Town in North Yorkshire, England
Northallerton ( ) is a market town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the River Wiske in the Vale of Mowbray and had a population of 16,832 in 2011. Northallerton is an administrative centre for York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority and North Yorkshire Council.
There has been a settlement at Northallerton since Roman times. That grew in importance from the 11th century when King William II gifted land there to the Bishop of Durham, and it became an important religious centre. The Battle of the Standard fought nearby in 1138 involved the death of up to 12,000 Scots.
Northallerton was an important stopping point for coaches on the road between Edinburgh and London until the arrival of the railway.
History.
Early.
Due to its proximity to a Roman road, entrenchments and relics, the earliest settlement at Northallerton was a Roman military station. There is evidence that the Romans had a signal station on Castle Hills just to the west of the town as part of the imperial Roman postal system and a path connecting Hadrian's Wall with Eboracum (York) ran through what is now the neighbouring village of Brompton.
The first church was set up by St Paulinus of York on the site of the present All Saints Parish Church sometime in the early 7th century. It was made from wood and nothing survives of it. In 855 a stone church was built on the same site; fragments of stone have been found during restoration work which provide strong evidence of this Angle church.
It was believed that an Anglo-Saxon town known as "Alvertune" then developed. In Pierre de Langtoft's history of King Alfred he writes that in 865 it was the site of a number of battles between King Elfrid and his brother Alfred on one side and five Danish kings and a similar number of earls. Later, in the 10th century, Danes settled at Romanby and Brompton. A fine example of English stonecarving from the period, the Brompton Hogbacks, can be found in Brompton Parish Church.
In the Domesday Survey, Norman scribes named the settlement "Alvertune", "Aluertune" and "Alretone" and there is a reference to the "Alvertune wapentac", an area almost identical to the Allertonshire wapentake of the North Riding, which was named after the town.
The origin of the town's name is uncertain, though it is believed that the name derives from a derivation of the name "Aelfere", Aelfereton translates as the farm belonging to Aelfere or even of King Alfred. Alternatively it may be referring to the Alder trees which grew nearby. The prefix of North was added in the 12th century to differentiate from the parish of Allerton Mauleverer, to the south.
Its position on a major route brought death and destruction to the town on many occasions. In 1069, in an attempt to quell rebellion in the north, the area between the Ouse and the Tyne was laid waste by the armies of William the Conqueror. The town of Northallerton was almost totally destroyed or depopulated. Just a few years later it is described in the Domesday Book as "modo est in manu regis et wastum est" (put down as waste).
Battle of the Standard.
On 22 August 1138, English forces repelled a Scottish army on Cowton Moor in Brompton parish, around north of the town. This was the first major battle between the Scots and the English after the Norman conquest and one of the two major battles in the civil war between King Stephen and Empress Matilda. The English forces were summoned by Archbishop Thurstan of York, who had gathered local militia and baronial armies from Yorkshire and the North Midlands. They arrayed themselves round a chariot with a ship's mast carrying the consecrated banners of St Peter of York, St John of Beverley, St Wilfrid of Ripon and St Cuthbert of Durham, it was this standard-bearing chariot that gave the battle its name.
King David had entered England in support of his niece, Empress Matilda, who was viewed as the rightful heiress to the English throne usurped by King Stephen. With Stephen fighting rebel barons in the south, the Scottish armies had already taken Cumberland and Northumberland, the city of Carlisle and the royal castle at Bamburgh. Finding the English in a defensive position on a hill, David elected to force a battle counting on his superior numbers, 16,000 Scots against 10,000 Englishmen. Repeated attacks by native Scots failed against the onslaught from the English archers, with losses of up to 12,000 Scots. A subsequent attack by mounted knights met initial success but fell back due to lack of infantry support. The battle ended when David's reserve deserted, forcing him to retreat. The English elected not to pursue, and despite their great losses the Scots were able to regroup in sufficient number to besiege and capture Wark Castle. The victory by the English ensured the safety of Northern England.
Religion.
Shortly after his accession William Rufus gave the town, with the lands adjacent, to the see of Durham, and, under the patronage of the bishops of that diocese, it grew in importance, and became an episcopal residence. In 1130 a castle was built on the west side of the town adjacent to North Beck by Bishop Rufus and was expanded in 1142 after William Cumin seized the Bishopric of Durham in 1141. The castle was further expanded in 1173 by Hugh Pudsey and garrisoned by a group of Flemish soldiers, an act which enraged King Henry II who ordered that it be razed to the ground in 1177. A more substantial fortified palace surrounded by a moat was built on the same site in 1199, replacing the traditional motte-and-bailey castle. The palace became an important administrative centre for the bishops' lands in Yorkshire and served as a major residence for the bishops and their staff. The palace lay on the main road from York to Durham and was a regular stopping place for royalty and other dignitaries. The palace fell into ruin by 1658 and the site is now a cemetery.
In 1318, the town was destroyed by the Scots, under Sir James Douglas following the Capture of Berwick upon Tweed. A Carmelite priory was founded in 1354, but was demolished soon after the dissolution of the monasteries in 1538. The site passed to various people and was used for arable farming before a workhouse was built on the site in 1857. Subsequently, the Friarage Hospital, which takes its name from the friary, was built.
