Lealholm

Lealholm
Yorkshire North Riding
Lealholm in winter
Location
Grid reference:	NZ762076
Location:	54°27’32"N, -0°49’30"W
Data
Population:	383  (2011)
Post town:	Whitby
Postcode:	YO21
Dialling code:	01947
Local Government
Council:	North Yorkshire
Parliamentary constituency:	Scarborough and Whitby

Lealholm is a small village by Glaisdale in the North Riding of Yorkshire.

This villlage is sited at a crossing point of the River Esk, in Eskdale, which is within the North York Moors National Park. The nearest town is Whitby, nearly ten miles away by road.

The village is typical of those found all across the North York Moors which straddle the main through-routes along the valley bottoms. It is mostly built of local stone with pantiled or slate roofs.

A honeypot during the summer months, Lealholm is located midway along Eskdale, between the villages of Glaisdale, to the east and Danby to the west. It is on the route of the Esk Valley railway line, which runs from Whitby to Middlesbrough, and is served by Lealholm railway station. Lealholmside is a pretty hamlet by Lealholm.

History

Settlement around modern-day Lealholm can be traced back to the Domesday Book of 1086, with entries concerning the Manor of Crumbeclive and "Lelum" at the site of Lealholm Hall, Lealholmside.

Former Water Mill

St. James the Greater

Methodist Chapel

At the time of the Domesday survey, the site of the current village was heavily wooded, but with five charcoal-hungry iron smelting furnaces operating at the manor by 1274 A.D, the valley floor was cleared quickly of trees enabling drainage, cultivation and settlement of the land. Fulling mills, hostelries and other traders set up bases around this river crossing and thereby formed the nucleus of today's village centre. Until the middle of the 19th century Lealholm was the main centre of the parish of Glaisdale.

Lealholm had at least one mill for centuries, and the earliest records show a water mill located within the village in 1336 belonging to the Lord of the Manor, William le Latimer, 3rd Baron of Danby. As the mill was fed by the small Cow Beck, water could have been in short supply during dry summer months, and by 1709 it was demolished. A Quaker, Thomas Whatson, built a new mill on the old site, constructing a long mill-race from Crunkly Ghyll through the village to join Cow Beck. The mill-race now forms the boundary of the cricket pitch surrounding it on most sides as it passes the mill. The mill owners had the authority to clean and remove any woodland, earth or rubbish within 40 yards of the mill-race. (The site is now a garden centre, known as "Poet's Cottage" after the poet John Castillo, who lived in a cottage on the site, now demolished.

In more recent times, a mill, owned by the Nelson family, was used as the village hall, and became known as Nelson Hall. In the late 1980s it was sold and converted into a house. The historic Shepherds Hall was built in 1873 and was a meeting place for the Loyal Order of Ancient Shepherds Friendly Society. It is a unique building housing a tea rooms and riverside tea gardens.

Lealhom was a place of affection for Irish-born poet John Castillo, who wrote

"Ah lovely Lealholm! Where shall I begin. To say what thou art now and once hast been?".

On Friday 27 April 1979, an USAF Phantom aircraft from Alconbury was performing low level tactical reconnaissance over the North York Moors when the engine stalled. The aircraft banked left, striking the ground to the west of Lealholmside before cartwheeling in a fireball across fields for almost half a mile below the houses, killing the pilot and navigator.

About the village

Lealholm sits at the bottom of Crunkly Ghyll; a deep cutting where the river emerges into the flat bottom of a glacial U-shaped valley. The remains of the fording point are still visible next to the arched bridge used today, which dates back to the 17th century. Three roads lead from the centre of the village, one follows the river up the valley towards Danby; the second heads north past the hamlet of Lealholmside and across the moors towards Whitby; and the third leads south, towards Fryup and Rosedale.

Typical of the area are the mediæval cruck-built longhouses of Lealholm. These were constructed as single storey combined dwelling and beast houses and made of the local Jurassic limestone. Originally they had ling thatched roofs, but they were mostly re-roofed in the 19th century with slate or pantiles.

Though small, with fewer than 50 houses, Lealholm has a village shop, post office, petrol station and farm goods store. It also has the Forge Art Gallery (formerly a pottery), an Infant and Primary School, a cricket and football pitch, and three churches.

The village green, where the local team play quoits, lies alongside the river. There is a village hall, Ley Hall.

The village pubi is the Board Inn, a former coaching inn. - dates from the 18th century.

Lealholmside

Overlooking the village stands the hamlet of Lealholmside - a row of approximately 25 houses running along the side of the valley. It was a popular location with the photographer Francis Meadow Sutcliffe, who took many pictures in the area, although few of the village itself are in publication. It is here that the site of Lelum was located, at or near the present site of Lealholm Hall and home to the de Lelum family in 1274.

Sport

• Cricket: Lealholm Cricket Club

Pictures

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Lealholm)

• 
  Lealholm in Winter from St James' Church
• 
  Chapel Flood Markings
• 
  Lealholm Railway Station
• 
  Lealholm Railway Station from road bridge

Outside links

• eskvalley.com
• www.eskvalleyrailway.co.uk, Esk Valley Railway Development Company.
• www.forgehousegallery.co.uk, Forge House Art Gallery, Lealholm.
• www.theboardinn.com, The Board Inn - Lealholm's only public house.
• www.glaisdalepc.org.uk, Glaisdale Parish Council.