Kirkby Malzeard

Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the village was mentioned in Domesday Book as Chirchebi (meaning "church village"). The suffix Malzeard (another place-name, meaning "bad clearing" in Norman French) was added by the early 12th century.{{Citation | contribution = Kirkby | year = 2010 | title = The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names | editor-last = Watts | editor-first = Victor | publisher = Cambridge University Press }} In medieval times the honour of Kirkby Malzeard included large areas to the west of the village in upper Nidderdale, and the parish came to include several townships:

• Azerley
• Fountains Earth
• Grewelthorpe
• Hartwith cum Winsley (a detached part)
• Laverton
• Stonebeck Down
• Stonebeck Up

The townships became separate civil parishes in the 19th century.{{cite web|title=Kirkby Malzeard CP/AP through time {{!}} Census tables with data for the Parish-level Unit|url=http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10441389#tab02|website=www.visionofbritain.org.uk|access-date=9 January 2018}}

In mediaeval times there was a castle at Kirkby Malzeard, held by the de Mowbray family. When Roger de Mowbray participated in the Revolt of 1173–74 against King Henry II, the castle was besieged by the Bishop elect of Lincoln, and Mowbray surrendered it, together with Thirsk Castle, to the King: both castles were demolished.{{cite book

|title=History of York and the North Riding

|last=Sheahan

|first=James Joseph

|publisher=T. Whellan and Co.

|place=Beverley

|volume=III

|year=1871

|pages=203–207

}} Note: Sheahan says the siege was in 1175, and the besieger was "Henry, the Elect Bishop of Lincoln". Other sources such as {{cite book

|title=Hugh de Puiset

|last=Scammell

|first=G.V.

|publisher=Cambridge University Press

|year=2011|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N8zYqcWRVScC

|pages=38–39|isbn=9780521179850

}} say that this campaign was in 1174, and the Bishop elect of Lincoln was Geoffrey Plantagenet, illegitimate son of Henry II. St Andrew's Church, Kirkby Malzeard was built in the 12th century.{{NHLE |num= 1173967|desc= Church of St Andrew, Kirkby Malzeard|access-date= 1 March 2025}}

In 1307, King Edward I granted Kirkby Malzeard the right to hold two fairs annually, and a weekly market on Wednesday. These were subsequently abandoned, but revived in 1816. In 1871 the fairs were still held (on Whit Monday and 2 October), but the market had lapsed again.

Creets Bridge, across the Kex Beck, was built in 1749.{{cite book |title=Creets Bridge, Kirkby Malzeard |date=2002 |publisher=On Site Archaeology |location=York |url=https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archiveDS/archiveDownload?t=arch-1642-1/dissemination/pdf/SNY8437_2of3.pdf |access-date=10 March 2025}}

In 1866 a landowner named Joseph Helliwell demolished the Market Cross. There was an outcry, and after a year of litigation, Helliwell was compelled to remove a cottage and part of his house that were encroaching on the Market Place. A new Market Cross was erected by public subscription, inaugurated on 30 September 1868. Several newspapers and documents relating to the market place and the cross were placed in a sealed bottle when the foundations were laid.

The writer and historian William Grainge was born to a farming family at Dishforth, and grew up at Castiles Farm, near Kirkby Malzeard. He attended Kirkby Malzeard village school, the only formal education that he received; he was otherwise self-educated.{{cite news |title=Harrogate Field Naturalists' and Camera Club |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002031/18951207/082/0005 |access-date=18 April 2021 |work=Knaresborough Post |agency=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription |date=7 December 1895 |page=5 col.6}}

File:The Queens Head - geograph.org.uk - 762883.jpg

The Highside Playing Fields, which provide facilities for several sports, were created in the 1970s. One of the benefactors was Bing Crosby, who came shooting in the area in 1975. He donated £1,250 towards the playing fields, and visited them during a cricket match in 1976.

{{cite news

|newspaper=Yorkshire Post

|title=Straight Down the Middle

|url=http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/analysis/straight-down-the-middle-1-2472451

|last=Kirkwood

|first=Paul

|date=10 October 2007

|access-date=31 July 2016

}}

There is a convenience store and a butcher in Kirkby Malzeard, as well as one pub, the Queens Head. A second pub, The Henry Jenkins, (named after a man from Ellerton-on-Swale who died in 1670, allegedly aged 169), closed on 29 June 2008,{{cite news

|title=Communities mourn loss of two village pubs

|last=Walker

|first=Andy

|newspaper=The Northern Echo

|url=http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/2385583.Communities_mourn_loss_of_two_village_pubs/

|access-date=31 July 2016

|date=8 July 2008}} and in 2016 is derelict. The Shoulder of Mutton, a seventeenth century listed private house, was formerly a pub.

{{NHLE|

|num=1315324

|desc=The Shoulder of Mutton

|accessdate=31 July 2016

}}

As of 2025 the area boasts a successful local football team- Kirkby Malzeard Vets FC. They are the current Harrogate & District plate champions.

An electoral ward in the same name exists. This ward stretches south to Sawley and has a total population taken at the 2011 census of 3,109.{{NOMIS2011|id=E05006247|title=Kirkby Malzeard Ward (as of 2011)|accessdate=7 February 2020}}

From 1974 to 2023 it was part of the Borough of Harrogate, it is now administered by the unitary North Yorkshire Council.

• Listed buildings in Kirkby Malzeard

{{Reflist|30em}}

{{Commons category|Kirkby Malzeard}}

• [http://www.kirkbymalzeardarea.org.uk/ Community website for Kirkby Malzeard area]

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Category:Villages in North Yorkshire

Category:Civil parishes in North Yorkshire