Middleton Tyas is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

in the

Richmondshire {{Infobox settlement , name = Richmondshire District , type = District , image_skyline = , imagesize = , image_caption = , image_blank_emblem= Richmondshire arms.png , blank_emblem_type = Coat ...

district of

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by National parks of the United Kingdom, national parks, including most of ...

, England. It is located near

Scotch Corner Scotch Corner is a Junction (road), junction of the A1(M) motorway, A1(M) and A66 road, A66 Trunk road#United Kingdom, trunk roads near Richmond, North Yorkshire, Richmond in North Yorkshire, England. It has been described as "the modern gate ...

History

The name Middleton is of

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

origin and it means middle-farm or middle-settlement. Tyas is a

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

family name but there seems to be no evidence that Middleton Tyas once belonged to a family of that name. The village lies on a substratum of

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

, which has been extensively

quarried A quarry is a type of open-pit mining, open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock (geology), rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some juri ...

. Limestone quarrying still takes place at the nearby Barton roundabout. There was also an 18th-century

copper mine Copper extraction refers to the methods used to obtain copper from its ores. The conversion of copper consists of a series of physical and electrochemical processes. Methods have evolved and vary with country depending on the ore source, loca ...

and works near the village. Just outside the village is the Middleton Lodge Estate. Middleton Lodge itself was built in 1760 and is a

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. It also has a number of Grade II listed buildings and of private parkland. The Church of

St Michael Michael (; he, מִיכָאֵל, lit=Who is like El od, translit=Mīḵāʾēl; el, Μιχαήλ, translit=Mikhaḗl; la, Michahel; ar, ميخائيل ، مِيكَالَ ، ميكائيل, translit=Mīkāʾīl, Mīkāl, Mīkhāʾīl), also ...

and All Angels lies just outside the village on the road towards

Moulton Moulton may refer to: Places in the United Kingdom ;In England *Moulton, Cheshire *Moulton, Lincolnshire **Moulton Windmill * Moulton St Mary, Norfolk *Moulton, Northamptonshire **Moulton College, agricultural college **Moulton Park, industria ...

. It is an ancient structure, with

arches and pillars on the north side and Early English on the south. It was restored and renovated between 1867 and 1879 under the direction of Sir

George Gilbert Scott Sir George Gilbert Scott (13 July 1811 – 27 March 1878), known as Sir Gilbert Scott, was a prolific English Gothic Revival architect, chiefly associated with the design, building and renovation of churches and cathedrals, although he started ...

Primitive Methodist The Primitive Methodist Church is a Methodist Christian denomination with the holiness movement. It began in England in the early 19th century, with the influence of American evangelist Lorenzo Dow (1777–1834). In the United States, the Primiti ...

chapel was erected in the village in 1877; only three years later it was sold to the

Wesleyans Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

. It is no longer used as a church, having been closed down in 1984.

Notable people

The fraudster

Sir Edmund Backhouse, 2nd Baronet Sir Edmund Trelawny Backhouse, 2nd Baronet (20 October 1873 – 8 January 1944) was a British oriental scholar, Sinologist, and linguist whose books exerted a powerful influence on the Western view of the last decades of the Qing Dynasty (1644� ...

, and his brother, the naval officer

Roger Backhouse Admiral of the Fleet Sir Roger Roland Charles Backhouse, (24 November 1878 – 15 July 1939) was a Royal Navy officer. He served in the First World War as a cruiser commander and after the war became a battle squadron commander and later Com ...

, were both born in the village. Lady Alicia Blackwood lived in the village, as did

Arthur Francis Pease Sir Arthur Francis Pease, 1st Baronet, DL (11 March 1866 – 23 November 1927) was an English coal owner and public servant. He was a member of the Quaker Pease family of Darlington, born in Hummersknott, a suburb of Darlington, the son of the c ...

, who also died there. The two brothers

Almroth Wright Sir Almroth Edward Wright (10 August 1861 – 30 April 1947) was a British bacteriologist and immunologist. He is notable for developing a system of anti-typhoid fever inoculation, recognizing early on that antibiotics would create resistant ...

and

Charles Theodore Hagberg Wright Sir Charles Theodore Hagberg Wright, LL.D. (17 November 1862, Middleton Tyas, Yorkshire – 7 March 1940 in London) was the Secretary and Librarian of the London Library from 1893 until his death. He managed expansion of the library and compi ...

were born in the village. Top poker player

Keith Hawkins Keith Hawkins (born 1967) is an English professional poker player, based in North Yorkshire. Early years Hawkins claims he got hooked on gambling after placing his first winning bet on the 1974 Derby (10p on Snow Knight at 66/1.) He began pl ...

currently lives in the village

Amenities

There is one pub in the village, ''The Shoulder of Mutton''; there is also ''The Scotch Corner Hotel'' at the famous roundabout. The village is served by Middleton Tyas Church of England primary school, which moved from the Victorian building in the centre of the village to a new purpose-built building on the outskirts. The old school was built in 1861-62 and the new school in 2003–04. The old school was sold and is now being extensively refurbished. The

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

and shop closed in April 2003, leaving the village with no retail facilities within its boundaries, so the local community decided to open a new shop. Using grant aid from the

Countryside Agency The Countryside Agency was a statutory body set up in England in 1999 with the task of improving the quality of the rural environment and the lives of those living in it. The agency was dissolved in 2006 and its functions dispersed among other bod ...

and

DEFRA DEFRA may refer to: * Deficit Reduction Act of 1984, United States law * Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, United Kingdom government department {{Disambiguation ...

the villagers founded the Community Co-operative village store in the Memorial Hall. It was opened by local MP

William Hague William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

in April 2004. The shop is open 55 hours a week and sells basic groceries, local produce, fruit and vegetables, newspapers and magazines; it has an in-store bakery and serves as an

off-licence A liquor store is a retail shop that predominantly sells prepackaged liquors – typically in bottles – usually intended to be consumed off the store's premises. Depending on region and local idiom, they may also be called an off-licence (i ...

. Two part-time staff are employed and there is regular input from eight volunteers. The nearby Scotch Corner Service Station acts as a useful 24-hour shop for Middleton Tyas and other neighbouring villages.

Governance

The

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected to t ...

with the same name stretches south-west to Skeeby and had a total population at the 2011 Census of 1,183.

References

External links

Middleton Lodge

Middleton Tyas Parish Council
{{authority control Villages in North Yorkshire Civil parishes in North Yorkshire Richmondshire