From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Askrigg is a small
village and civil parish in Wensleydale in the Yorkshire Dales
National Park. It is part of the Richmondshire district of North
Yorkshire, England. The village and its parish are positioned in
Upper Wensleydale, 12 miles west of the main town, Leyburn, and
5 miles east of Hawes, the home of Wensleydale cheese. The name
Askrigg is of Old Norse origin meaning the ridge where ash trees
grew, denoting the existence of Viking settlers and their
farming. The oldest settlement probably dates back to the Iron
Age. The village remained of little commercial importance
throughout the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries when
Wensleydale was extensively used for sheep grazing by the
Cistercian monks, who became prosperous on the profits of the
wool trade. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, however,
secular wealth became important in the dale following the border
conflicts in the north and the Dissolution of the Monasteries
throughout the country. The local c