Finghall

The village is mentioned in Domesday Book as Fingall, when it belonged to Count Alan and had 13 villagers.{{cite web |title=Fingall {{!}} Domesday Book |url=https://opendomesday.org/place/SE1889/fingall/ |website=opendomesday.org |accessdate=26 May 2019}} The origin of the place-name is the Old English words Fin, inga and hall meaning a nook of land of the family or followers of a man called Fina. The place-name appears as Finegala in Domesday Book of 1086 and as Finyngale in 1157.{{cite book|title=A Dictionary of British Place Names|first= A. D.|last= Mills|publisher=Oxford University Press| location=Oxford| orig-year= first published 1991|date=2011|edition=First edition revised 2011|isbn=9780199609086|page=189}}

File:Looking Towards Finghall Village.jpg

Finghall was a large ancient parish in the wapentake of Hang West in the North Riding of Yorkshire. The parish included the townships of Finghall, Constable Burton, Akebar and Hutton Hang, all of which became separate civil parishes in 1866. From 1974 to 2023 it was part of the district of Richmondshire, it is now administered by the unitary North Yorkshire Council.

In the 1820s Finghall had a population of 126, which had dropped to 111 by 1872 and 99 by 1897.{{cite web |title=History of Finghall, in Richmondshire and North Riding {{!}} Map and description |url=http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/12580 |website=www.visionofbritain.org.uk |accessdate=26 May 2019}}{{cite book |last1=Speight |first1=Harry |title=Romantic Richmondshire : Being a complete account of the history, antiquities and scenery of the picturesque valleys of the Swale and Yore |url=https://archive.org/details/romanticrichmon00speigoog |date=1897 |publisher=E Stock |location=London |page=[https://archive.org/details/romanticrichmon00speigoog/page/n32 20]|oclc= 252008733}} The 12th-century church is dedicated to St Andrew{{cite web |title=Genuki: Finghall, Yorkshire (North Riding) |url=https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/NRY/Finghall |website=www.genuki.org.uk |accessdate=26 May 2019}} and is adjacent to the beck and quite near the A684 road. It is thought that the Medieval village of Fingall was clustered around the church but was abandoned during a plague.{{cite news |title=Nowt tekken out |url=https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/7131894.nowt-tekken-out/ |accessdate=26 May 2019 |work=The Northern Echo |date=26 August 2000}}

The village had a railway station on the Wensleydale Railway, which opened in the 1850s and closed in 1954.{{cite book |last1=Hoole |first1=Ken |title=Railway stations of the North East |date=1985 |publisher=David & Charles |location=Newton Abbot |isbn=0-7153-8527-5 |page=164}} It was reopened on the heritage Wensleydale Railway in 2004. The village has an annual Spring Bank Holiday Barrel Push, which sees competitors push an {{convert|18|impgal|adj=on}} metal beer barrel over a distance of {{convert|1,000|m|order=flip}}.{{cite news |editor-last=Chapman|editor-first=Hannah|title=Little Alf star guest at barrel push |work=Darlington & Stockton Times |issue=20–2019 |date=17 May 2019 |page=5|issn=2516-5348}}

The village public house is the Queen's Head.{{cite web |title=The Queen's Head, Finghall {{!}} Home page |url=https://www.queensfinghall.co.uk/ |website=queensfinghall.co.uk |accessdate=26 May 2019}} A local legend maintains that the willows that line the beck to the north of the village, of which there is a good view from the dining room and terrace of the pub, inspired Kenneth Grahame to write The Wind in the Willows.{{cite news |title=Review: The Queen's Head, Finghall, Leyburn |url=https://www.darlingtonandstocktontimes.co.uk/news/13784791.review-the-queens-head-finghall-leyburn/ |accessdate=26 May 2019 |work=Darlington and Stockton Times |date=25 September 2015}} The village to the east is Newton-le-Willows.{{cite book |last1=Speight |first1=Harry |title=Romantic Richmondshire : Being a complete account of the history, antiquities and scenery of the picturesque valleys of the Swale and Yore |url=https://archive.org/details/romanticrichmon00speigoog |date=1897 |publisher=E Stock |location=London |page=[https://archive.org/details/romanticrichmon00speigoog/page/n393 341]|oclc= 252008733}}

• Edward Banks (4 January 1770 – 5 July 1835), noted builder (Waterloo Bridge and London Bridge){{cite news |last1=Gleeson |first1=Janet |title=History Day to gather information |url=https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/local/northyorkshire/17341663.appeal-for-history-of-finghall/ |accessdate=26 May 2019 |work=The Northern Echo |date=8 January 2019}}
• Russ Swift (born 1951), British precision driver.

• Listed buildings in Finghall

{{Reflist}}

{{Commons category|Finghall}}

• [https://www.constable-burton-finghallpc.org.uk/ Constable Burton & Finghall Parish Council Website]
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHtoi4J1lSo Video footage of Finghall Lane railway station]

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Category:Villages in North Yorkshire

Category:Civil parishes in North Yorkshire