Scawton

Scawton is a village and former civil parish in Ryedale, North Yorkshire, England. The hamlet lies just east of Sutton Bank, north of the A170 road, and west of Helmsley, in the Hambleton Hills. The wider parish was the setting for the Battle of Old Byland, on Scawton Moor to the south. The road through the village used to link the two abbeys at Byland and Rievaulx, with the church, and possibly the village pub, being instigated by the monks for the use of travellers. In 1961 the parish had a population of 84.

History

Scawton was listed in the Domesday Book as belonging to Count Robert of Mortain. The name was recorded as ''Scaltun'' in the Domesday Book, and has been written in documents as ''Scalton'', ''Scaltona'', ''Skalton'' and ''Scaulton'', with ''Scawton'' first recorded in 1536. The name means ''farm in the hollow'', where the word ''Skál'' means ''hollow''. The soil was described as being poor, and sits on top of Kimmeridge clay. Further down, the land sits atop ''Hambleton Oolite'', a white to grey fine ooidal limestone that was used for building houses and drystone walls in the area. Several old quarries dot the landscape in and around Scawton. Some of the purer limestone quarried on Scawton Moor was burnt to provide lime and mortar.

One former occupation of the villagers was operating bleachfields (open land for purify and whitening cloth by the action of sunlight) for a beetling mill in Crathorne. Bleachfields were common in the western Hambleton Hills in the late 18th century, with records of this activity being at Wass, Byland and Oldstead besides Scawton. The farm fields were used to dry out the cloth.

Originally in the wapentake of Ryedale