Following development of the site in 2006, archaeologists uncovered the remains of eight monks along with other artefacts.
Law and order.
A house of correction opened in 1783 on Priest Garth (land owned by the Bishop of Durham), beside what is now East Road. This became HM Prison Northallerton, which served (at different times) as an adult prison, a Young Offender Institution, and a military prison. The prison closed in 2013 and is now partially demolished. It once had the world's largest treadmill. As of February 2021, the site of the former prison has two retail outlets, Iceland and Lidl situated on it.
The Quarter Sessions for the area were held in the town from the 17th century in various buildings including the Tollbooth, the Guild Hall and Vine House. In 1875, architect John Carr was commissioned to build a dedicated courthouse on Zetland Road, adjacent to the prison. When in 1856 the North Riding Constabulary was founded, one of the last county forces to be formed, Northallerton was selected as its headquarters. Initially it operated from a converted house beside the prison, moving to a purpose-built structure in 1880. Police HQ moved to nearby Racecourse Lane (the site of the former Northallerton horse-racing course) in 1910, with the court moving opposite it in 1936. The previous courthouse and police buildings were demolished in the 1990s. The court building on Racecourse Lane later housed the magistrates' court and coroner's court.
When the Poor Law union system was introduced, a workhouse was established in the town to serve the three parishes in the area. This building is now part of the Friarage Hospital.
The Thirsk Road drill hall was opened in 1911, just before the First World War.
Governance.
The ancient parish of Northallerton covered a wide area including the townships and chapelries of Romanby, Brompton and Deighton, and the detached part of High Worsall on the River Tees. They became separate civil parishes in the 19th century.
The parish council of Northallerton is a town council and has 12 councillors, elected in four wards. The town council is based at Northallerton Town Hall.
Northallerton has been twinned with Ormesson-sur-Marne, a suburb of Paris, since 1994.
In 1889 the County of York, North Riding administrative county was formed. In 1894 it was divided into municipal boroughs, urban districts and rural districts. Following a review of local government in 1974, the North Riding was abolished as an administrative county. The district council of Hambleton was formed from the merger of Northallerton Urban District with Bedale Rural District, Easingwold Rural District, Northallerton Rural District, Thirsk Rural District and Croft Rural District. This became part of the non-metropolitan county of North Yorkshire.
Since 2023, North Yorkshire Council has provided both district-level and county-level services. York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority assumed its powers on 1 February 2024. The first Mayor of York and North Yorkshire will be elected in May 2024.
Northallerton was a parliamentary borough. Its first representatives were John le Clerk and Stephen Maunsell, who were elected to the parliament of King Edward I in 1298, but no subsequent return was made until 1640, when the privilege was resumed by order of the House of Commons. From 1640 to 1885, the town formed the parliamentary borough of Northallerton, returning two Members of Parliament (MPs) until the Great Reform Act of 1832. Under the Act, boundaries were extended to include Brompton and Romanby and representation was reduced to a single member.
In 1885 the constituency was abolished and absorbed into the Richmond division of the North Riding. The serving member for the Richmond constituency is Rishi Sunak of the Conservative Party, who has held the seat since 2015 when he succeeded former party leader and Foreign Secretary William Hague. Sunak served as Prime Minister between 2022 and 2024. In modern times it has been a safe seat for the Conservative Party, which has held it since 1929.
Geography.
Topography.
Northallerton lies north of the Vale of York in the Vale of Mowbray just south of County Durham. To the west are the Pennines, a range of hills that rise to around , and to the east are the North York Moors which rise to around . The proximity of these hills is significant in the climatology of the area. The River Wiske, a tributary of the River Swale passes to the west of the town. The Wiske is fed by Brompton Beck, Turker Beck, Willow Beck and North Beck all of which flow through the town. Although small in nature these have been the focus of flash flooding in Northallerton and in Brompton village in the 21st century.
Climate.
According to the Köppen classification, the British Isles experience a maritime climate characterised by relatively cool summers and mild winters. Compared with other parts of the country, the Vale of York is slightly warmer and sunnier in the summer and colder and frostier in the winter. Owing to its inland position, and sheltered by the Pennines to the west, North Yorkshire is one of the driest counties in the UK, receiving, on average, around of rain per year. The mean annual daily duration of bright sunshine is three hours and 42 minutes.
There are two distinct local weather phenomena. The first is marked downslope lee wind caused by the proximity of the Pennines to the west, leading to super geostrophic winds which can reach in excess of 60 KT (70 mph), most commonly in winter and spring. In the winter, the presence of a subsidence inversion between the Pennines and the North York Moors can allow dense, persistent fog to form, sometimes lasting for several days.
The nearest official Met Office weather station to Northallerton is Leeming, about to the west. Temperature extremes have ranged from during July 2022, (making Leeming the northernmost place in the UK to exceed , down to during December 2010.
Leeming recorded its warmest December temperature on record in 2015.
Demography.
According to the United Kingdom