Goathland

File:Goathland_Church.jpg

Goathland village is {{convert|148|m|order=flip}} above sea level and has a recorded history dating back to just after the Norman Conquest, though the settlement was not mentioned in the Domesday Book.{{cite web |title=Goathland, Scarborough - area information, map, walks and more |url=https://getoutside.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/local/goathland-scarborough |website=getoutside.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/ |access-date=15 October 2021}}{{cite book |last1=Darby |first1=H. C. |last2=Maxwell |first2=I. S. |title=The Domesday geography of Northern England |date=2008 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-0521088701 |page=98}} The name Goathland is probably a corruption of 'good land'.{{cite book|author1=Hanks, Patrick|author2=Hodges, Flavia|author3=Mills, A. D.|author4=Room, Adrian|title=The Oxford Names Companion|date=2002|location=Oxford|publisher=the University Press|isbn=0198605617|page=1132}} Alternatively it may come from 'Goda's land', Goda being an Old English personal name. In 1109 King Henry I granted land to Osmund the Priest and the brethren of the hermitage of Goathland, then called Godelandia, for the soul of his mother, Queen Matilda, who had died in 1083. This is recorded in a charter held at Whitby Abbey.No. 396, Early Yorkshire Charters, William Farrer ed., 1914

The village was a spa town in the 19th century.{{citation needed |date=February 2025}}

There are several hotels and guest houses in the village. The largest, the Mallyan Spout Hotel, is named after a nearby waterfall. There is a caravan site, reached by driving along the track that was the route of the railway from 1835 to 1860. The route of the original railway passed by the Goathland Hotel, which acted as a local transport hub until the railway was shifted further east to the newer {{rws|Goathland}} station.{{cite book |last1=Thomas |first1=Peter |title=Yorkshire's historic pubs |date=2005 |publisher=Sutton Publishing |location=Stroud |isbn=0750939834 |page=173}}

Much of the surrounding land is owned by the Duchy of Lancaster. The Duchy's tenants have a common right extending for hundreds of years to graze their black faced sheep on the village green and surrounding moorland.{{sfn|GCA|2017|pp=12–13}}

The grade II* listed St Mary's Church, Goathland, was built between 1894 and 1896.{{NHLE|desc=Church of St Mary Entrance Steps and Attached Handrail|num=1174270|grade=II*|access-date=15 October 2021}} However, a chapel has existed in Goathland since at least 1521, being supplanted by a church in 1821.{{cite web |title=St Mary's Goathland |url=https://www.achurchnearyou.com/church/19375/about-us/ |website=www.achurchnearyou.com |access-date=15 October 2021}} Stone and other materials from the 1821 church were re-used for other buildings in the village. At that time, dressed stone was quarried locally and was in short supply, this being 15 years before the railway arrived in the village.{{sfn|GCA|2017|p=39}} The war memorial, made from sandstone and modelled on the nearby Lilla Cross, is located on the village green.{{sfn|GCA|2017|p=41}} It was grade II listed in November 2021, just before that year's Remembrance Sunday services. The Lilla Cross is {{convert|5|mi|0}} to the east and is a waymarker point on Fylingdales Moor.{{NHLE|desc=Goathland War Memorial |num=1479652 |grade=II|access-date=30 November 2021}}{{cite news |last1=Larman |first1=Connor |title=Regional war memorial featured on films and TV gains listed status |url=https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/19708071.north-yorkshire-war-memorial-featured-tv-films-gains-listed-status/ |access-date=30 November 2021 |work=The Northern Echo |date=11 November 2021}}

The village has a primary school, with a capacity of 49 pupils. The school was rated as good by Ofsted in 2013.{{cite web |title=Goathland Primary School URN: 121296 |url=https://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/provider/21/121296 |website=reports.ofsted.gov.uk |access-date=15 October 2021 |date=8 October 2020}} The village had a library until 1966, and this was resurrected as a volunteer library and community hub in 2019, which is run from the village hall.{{cite news |last1=Newton |first1=Grace |title=How a library and 18 volunteers have breathed new life into the Yorkshire village of Goathland |url=https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/heritage-and-retro/heritage/how-library-and-18-volunteers-have-breathed-new-life-yorkshire-village-goathland-1747792 |access-date=15 October 2021 |work=The Yorkshire Post |date=8 November 2019}}

The Goathland Plough Stots, a troop which performs a Long Sword dance, are based in the village. Every Plough Monday, the Plough Stots perform in the village and surrounding area raising money for local hospitals.{{cite book |last1=Burns |first1=Tom Scott |last2=Rigg |first2=Martin |title=Round and about the North Yorkshire Moors. Vol. 2, A further glimpse of the past |date=1988 |publisher=MTD Rigg |page=55|oclc=504528664}}

File:Scripps_Petrol.jpg

The village was the setting of the fictional village of Aidensfield in the Heartbeat television series set in the 1960s. Many landmarks from the series are recognisable, including the shop, garage/funeral directors, the public house and the railway station. The pub is called the Goathland Hotel but in the series is The Aidensfield Arms.{{cite book |last1=Thomas |first1=Peter |title=Yorkshire's historic pubs |date=2005 |publisher=Sutton Publishing |location=Stroud |isbn=0750939834 |page=171}} After interior shots were filmed in the hotel for some years, a replica of it was built in Yorkshire TV's Leeds studio.{{cite web|title=Heartbeat|url=http://www.thegoathlandhotel.co.uk/index.php/heartbeat/|publisher=The Goathland Hotel|access-date=3 December 2015}}

