Muscoates is a hamlet and former

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

, now in the parish of

Nunnington Nunnington is a village and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. The River Rye runs through. Its population, including Stonegrave, taken at the 2011 census was 361. It is rich in listed historic buildings. From 1974 to 2023 it was part ...

, in

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in Northern England.The Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority areas of City of York, York and North Yorkshire (district), North Yorkshire are in Yorkshire and t ...

, England. It lies on the River Riccal, to the south of the town of

Kirkbymoorside Kirkbymoorside () is a market town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. It is north of York; midway between Pickering and Helmsley, and on the edge of the North York Moors National Park. The parish had a population of 3,040 in the 20 ...

Heritage

Muscoates is first mentioned in a 12th-century document. The name derives either from the

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

''mūsa cotes'', meaning "mouse-ridden cottages", or from an

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

personal name ''Músi''. Muscoates was a

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

in the ancient parish of Kirkdale, and became a separate

in 1866. Muscoates was a small parish with an area of and a population of 23 in 1961. In 1974 it became part of the new district of

Ryedale Ryedale was a non-metropolitan district in North Yorkshire, England. It was in the Vale of Pickering, a low-lying flat area of land drained by the River Derwent, Yorkshire, River Derwent. The Vale's landscape is rural with scattered villages ...

, and on 1 April 1986 the parish was abolished and merged with Nunnington. Ryedale was abolished in 2023 and the area is now administered by

North Yorkshire Council North Yorkshire Council, known between 1974 and 2023 as North Yorkshire County Council, is the local authority for the non-metropolitan county of North Yorkshire, England. Since 2023 the council has been a unitary authority, being a county coun ...

Singular writer

Sir Herbert Read, the poet and art critic, was born at Muscoates in 1893, the son of a farmer. His fantasy novel '' The Green Child'' (1935) was described by the critic

Geoffrey Wheatcroft Geoffrey Albert Wheatcroft (born 23 December 1945) is a British journalist, author, and historian. Early life and education Wheatcroft is the son of Stephen Frederick Wheatcroft (1921–2016), OBE, and his first wife, Joyce (née Reed). He w ...

in 1993 as "singular, odd, completely original".

References

{{authority control Hamlets in North Yorkshire Former civil parishes in North Yorkshire