at St Gregory's Minster,
Kirkdale
A cave at Kirkdale was found in 1821. In it the remains of
hundreds of hyena, bear, tiger, elephant and wolf were discovered.
One theory at this time was that Noah's flood had involved
Yorkshire, but it is fairly certain that the cave was a hyena
den.
One well-known resident of Kirkbymoorside was George Villiers,
the 2nd Duke of Buckingham (1628 - 1687). Rich and powerful, he was
said to be one of the most notorious and dazzling courtiers of his
time, but died in shame after a life of drunkenness, violence and
general misbehaviour. Legend says he lay dying in the worst room of
the worst inn in Kirkbymoorside, but this is not so. He died in one
of the best houses in the town next door to the King's Head Inn.
The parish register records his death simply as "1687, George
Vilaus, lord dooke of bookingham". His intestines were buried at
Helmsley and his body taken back to London for burial beside his
father in Westminster Abbey.
George Hudson the 'railway king', who pioneered the York to
Scarborough line, is buried in the churchyard at Scrayingham.
The top three largest towns in
the District of Ryedale in order of population size according
to estimates supplied in the year 2000 are as follows:
(i) Pickering - 6710;
(ii) Norton on Derwent - 6620; (iii) Malton -
4840.
The wonderful Yorkshire dialect poet, John Castillo, "The Bard
of the Dales" was born in 1792, the son of a wandering Irishman who
married a girl from Yorkshire. Castillo was born in Ireland before
his family moved back to Yorkshire, whereupon he became a methodist
preacher. His gravestone in Pickering bears an extract from his
most popular dialect poem "Oad Isaac".
Norton is the Newmarket of the north and has a long
tradition of training racehorses. The famous entertainer George
Formby was an apprentice jockey at Norton.
Ryedale District Council was
formed in 1974. The pre-1974 councils were:
Flaxton Rural District Council;
Norton Rural District Council; Pickering Urban District Council;
Kirkbymoorside Rural District Council; Pickering Rural District
Council; Malton Urban District Council; Helmsley Rural District
Council; Malton Rural District Council; and Norton Urban District
Council.
Many of the former Prime Minister Harold Wilson's ancestors were
from Ryedale and can be traced back to his great-grandfather who
was the Workhouse Master in Helmsley. When Lord Wilson was seeking
a territorial appendage on being created a baron in 1983, he chose
Rievaulx.
Sir Herbert Read (1893 - 1968) the poet and critic was born in
Stonegrave, near Helmsley.
Ian Carmichael's favourite place is Duncombe Park, where he met
his wife whilst serving with the 22nd Dragoons of the 30th Armoured
Brigade during the Second World War.
The mysterious Hole of Horcum is a huge hollow in Levisham Moor,
which provides the basis for an interesting local legend. One
legend relates how the Giant Wade scooped out the earth to throw at
his wife Bell. Another is that the devil picked up a huge handful
of earth and cast it across the moors to form the 800ft-high Blakey
Topping.
Ryedale is the location of many television and film
locations. The most famous is Heartbeat which is filmed in the
North York Moors and uses the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.
Brideshead Revisited - the TV series - was based at Castle Howard
(and is now the location for a new film in 2008). The original film
about James Herriott - All Creatures Great and Small - was set
around Malton and Pickering.
At St Gregory's Minster at Kirkdale, visitors will see a Saxon
sundial carved on a 7ft slab of stone. This is the most complete
example of its kind in the world and shows the eight hours of a
Saxon day. The inscription on the sundial reads "Orm Gamal's son
bought St Gregory's Minster when it was all broken down and fallen
and he let it be made new from the ground to Christ and to St
Gregory in the days of Edward the King and of Tosti the Earl. And
Harwarth me wrought and Brand priest."
Terrington is thought to be the location of Britain's
most northern lavender farm - Yorkshire Lavender.
The Yorkshire Wolds is the northernmost most outcrop of chalk
hills. The grassland is rich in chalkland plants like the Pyramidal
Orchid and Purple Milk Vetch and is a haven for butterflies
including the Marbled White - at the northenmost limit of its
range.
Farndale is a long and remote valley which reaches deep into the
centre of the moors. The dale is famed for its wild daffodils.
Every spring, around the middle of April, the banks of the River
Dove are covered with small yellow daffodils. They are the true
wild daffodils native to Great Britain. Yorkshire folk often call
them "Lentern Lilies", because they bloom around that season. Over
50,000 visitors come to see the daffodils every year.
