Easingwold is an unspoilt Georgian North Yorkshire market town nestled in the Easingwold Market Squareshade of the rolling Hambleton Hills and located just 10 miles up the A19 from the York ring road.

Easingwold is well located for the many York Park’n’Ride centres giving easy access to York. Easingwold is also a fantastic touring centre and the gateway to the North York Moors, the Yorkshire Dales, the resorts of Scarborough and Filey and the historic Dinosaur Coast of Whitby and Robin Hoods Bay.

But here in the Easingwold area they have also much to offer the visitor. Long quiet country lanes for cycling, bridleways to ride on for weeks on end and a whole range of footpaths on which to spend an afternoon exploring the beautiful Hambleton Hills that run through our area – the green rolling foothills of the wild and inspirational North York Moors.

If that sounds too energetic, then spend leisurely days touring around our pretty villages, all of them as individual as you are and as welcoming as you could wish. There are some lovely villages located in the countryside around Easingwold, varying from larger village centres such as Stillington, Helperby or Crayke to small picturesque hamlets such as Myton on Swale or Whenby. Many have Norman churches which you are welcome to view while some have at their centre the traditional and bustling village shop and friendly pub, of which most nowadays will offer you food as well!

Stillington
The village Post Office and Store went up for sale (2022) and a replacement buyer could not be found. Rather than let the village lose its vital facility – the village bought the store! After obtaining grants from many sources and the issue of “shares” to each villager, the Stillington Post Office and Store is now run by volunteers for the whole community and is acknowledged as being a resounding success by everyone involved!

The northern villages of our area are close to, or are in, the North York Moors National Park and their character reflects this.

Coxwold
with its unique octagonal church tower (and a most surprising interior!) and well kept cottages. Situated on a hill and just inside the North York Moors National Park, Coxwold has an excellent pub/restaurant, resident potter & cabinet maker, a really wonderful tearoom and lovely rolling countryside all around. It holds the home of Lawrence Sterne in Shandy Hall who wrote the famous novel of “Trystan Shandy” and is now a museum in the care of the Lawrence Sterne Trust. Nearby is the hamlet of Byland with the spectacular ruins of Byland Abbey, once one of the largest Abbeys in Europe!

Crayke,
The Village is perched on a hill and with views as far as one can see. But that’s not all, Crayke has some of the areas most lovely architecture and the sight of the Village Green with its spring daffodils is a sight for sore eyes indeed! Not forgetting of course, its famous pub, the Durham Ox winner of the AA Pub of the Year 2007-2008 and many other prestigious awards. Crayke itself has been inhabited since bronze age times as recent archaeological finds have confirmed. Due to a quirk of fate, Crayke was an isolated outpost of the diocese of Durham – hence the pub’s name and only joining that of York at the beginning of the last century. It is believed that this is the famous hill up which the Grand Old Duke of York marched his 10,000 men! Whle the annual village fete always attracts a celebrity or two.

Husthwaite,
a small village on the western border of the Vale of York with the scenic escarpment of Beacon Banks behind it. Cottage in Husthwaite Views to the White Horse of Kilburn from Husthwaite Green Church of St. Nicholas, Husthwaite

The Rivers Swale and Ure
flow though our area fresh from the Yorkhire Dales of Swaledale and Wensleydale respectively. They give a different aspect to the scenery and activities in our area. For example, you can walk on the many riverside footpaths (see walks) or cycle on a purpose made cycle track all the way from Benningborough right into the middle of York! Opportunities are here for your boat – from Hull you can sale up the Ouse to York and carry on through the area all the way up to Ripon! Linton Locks is a major boating centre on the River Ouse and of course our rivers mean excellent fishing locations! River Ouse at Linton Locks, a popular picnic spot with cafe River Ouse at Benningborough Village Glorious fishing pegs on the River Swale at Fawdington, near Helperby.

The southern Villages present a different aspect of North Yorkshire life. Roads here tend to be flatter, straighter and are quiet rural backwaters where you can tour or cycle all day to your hearts content.

Alne and Newton on Ouse
are bewitching and will encourage you to stay just that little bit longer while talking in their situation and hopefully the fantastic food found in the myriad of food pubs and famed restaurants found within.

Sutton-on-the-Forest
is a village community on the way to York, although it rigorously safeguards the green countryside in between! The village has its very own Stateley Home although its ‘Forest’ has long gone, having been felled for making wooden sailing ships for the British Navy!

Huby
The Norse settlement of Huby on the other hand is more practical with a fish and chip shop located next to a farm and a popular village shop. It has one of the oldest Quaker Meeting Houses in the country while Gracious Street is so name because it’s residents were spared the plague which otherwise ravaged this area. The old delivery bicycle for the Village Shop gets a well earned rest nowadays

Tollerton and Tholthorpe
are mini communities in their own right both with large village greens. Tholthorpe in particular was an important airfield in the last war with many Canadians stationed there. On Tholthorpe Green there is a memorial to them made from Canadian Granite.

Helperby and Brafferton
are further examples of villages originating from seperate, but adjacent, Anglo Saxon and Viking communities, each thought to share a central area or market place. The River Swale at Brafferton, the older of the two villages, was chosen by St. Paulinus as a place of baptism after converting King Edwin of Northumbria. It is reputed that ten thousand people entered the river to be baptised and those who entered with some “feeblenesse and infirmtie” returned from the river “whole and reformed”.