Preston-under-Scar 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 situated approximately west of

Leyburn Leyburn is a market town and civil parish in the district of Richmondshire, North Yorkshire, England, sitting above the northern bank of the River Ure in Wensleydale. Historically in the North Riding of Yorkshire, the name was derived from 'L ...

. The village population was 120 at the 2001 census, increasing to 170 by the 2011 census. The village is mentioned in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

as belonging to Thorfin of Ravensworth, but the tenant-in-chief being Count Alan of

Bedale Bedale ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the district of Hambleton, North Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the North Riding of Yorkshire, it is north of Leeds, south-west of Middlesbrough and south-west of the county town of ...

. The name of the village derives form a mixture of

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

and

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...

and was originally ''prēost tūn sker'', which translates as ''Priests farm (or settlement) under rock (or cliff).'' The village used to be in the

Wapentake A hundred is an administrative division that is geographically part of a larger region. It was formerly used in England, Wales, some parts of the United States, Denmark, Southern Schleswig, Sweden, Finland, Norway, the Bishopric of Ösel–Wiek, C ...

Hang West Hang West was a Wapentake (Hundred) in the North Riding of Yorkshire. The Wapentake measured across (from west to east) and was from north to south. It was bordered on its eastern side by Hang East, the West Riding of Yorkshire on the southe ...

and in the parish of Wensley. Traditionally, worship was undertaken at the church in Wensley as there was no church in the village save for a small Methodist chapel, but the village does have a small "mission room" (St Margarets Church) that was constructed in 1862 and is now a

grade II 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 ...

listed building. However, services are only held twice-monthly. The

Wensleydale Railway The Wensleydale Railway is a heritage railway in Wensleydale and Lower Swaledale in North Yorkshire, England. It was built in stages by different railway companies and originally extended to railway station on the Settle-Carlisle line. Since ...

passes just to the south of the village. Previously, the village and that of neighbouring Wensley were served by railway station on the line and whilst the line has been re-opened as a heritage railway, the station is in private hands and has not been opened up to passengers. The village is mostly contained in a conservation area that was designated in 1989. It is just outside of the

Yorkshire Dales National Park The Yorkshire Dales National Park is a national park in England covering most of the Yorkshire Dales. Most of the park is in North Yorkshire, with a sizeable area in Westmorland (Cumbria) and a small part in Lancashire. The park was designat ...

due to quarrying and a military firing range which lie just to the north of the village. Besides quarrying (which is still ongoing in the modern era) the area was also known for its iron ore and lead industries. These were documented as far back as the early 14th century though may have been explored earlier. There are remains of the old lead mining industry in the nearby Condenser Wood. Some of the old lead processing buildings are still standing and are now listed buildings, including the peat store that would house a years' worth of peat to be used in smelting lead. Various chimneys were built to vent the fumes from the smelting process, but these were quite low in the valley and would cling to the surroundings rather than disperse. Because of this, a flue was constructed that extended for in a northerly direction and fed into a chimney at Cobscar Mill above Preston-under-Scar at above sea level.

References

External links

Villages in North Yorkshire Civil parishes in North Yorkshire Wensleydale {{richmondshire-geo-stub