Cowesby is a village and

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 ...

in the county of

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. Part of the village including The Cowesby Hall Estate is within the

North York Moors National Park North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' is ...

and about north of

Thirsk Thirsk is a market town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England; it is known for its racecourse and depiction as local author James Herriot's fictional Darrowby. History Archeological finds indicate there was a settlement in Thirsk aro ...

. The population of the civil parish was estimated at 70 in 2014. In the 2011 census the population of Cowesby was included with

Kirby Knowle Kirby Knowle is a village and civil parish in the county of North Yorkshire, England, on the border of the North Yorkshire Moors and near Upsall, about four miles northeast of Thirsk. Historic counties of England, Historically part of the Nort ...

parish and not counted separately.

History

The village is mentioned in the ''

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

'' as being in the ''Allerton'' Hundred and listed as ''Cahosbi''. At the time of the Norman invasion the lands were recorded as belonging to

Edwin, Earl of Mercia Edwin (Old English: ''eadwine'') (died 1071) was the elder brother of Morcar, Earl of Northumbria, son of Ælfgār, Earl of Mercia and grandson of Leofric, Earl of Mercia. He succeeded to his father's title and responsibilities on Ælfgār's de ...

, but were ceded soon afterwards to

King William I William the Conqueror (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), sometimes called William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England (as William I), reigning from 1066 until his death. A descendant of Rollo, he was D ...

, though the manor was in the hands of '' Hugh, son of Baldric''.

Governance

The village lies within the Thirsk and Malton UK Parliament constituency. From 1974 to 2023 it was part of the district of Hambleton, it is now administered by the unitary

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 ...

. The parish shares a

grouped parish council A parish council is a civil local authority found in England, which is the lowest tier of local government. Parish councils are elected corporate bodies, with variable tax raising powers, and they carry out beneficial public activities in geogr ...

, known as Hillside Parish Council, with the civil parishes of

Boltby Boltby is a village and civil parish in the county of North Yorkshire, England. It is on the edge of the North York Moors National Park at , and about north-east of Thirsk. According to the 2011 census, it had a population of 143. There are ...

Felixkirk Felixkirk is a village and civil parish in the county of North Yorkshire, England. The village is situated about three miles north-east of Thirsk. The population of the civil parish was estimated at 100 in 2014. History The village is named ...

and

Upsall Upsall is a Hamlet (place), hamlet in and civil parish in the county of North Yorkshire, England. It is situated approximately four miles north-east of Thirsk. Upsall is part of the Upsall and Roxby estates owned by the Turton family. The popu ...

Geography

According to the 2001 UK Census, the population was 60. There are no local amenities or access to public transport. The village lies at the foot of the Hambleton Hills in a natural, and thus sheltered bend The nearest settlements are Kepwick, to the north-north-east;

, to the south and

Knayton Knayton is a small village in North Yorkshire, England. It is located north of Thirsk just off the A19. It is linked with the hamlet of Brawith, approximately away to the west. History The village is mentioned in the Domesday Book as havi ...

and Borrowby to the south-west.

The Cowesby Hall Estate

Cowesby Hall sits around half-a-mile from the centre of the village, the large Tudor-style

country house image:Blenheim - Blenheim Palace - 20210417125239.jpg, 300px, Blenheim Palace - Oxfordshire An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a Townhou ...

sits prominently atop a hill in the centre of its 1,300 acre estate and was erected in 1832 from the designs of

Anthony Salvin Anthony Salvin (17 October 1799 – 17 December 1881) was an English architect. He gained a reputation as an expert on Middle Ages, medieval buildings and applied this expertise to his new buildings and his restorations, such as those of the ...

, the hall and the majority of its land falls within the

. The present manor house is believed to be the 4th built on the site, with the first documented to have being built in the

12th century The 12th century is the period from 1101 to 1200 in accordance with the Julian calendar. In the history of European culture, this period is considered part of the High Middle Ages and overlaps with what is often called the Golden Age' of the ...

for William de Stuteville, whose son Robert died without issue, by the end of the 17th century, the manor was under the ownership of

Nathaniel Crew, 3rd Baron Crew Nathaniel Crew, 3rd Baron Crew (31 January 163318 September 1721) was Bishop of Oxford from 1671 to 1674, then Bishop of Durham from 1674 to 1721. As such he was one of the longest-serving bishops of the Church of England. Crew was the son of Jo ...

, who is also noted as the founder of Cowesby Hospital, a village-hospital built in the late 1700s to treat the impoverished estate workers. By the early 1800s the manor was under ownership of George Lloyd, Esq, who built the present hall between 1828 and 1832, he died in 1844 and left the estate to his eldest son William, whose son, also called William was Lord of the Manor until the 1940s, when the hall and estate was purchased by Sir John Watson Cameron, the son of Watson Cameron of

Camerons Brewery Camerons Brewery is an English brewery established by John William Cameron in Stranton, Hartlepool, County Durham, in 1865. It is the largest independent brewer in the North East of England, with a brewery capacity of 1.5 million hectolitres ...

, it remained in ownership of the Camerons until 1999, when it was purchased by Robert Adair, a Yorkshire-based oil tycoon and his wife Lucy, a

solicitor A solicitor is a lawyer who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and enabled to p ...

, the Adair's later divorced, which resulted in the £10m sale of The Cowesby Hall Estate in 2009 to a member of the billionaire

Morrisons Wm Morrison Supermarkets Limited, trading as Morrisons, is the List of supermarket chains in the United Kingdom, fifth largest supermarket chain in the United Kingdom. As of 2021, the company had 497 supermarkets across England, Wales and Sco ...

family, the sale included the main house, several estate cottages in the adjoining village, two working farms and 1,298 acres of land, including

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with woody plants (trees and shrubs), or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the '' plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunli ...

, parkland,

farmland Agricultural land is typically land ''devoted to'' agriculture, the systematic and controlled use of other forms of lifeparticularly the rearing of livestock and production of cropsto produce food for humans. It is generally synonymous with bot ...

and

moorland Moorland or moor is a type of Habitat (ecology), habitat found in upland (geology), upland areas in temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands and the biomes of montane grasslands and shrublands, characterised by low-growing vegetation on So ...

. The 24,000 square foot, 10-bedroom manor house and its sprawling gardens have undergone an extensive renovation and restoration programme by its current owners, the hall sits prominently atop a hill and is sheltered on the north and east facade, whilst the south and west facade enjoy expansive and far reaching views over the

Hambleton Hills The Hambleton Hills are a range of hills in North Yorkshire, England. They form the western edge of the North York Moors but are separated from the moors by the valley of the River Rye. They are the eastern boundary of the low-lying Vale of Mo ...

Religion

St Michael's Church, Cowesby was rebuilt by the widow of George Lloyd of Cowesby Hall to the designs of

in 1846 on the site of a Saxon and a 13th-century church. The church is now a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in North Yorkshire Civil parishes in North Yorkshire