The first railway station in Goathland was located at the top of an incline. The station, {{rws|Goathland Bank Top}}, was located in the village, and the carriages were drawn up the incline by the use of a rope-worked drum system. This railway station closed in 1865 when a newer one opened on a diversionary line to {{rws|Grosmont}}. This closed to regular passenger traffic in 1965, and was re-opened as part of the North Yorkshire Moors Railway in 1973.{{cite book |last1=Hoole |first1=K. |title=Railways of the North York Moors : a pictorial history |date=1983 |publisher=Dalesman Books |location=Clapham |isbn=0852067313 |pages=35–37}} The village is {{convert|2|km|order=flip}} west of the A169 road, and is served by four buses a day as part of the Yorkshire Coastliner service between Leeds and Whitby.{{cite web |title=840 - Coastliner - Leeds - York - Malton - Thornton Dale - Whitby – Transdev York – bustimes.org |url=https://bustimes.org/services/840-leeds-whitby |website=bustimes.org |access-date=15 October 2021}}{{cite book |last1=Simon |first1=Jos |title=The rough guide to Yorkshire |date=2015 |publisher=Rough Guides |location=London |isbn=978-1-40937-104-5 |page=245 |edition=2}}{{cite map|title =North York Moors - Eastern area |map =OL27 |year =2017|scale =1:25,000 |series =Explorer |publisher =Ordnance Survey |isbn =978-0-319-24266-7}}

Goathland railway station is on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. The railway is run by a charitable trust with some paid staff but is mostly operated by volunteers and runs nearly all year including Christmas. It carries more than 250,000 passengers a year and is the second-longest preserved line in Britain. It links Grosmont in the north with Pickering in the south along the route of the Whitby - Pickering line built by George Stephenson in 1835 and upgraded in 1865. From 2007 some trains on the railway were timetabled to run to Whitby and in March 2014 work began in Whitby station to replace a platform and allow more North Yorkshire Moors Railway services to be timetabled between Whitby and Pickering.

Goathland railway station was used as the location for Hogsmeade railway station in the Harry Potter films and the line filmed for Harry's journey.{{cite book |last1=Horton |first1=Glyn |title=Horton's guide to Britain's railways in feature films |date=2007 |publisher=Silver Link |location=Kettering |isbn=978-1857942873 |page=78}} It was also used in the 1995 film ''Carrington.{{cite book |last1=Horton |first1=Glyn |title=Horton's guide to Britain's railways in feature films |date=2007 |publisher=Silver Link |location=Kettering |isbn=978-1857942873 |page=35}}

As well as serving as the location for the fictional village of Aidensfield, Goathland features in its own right as the setting for the denouement of Dan Chapman's 2014 dystopian thriller Closed Circuit. It is explained that the antagonist owns the entire village and the nearby MoD site serves as a base for his operations.{{cite book|last=Chapman|first= D. |year=2014|title= Closed Circuit|publisher= Concept Press|location= UK|isbn=978-1499191615}}

Goathland is a location in Ice (2009), a novel by Australian writer Louis Nowra (Allen & Unwin, 2008).

Malcolm Saville's children's novel Mystery MineSaville, Malcolm. 1968. Mystery Mine. The Hamlyn Publishing Group Ltd is set in an area south-west of Whitby on the north-east Yorkshire moors close to and around a village called Goathland. The book contains two maps showing the layout of a partly fictional geography of the area in which the book is set but Goathland, Wheeldale Moor and the Roman Road referred to in the book correspond to the real locations in this area south of Eskdale.

Goathland Cricket Club has a history dating back to 1874, when it was known as the 'Vale of Goathland Cricket Club'.{{cite news |first=Daniel |last=Gregory |title=Goathland ready for new test in the Beckett League |work=Whitby Gazette |date=13 February 2020 |accessdate=15 October 2021 |url=https://www.whitbygazette.co.uk/ }} The club moved to their current ground on Centenary Cricket Field in 1876.{{cite web |url=https://goathland.play-cricket.com/Aboutus |title=Goathland CC website |website=goathland.play-cricket.com |publisher=Goathland Cricket Club |date= |accessdate=15 October 2021}} Goathland have two senior teams: a Saturday 1st XI that compete in the Scarborough Beckett Cricket League{{cite web|url=https://scarboroughbeckettlge.play-cricket.com/ |title=Scarborough Beckett Cricket League |website=scarboroughbeckettlge.play-cricket.com |publisher=SBCL |date= |accessdate=15 October 2021}} and a Midweek Senior XI in the Esk Valley Evening League.{{cite web|url=https://eskvalleyeveninglge.play-cricket.com/home |title=Esk Valley Evening League |website=eskvalleyeveninglge.play-cricket.com |publisher=EVEL |date= |accessdate=15 October 2021}}

• Listed buildings in Goathland

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite report|title=Conservation Area Character Appraisal and Management Plan Goathland |url=https://www.northyorkmoors.org.uk/planning/building-conservation/Goathland-CACA-Nov-2017-for-consultation.pdf|website=northyorkmoors.org.uk|access-date=15 October 2021|date=November 2017|ref={{harvid|GCA|2017}} }}

{{Commons category|Goathland}}

• [http://www.yorkshireguides.com/goathland.html Photographs and information on Goathland]
• Goathland photo galleries at website of [http://www.glendalehouse.co.uk/pages/goathland.htm Glendale House, Goathland]
• [http://www.itv.com/page.asp?partid=1876 Heartbeat on ITV]

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Category:Villages in North Yorkshire

Category:Civil parishes in North Yorkshire