Normanby & Thornton Riseborough

A North Yorkshire Parish

&

its place in history over 2000 years

Compiled by Keith Dowell the Year 2000, Revised 2006.

Henry Ford once said 'history is bunk'.  Someone equally famous said 'the past is the key to the future'.

Our little community has never consisted of more than 200 -300 or so people; yet through our history we have links with Kings and Queens, Lords and Ladies, Archbishops, other countries, wars and battles and interesting lives in a time line that runs from the Stone Age to the Computer Age.

Population 

For anyone with a hint of curiosity this chronological history will provide a fascinating glimpse into our origins and the way history has shaped the countryside, the village and even us.

This history has been completed with the help of many local people who have contributed large and small pieces of an ever growing jig-saw.  Special thanks are due to Margaret Wood and her late brother John, Peter and Dorothy Smith, Alan Smith, Dennis Samways, the late Isabel McLean, Clare Wallis, Paul and Jan Roberts and Bernie Frank.

Keith and Elaine Dowell,  December 2000.

Note to the revised edition, 2006.

Since our first exhibition a number of you have asked us to repeat it.  This we did in 2005.  We have added items to this history of further research.  Ryedale Council has helped to fund the publishing, and all sales are in aid of Parish funds. There is an archive lodged at Ryedale Folk museum.  Trevor Hornby has donated records of the village cricket team.  We have all the inscriptions from the graveyard.  Bernie Frank has been doing sterling work on census reports and more photographs have come to light, especially early images from Alan Smith and Margaret Wood.  Sincere thanks to all contributors.

1	2	3

1. Aerial view in the 1990,s.  The line of trees on the right marks the river Seven (North is to the right), Normanby Hill top left, 2. a village scene in 2000 looking north, and 3. View looking South ward, mid 20th Century.

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