Danby, North Yorkshire
Coordinates: 54°28′04″N 0°54′35″W / 54.467700°N 0.909700°W
Danby is a village and civil parish in the Scarborough district of North Yorkshire, England. According to the 2001 UK census, Danby parish had a population of 1,411,[1] a reduction on the 2001 UK census figure of 1,515.[2] The statistician Karl Pearson spent a lot of time there.[3]
Danby is located within the North York Moors National Park and is home to The Moors National Park Centre.[4]
Danby is served by a rail network between Middlesbrough and Whitby and an Arriva bus service. Danby village incorporates the Duke of Wellington pub, and the neighbouring Post Office. The village lies on the Esk Valley Walk.
The civil parish includes the following villages/settlements:
Governance
An electoral ward in the same name exists. This ward had a population of 2,072 at the 2011 Census.[5]
Danby Castle
A little over a mile to the south-east are the remains of Danby Castle.[6]
Danby Castle occupies a commanding position on the far slopes of Danby Rigg. It was built in the 14th century for Lord Latimer as a sign of his great wealth and, in its day, was of pioneering architectural design, combining both defence and comfortable living. Catherine Parr once lived at the castle, before she became the sixth wife of Henry VIII. The castle is now a wedding venue; part of the building is now a farmhouse and the venue owners' family home. Danby court leet, the all male, baronial court whose origins were as a manorial court, but whose functions are now restricted to the management of common land,[7] regularly meets in the castle’s courtroom.[8]
Danby Show
The Danby Agricultural show is held every year in August, with traditional country entertainments and activities such as show jumping, sheepdog trials, exhibitions of farm animals and machinery as well as horticultural, craft and produce competitions.
Church history
Daniel Duck (1743-?1825) was the vicar of Danby from 1780 until he was succeeded by his son Joseph in 1825. Joseph came from Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge and his family was one of yeoman freeholders in the Yorkshire Dales. He is commemorated in the poem, Lines in Memory of the Rev. D. Duck, Curate of Danby.
- ”Yes Daniel, faithful Daniel - gone / We faithfull few lament their loss / No more we fix our eyes upon / That Zealous preacher of the cross.” The preface to this poem in the original manuscript had: ”Written on the Back of a pew before divine service while the folk were gathering up. Sunday April 1835.” Daniel Duck's diaries are held by the Whitby Literary and Philosophical Society, which indicates that Daniel was the eldest son of Joseph Duck, yeoman, of Ainthorpe, and Hannah. He was perpetual curate of Danby, first appearing in the church register in February 1780.
The Rev. John Christopher Atkinson was Vicar of Danby 1850-1900 and author of Forty Years in a Moorland Parish, 1891.
Danby Beacon
The Danby Beacon was one of a line of beacons up to twenty miles apart, and dates back to the 1600s when the country was living under the threat of invasion from France. It was to have been lit when the soldier stationed nearby had sight of a foreign fleet.
Danby Beacon is now a national landmark, which is used as a reference point by thousands of visitors and walkers each year. Over the years, the old wooden beacon aged so much that it eventually disintegrated and fell down - the landmark was lost.
A new beacon was unveiled in 2008 by Lord Downe, President of the Danby Beacon Trust. The flame-shaped basket is made out of blued stainless steel, blending in with the sky. The flames are mounted around a cup that is decorated with bronze - a reminder of the Bronze Age burial mound which part occupies the site.[9]
During the Second World War, the site became home to one of the first radar stations guarding the north-east coast. The station was responsible for guiding Group Captain Peter Townsend, when he intercepted and shot down the first enemy aircraft to fall on English soil during the war.
The radar station, which continued to function until the 1957, was the precursor of the RAF Fylingdales early warning station, 15 miles south-east, whose three giant golf balls became one of the North York Moors National Park's biggest attractions.[10][11]
References
- 1 2 "Key Figures for 2011 Census: Key Statistics: Area: Danby CP (Parish)". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 7 February 2013.
- ↑ "2001 Census: Key Statistics: Parish Headcounts: Area: Danby CP (Parish)". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 7 July 2008.
- ↑ Porter, Theodore M. (2005). Karl Pearson: The Scientific Life in a Statistical Age. Princeton University Press. p. 264. ISBN 9780691126357. Retrieved 27 May 2012.
- ↑ The Moors National Park Centre, Danby
- ↑ "Ward population 2011". Retrieved 14 August 2015.
- ↑ Historic England. "Danby Castle (28803)". PastScape. Retrieved 15 June 2011.
- ↑ The Northern Echo: Court leet seeks peace to work - (27 October 2000)
- ↑ North York Moors Places of interest: Danby Castle
- ↑ BBC Website: Local history - Danby Beacon
- ↑ Real Whitby Magazine: National park’s cold war secrets unearthed
- ↑ North York Moors National Park: RAF Danby Beacon
- Wesley Historical Society Notes and Queries June 1841, p. 94
- Ord's History of Cleveland (1840)
- Atkinson (1891)
Bibliography
- Atkinson, John Christopher (1891) Forty years in a Moorland Parish: reminiscences and researches in Danby in Cleveland. London: Macmillan (Atkinson was Vicar 1850-1900; later editions: 1907, 1967 and 1983)
- Michael Stainsby (2006) More Than An Ordinary Man: Life and Society in the Upper Esk Valley, 1830-1910. North York Moors National Park Authority. Helmsley. ISBN 1 904622 08 9
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