Sleights ( ) is a village 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. Located in the Esk Valley in the postal region of

Whitby Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. It is on the Yorkshire Coast at the mouth of the River Esk, North Yorkshire, River Esk and has a maritime, mineral and tourist economy. From the Middle Ages, Whitby ...

, the village is part of 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 ...

of Eskdaleside cum Ugglebarnby. Sleights lies along the steep main A169 road that runs north to south between Whitby and Malton via Pickering across the

North York Moors The North York Moors is an upland area in north-eastern Yorkshire, England. It contains one of the largest expanses of Calluna, heather moorland in the United Kingdom. The area was designated as a national parks of England and Wales, National P ...

. At the bottom of the village, the road crosses the Esk Valley Railway, allowing access to Sleights railway station. The road crosses the River Esk on a high bridge, opened on 26 January 1937. The road continues up the hill to reach the A171

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ), colloquially known as Boro, is a port town in the Borough of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. Lying to the south of the River Tees, Middlesbrough forms part of the Teesside Built up area, built-up area and the Tees Va ...

trunk road. At the top of the village is Blue Bank. Due east of the village is the hamlet of Iburndale. Due to road accidents, Blue Bank, with a gradient of 1 in 4 (25%), has an escape lane of soft sand. From 1974 to 2023 it was part of the

Borough of Scarborough The Borough of Scarborough () was a non-metropolitan district with borough status in North Yorkshire, England. In addition to the town of Scarborough, it covered a large stretch of the coast of Yorkshire, including Whitby and Filey. It bordere ...

, 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 Horticultural & Industrial Society show has been held each year since 1880. Since 2006 the show has been held on the sports field, with classes for produce, fruit, flowers vegetables, crafts, cake decorating, photography, flower arranging etc. Additional attractions include a bouncy castle, face painting, tombola and a fun dog show. The infamous Victorian forger Edward Simpson was born here in 1815.

Amenities

There is a village shop, a branch of the Spar chain which includes a Post Office, two

public house A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption Licensing laws of the United Kingdom#On-licence, on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the ...

s, a butchers, Botham’s bakers and a fish and chip restaurant.

Sport

The village sports field, which is mainly used for cricket, has a new pavilion built in 2006. The money for the new build was collected through local fundraising. Until 2018, the cricket team used to play in the Eskdale League on Saturdays. In June 2011, a new Sleights Football club was formed and joined the Scarborough and District Saturday League, with several players coming from Sleights, but training and playing at Caedmon School in Whitby. They were promoted from the league's Third Division to the First in the space of two seasons. They joined the Beckett Football League in 2017 and returned to play at Lowdale Lane in the village after a 20-year absence on Saturday 23 September 2018. Their first game back home was a 4–1 win over Kirkbymoorside Reserves, Joe Hugill scored the first goal. There is also a bowls club which is used by people from Sleights and neighbouring towns and villages.

Education

The village contains only one school, Sleights Church of England primary school. The school has approximately 100 pupils and is graded as Good by Ofsted and SIAMS (2019). Students aged over 11 years old travel to nearby schools in

Religion

There are three places of worship in the village: the Anglican St John's Church, Sleights, English Martyrs Roman Catholic Church, on Eskdaleside and, at the bottom of the village, the Briggswath and Sleights Methodist Chapel. The churchyard of St John's is the burial place for all denominations in the parish. The author Alfred J. Brown and his wife are buried there. The ruins of the Mediaeval St John's Chapel, Sleights lie above the village.

Name

First found in a document from 1223 as ''Sleghtesc''. Like other place names in Yorkshire, the etymology of Sleights is

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 ...

. It means 'smooth or level fields' from ''slétta'' 'flat land, plain, prairie', like the Norman place name

Eslettes Eslettes is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region in northern France. Geography A farming village situated by the banks of the Cailly in the Pays de Caux, some northeast of Rouen, at the junction of the D251, D44 a ...

(''Esletis'' ab. 1040), same etymology as many places in Denmark called Sletten.Beaurepaire

Notes

External links

"Sleights Village"
Eskvalley.com. Retrieved 24 December 2011 * {{authority control Villages in North Yorkshire Eskdaleside cum Ugglebarnby