Kirkby Moorside, North Riding of Yorkshire

Historical Description

Kirkby Moorside, a union town, a township, and a parish in the N.R. Yorkshire. The town stands on the river Dove, 6 miles ENE of Helmsley, and has a station on the N.E.R.; is almost surrounded by steep hills, in the centre of a large agricultural tract; is irregularly built, but pleasant; is a seat of petty sessions and a polling place; and has a head post office, two banks, several inns, and a building called the Tolbooth, a market-hall, police station, a literary institute, an agricultural society, a workhouse, a church, four dissenting chapels and a Roman Catholic chapel. The church is ancient, chiefly Decorated English; comprises nave, aisle, chancel, with N and S chancel chapels, massive circular S porch with priest's chamber over it, and a W tower rebuilt on the old lines in 1803, battlemented and pinnacled. It was restored and enlarged in 1873, and contains a fine brass of Lady Brooke and her eleven children. A weekly market is held on Wednesday, fairs are held on Whit-Wednesday, 18 Sept., and the Wednesday after 5 Nov., and horse and cattle markets are held on Candlemas, Wednesday after Palm Sunday, and May-day Wednesdays. Mailing, brewing, rope-making, agricultural implement making, iron and brass founding, and brick and tile making are carried on. A Cistercian nunnery stood about a mile from the town, was founded in the time of Henry II. by Robert de Stuteville, went at the dissolution to the Earl of Westmorland, and fell in the time of Elizabeth to the Crown. The Helmsley estate, of which Kirkby Moorside was a part, was given by James I. to the first Duke of Buckingham; was sold by the trustees of the second Duke, the noted George Villiers, to an ancestor of Sir Charles Dun-combe. Duke Villiers, after a ruinous course of extravagance, died in a house still standing in the market-place, next door to the King's Head Hotel. The township comprises 3908 acres; population, 1639. The parish contains also the townships of Fadmore, Gillamoor, and the hamlet of Keldholme. Acreage, 7449; population, 2005. Remains of an ancient castle are in the centre of the Manor Vale, and large quantities of fossil bones have been found. The living is a vicarage, united with Gillamoor, in the diocese of York; net value, , £326 with residence. Patron, the Earl of Feversham.

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Kirkby Moorside from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Kirkby-Moorside (All Saints))

Land and Property

The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for the North Riding of Yorkshire is available to browse.

Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following North Riding newspapers online:

• York Herald
• Daily Gazette for Middlesbrough
• Yorkshire Gazette
• Yorkshire Evening Press
• Whitby Gazette