Kirklevington (also known as Kirk Leavington) is a village in the

borough of Stockton-on-Tees The Borough of Stockton-on-Tees is a unitary authority area in England with borough status in County Durham and North Yorkshire. In 2021, it had a population of 196,600. Its main settlement and namesake of the borough is Stockton-on-Tees, which ...

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. At the 2011 census, the village had a population of 809. The

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 ...

had a population of 1,361. The village shares it with

Castle Levington Castlelevington (also spelt Castle Leavington) is a civil parish in North Yorkshire, England south south-east of Yarm. The parish is in the borough of Stockton-on-Tees. There is no village in the parish. According to the 2001 census it had a po ...

and is situated south of

Yarm Yarm-on-Tees, or simply Yarm, is a market town in North Yorkshire, England. It lies on a meander of the River Tees, extending south-east to the River Leven, North Yorkshire, River Leven and south to the village of Kirklevington. A civil parish i ...

, it hosts station.

History

A settlement is listed 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 ...

of 1086 as "Levetona", meaning "farmstead on the River Leven" (where "Leven" is of

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

origin, possibly meaning "smooth"). The appellation "kirk" (

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 ...

for "church") was adopted later. As an ancient

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

, it included the townships of Castlelevington, Picton and

Low Worsall Low Worsall is a small village and civil parish in the county of North Yorkshire, England, near High Worsall and west of Yarm. From 1974 to 2023 it was part of the district of Hambleton, it is now administered by the unitary North Yorkshire ...

, which became established as separate parishes in 1866. It formed part of the

Stokesley Rural District Stokesley was a rural district in the North Riding of Yorkshire from 1894 to 1974. It was named after the town of Stokesley, which it contained. The district was enlarged in 1932 when it took in part of the Middlesbrough Rural District. It lo ...

from 1894 to 1974, when it became part of the borough of Stockton. The village was once home to the Kirklevington Country Club. Pieces from the Viking crosses, dating from 10th century, found in Kirklevington, which may have been the centre of a large Anglo-Saxon estate, are on display at Preston Hall Museum in

Stockton-on-Tees Stockton-on-Tees is a market town in County Durham, England, with a population of 84,815 at the 2021 UK census. It gives its name to and is the largest settlement in the wider Borough of Stockton-on-Tees. It is part of Teesside and the Tees Val ...

. Later it was a planned two row green village. Traces of four fields of

ridge and furrow Ridge and furrow is an Archaeology, archaeological pattern of ridges (Medieval Latin: ''sliones'') and troughs created by a system of ploughing used in Europe during the Middle Ages, typical of the open field system, open-field system. It is a ...

marking the possible site of a

deserted medieval village In the United Kingdom, a deserted medieval village (DMV) is a former settlement which was abandoned during the Middle Ages, typically leaving no trace apart from earthworks or cropmarks. If there are fewer than three inhabited houses the conve ...

are to be found at Red Hall Farm. The local names of "Castle Hill" and "Castle Levington" refer to a "castle" on the banks of the

River Tees The River Tees (), in England, rises on the eastern slope of Cross Fell in the North Pennines and flows eastwards for to reach the North Sea in the North East of England. The modern-day history of the river has been tied with the industries ...

1.25 miles ENE of the village but still in the parish of Kirklevington.

Geography

The unusually dispersed village is relatively modern. It includes a church, village hall, a small public park, a primary school, a riding centre at Town End Farm, Vidgen's engineering garage, and a pub, the Crown Hotel. The population is around 800. In July 2017 Stockton Borough Council said that it "is minded " to approve a proposal to build 145 new houses in the village, which would increase the population by about one third.

Kirklevington Hall

Kirklevington Hall is about 0.75 miles north of the village. From 1881 the Hall was a family home of the Richardsons of Hartlepool. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

it was a secret command centre for the North-East. In the 1970s and 1980s it was home to

judge A judge is a person who wiktionary:preside, presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a judicial panel. In an adversarial system, the judge hears all the witnesses and any other Evidence (law), evidence presented by the barris ...

s on the Northeastern Circuit. It was the location of "Judges Country House Hotel", an AA 3 Red Star Country House with 3 Rosettes. At the time of writing this (March 2023), it has closed down and is in the process of being sold.

Kirklevington Grange

On the southern edge of the built up area of Yarm, and about 1.5 miles north of the village, is HMP Kirklevington Grange, a men's resettlement prison for inmates intending to settle (on release) in the North East of England.

Kirklevington Country Club

The village was once home to the famous Kirklevington Country Club, 'The Kirk'.

Governance

Parliament

Kirklevington, as part of the Stockton South Parliamentary Constituency, was represented in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

by James Wharton (Conservative), who was elected on 6 May 2010. James Wharton was re-elected with an increased majority on 7 May 2015. In August 2016 he was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for International Development. As a result of the elections on 8 June 2017 Labour's

Paul Williams Paul Williams may refer to: Authors * Paul Williams (Crawdaddy) (1948–2013), American music and science fiction journalist; founder of ''Crawdaddy'' and the Philip K. Dick Society * Paul Williams (Irish journalist) (born 1964), Irish journalis ...

, a local doctor, took over from James Wharton. In 2019, Conservative

Matt Vickers Matthew Alexander Vickers (born 24 September 1983) is a British Conservative politician who serves as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Stockton West and Shadow Minister for Crime, Policing and Fire. Prior to boundary changes, he had previo ...

won the seat.

Borough

Kirklevington is part of the Stockton-on-Tees Borough's Yarm ward, represented by three councillors. These councillors were elected as Conservatives on 6 May 2011, Mark Anthony Chatburn later defected to UKIP.

Parish

The Kirklevington and Castle Leavington Parish Council has seven members. It was chaired by Kate Brown for 7 years, however is now chaired by Jennie Beaumont who took her place in May 2017

Police

Kirklevington falls within the

Cleveland Police Cleveland Police is a territorial police force in England responsible for the policing the boroughs of Middlesbrough and Redcar and Cleveland in North Yorkshire and Hartlepool and Stockton-on-Tees in County Durham within North East England. T ...

area. As of April 2014 the police have installed

ANPR Automatic number-plate recognition (ANPR; see also other names below) is a technology that uses optical character recognition on images to read vehicle registration plates to create vehicle location data. It can use existing closed-circuit t ...

number plate recognition cameras on the

A67 road The A67 is a road in England that links Bowes in County Durham with Crathorne, North Yorkshire, Crathorne in North Yorkshire. The road from Middlesbrough to Darlington was previously the A66 road, the road also starts and ends on the A66. Rout ...

through the village, recording all vehicular movements 24 hours a day.

Education

Kirklevington Primary School has about 120 pupils. The nearest secondary school is Conyers School, about 1.5 miles away in Yarm, with approximately 1,300 pupils of ages 11–18.

Church

St Martin and St Hilary Church is located on Forest Lane and Pump Lane and can be viewed from the A67. It is an English Heritage Grade II* Listed Building that was re-built in 1882 but still has parts dated to the 12th and 13th century. The Church is mainly associated with St Mary Magdalene Yarm and All Saints Worsall however has connections to Crathorne, Hutton Rugby and Middleton. Service times are: 1st Sunday 08:00 - Holy Communion 2nd Sunday 11:00 - Holy Communion 4th Sunday 11:00 - Family Service (Coffee from 10:30) Morning Prayer takes place every Thursday at 08:00

References

External links

Riding school
*
Kirklevington Parish Council
{{authority control Villages in North Yorkshire Civil parishes in North Yorkshire Borough of Stockton-on-Tees Places in the Tees Valley