Peter Walker, who wrote under the pseudonym of Nicolas Rhea, the
author of the books which inspired the Heartbeat television series,
was the village bobby in Oswaldkirk from 1963 to 1967.
Edmund Burke (1729-97) was the MP for Malton for fourteen years
from 1780 as well as a famed Irish thinker and politician.
John Wesley's first missionaries to America came from Ryedale
communities between Bransdale and Farndale. John Board and Joseph
Pilmore responded to John Wesley's call at a Methodist conference
in Leeds for volunteers to serve "in the wilderness of America".
They landed later that year, after surviving what Pilmore described
as "a fearful storm" at Gloucester Point near Philadelphia.
St Peter and St Paul's Church, Pickering houses a memorial to
Robert King and his son Nicholas who went to America in the
eighteenth century and helped plan the city of Washington DC.
The walls of the church of St Peter and St Paul at Pickering
bear a unique gallery of 15th century wall-paintings. Discovered in
the 15th century they were promptly concealed with whitewash
because the vicar thought that they would encourage idolatry.
Happily, they were rediscovered in 1878. They depict scenes form
the Bible, from history and from legend ranging from St George
slaying the dragon to the martyrdom of St Thomas-a-Becket.
The Reverend William Scoresby, who was born in 1879 at Cropton
near Pickering, was the son of the famous Whitby whaler - William
Scoresby Snr. Scoresby Snr, who invented the crow's nest, first
took his son on a whaling trip to Greenland when he was ten. By the
age of twenty-one he had captained his first ship and brought the
whaler Resolution back with a record quantity of whale oil.
Hutton le Hole, as well as being one of the showpiece villages
of the Moors, is unusual as the common land of the village and
surrounding area is still administered by a courts leet. The
Spaunton Court Leet and Court Baron with View of Frankpledge is one
of the few remaining Courts Leet in the country.
A few unusual residents can be found in the moorland villages of
Hutton le Hole and Appleton le Moors. Common grazing is still
practised and sheep can be found wandering around the village,
grazing on the roadside, greens and gardens.
Wharram Percy is a classic deserted village in the Yorkshire
Wolds. Now in the care of English Heritage, the site tells the
story of a village abandoned in the 16th century probably when
farming methods changed from arable fields to sheep.
Rievaulx Abbey Yorkshire's first Cistercian Abbey, was once home
to 150 monks and 500 lay brothers. The wealth of the Abbey came
mostly from their success as sheep farmers. At one time the Abbey
farmed 14,000 sheep on the moors and the monks were very successful
at selling wool to cloth merchants from Flanders, France and
Italy.
The world's largest onion bhaji was made at the Jinnah
Restaurant near Flaxton, Malton. Weighing 3.12kg and with a
diameter of 51cm, the bhaji has been officially recognised as the
largest in the world by the Guinness Book of Records.
The Ryedale Folk Museum is the home of the oldest daylight
photographic studio in the country. Dating back to 1902, this
Edwardian photographic studio incorporated a darkroom and a
finishing room at one end, with a large area lit by daylight
illumination suitable for photography. In 1911 it was dismantled
from its location in York and transported by horses and carts to
Hutton le Hole.
Richard Spruce, the famous 19th century naturalist, lived at
Coneysthorpe and is buried at Terrington. He was responsible for
bringing quinine into mass production as an anti-malaria antidote.
A great Victorian plant expert, he explored the Amazon and was one
of the first ethno-botanists.
A Witch Post can be found on the smoke hood which covers the
fireplace in Stangend, a cruck cottage dating back to the mid 15th
century, which is one of the exhibits at the Ryedale Folk Museum.
It is thought that they were intended to protect the house or
hearth from the influence of witches or prevent them from entering
the house. Less than 20 of these carved posts are known, all in
north east Yorkshire, except one found in Lancashire.
The North York Moors National Park is one of the country's
greatest strongholds for the breeding of merlins, a small
falcon.
The "electrogena-affinis", a type of mayfly, is found nowhere
else in Britain and is therefore unique to the River Derwent
in Ryedale.
If laid end to end the 15 million aluminium cans that Ryedale
District Council has collected for recycling would stretch from
Land's End to John O'Groats.
One of the last breeding grounds of the Great Bustard was in
Ryedale, on the Yorkshire Wolds.
A Geological Survey of the Yorkshire Coast by George Young and
John Bird 1828 found that the well at Cropton was no less than
216 feet deep.