Wensley, North Yorkshire

Not to be confused with Wensley, Derbyshire.

Wensley
Wensley
Location within North Yorkshire
Population151 (2011 census)[1]
OS grid referenceSE092895
• London200 mi (320 km) SSE
Unitary authority
Ceremonial county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townLEYBURN
Postcode districtDL8
PoliceNorth Yorkshire
FireNorth Yorkshire
AmbulanceYorkshire

Wensley is a small village and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. It consists of a few homes and holiday cottage, an inn, a pub and a historic church.[2] It is on the A684 road 1 mile (1.6 km) south-west of the market town of Leyburn. The River Ure passes through the village.

The etymology of the name ultimately originates either from a compound of an Old English form of the god Woden (attested Wednesleg c. 1212, earlier Wodnesleie, see Wednesday), and the Old English leah meaning wood or meadow.[3] Another possible route for the first part is the personal name Wændel.[4] Wensley gives its name to the dale Wensleydale.[5]

From 1974 to 2023 it was part of the district of Richmondshire, it is now administered by the unitary North Yorkshire Council.

For a century after its charter in 1202, Wensley had the only market in the dale and this continued into the 16th century. Plague struck Wensley in 1563,[6] some surviving villagers fled to Leyburn, but the village recovered a century later when Charles Paulet built Bolton Hall in 1678 and became Duke of Bolton.[7] Bolton Hall, is now 1.2 miles (1.9 km) from the heart of Wensley, near Preston-under-Scar, Richmondshire; it was rebuilt after a fire in 1902.[8]

Wensley's Holy Trinity Church dates to 1300 and is a Grade I listed building.[9] It is now redundant and cared for by the Churches Conservation Trust.[10] It was featured as the wedding venue of James and Helen Herriot in the 1978 BBC television series All Creatures Great and Small, in the episode "The Last Furlong".[11][12]

Wensley's railway station is now closed. It was situated 1-mile (1.6 km) to the north between Wensley and Preston-under-Scar, on the Wensleydale Railway line which still passes the village.

Leyburn Old Glebe nature reserve lies about 440 yards (400 m) east of the village.

Ernie Gillatt, a footballer active in the 1920s, was born in Wensley.[13]

References

  1. ^ UK Census (2011). "Local Area Report – Wensley Parish (1170217199)". Nomis. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 4 July 2018.
  2. ^ "Wensley – Yorkshire Dales". Retrieved 30 June 2018.
  3. ^ Ekwall, Eilert (1964). The concise Oxford dictionary of English place-names (4 ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 292, 506. OCLC 1228215388.
  4. ^ Smith, A. H. (1979) [1928]. The Place Names of the North Riding of Yorkshire. English Place Name Society. p. 257. OCLC 19714705.
  5. ^ Chrystal, Paul (2017). The Place Names of Yorkshire; Cities, Towns, Villages, Rivers and Dales, some Pubs too, in Praise of Yorkshire Ales (1 ed.). Catrine: Stenlake. p. 87. ISBN 9781840337532.
  6. ^ Hogg, Chris (2013). Wensleydale & Coverdale through time. Stroud: Amberley. p. 72. ISBN 978-1-4456-1941-5.
  7. ^ Speight, Harry (1897). "XXXVII: Bolton Hall, Redmire and Preston-under-Scar". Romantic Richmondshire. London: Elliot Stock. p. 394. OCLC 500106879.
  8. ^ "Bolton Hall Destroyed", The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1889 – 1931), 17 October 1902. National Library of Australia. Retrieved 3 February 2012
  9. ^ Historic England. "Church of Holy Trinity (1130879)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
  10. ^ "Holy Trinity Church, Wensley, North Yorkshire". The Churches Conservation Trust. Retrieved 11 March 2021.
  11. ^ "All Creatures Great and Small – Filming Locations". IMDB. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  12. ^ Rhea, Nicholas (14 February 2014). "The undisputed capital of Wensleydale". Darlington and Stockton Times. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
  13. ^ Joyce, Michael (2004). Football League Players' Records 1888–1939.
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