Sleights is a village in

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. Located in the Esk Valley in the postal region of

Whitby Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in the Scarborough borough of North Yorkshire, England. Situated on the east coast of Yorkshire at the mouth of the River Esk, Whitby has a maritime, mineral and tourist heritage. Its East Clif ...

, the village is part of the

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 ...

Eskdaleside cum Ugglebarnby Eskdaleside cum Ugglebarnby is a civil parish in the Scarborough district of North Yorkshire, England, comprising the two villages of Sleights and Ugglebarnby. According to the 2011 UK census, Eskdaleside cum Ugglebarnby parish had a popula ...

and the borough of

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, su ...

. Sleights lies along the steep main

A169 road The A169 is an A road in North Yorkshire, England. It runs from the A64 at Malton on the edge of the Yorkshire Wolds through the Vale of Pickering and across the North York Moors to join the A171 just west of Whitby. It is a single carriage ...

that runs north to south between Whitby and Malton via Pickering across the

North York Moors The North York Moors is an upland area in north-eastern Yorkshire, England. It contains one of the largest expanses of Calluna, heather moorland in the United Kingdom. The area was designated as a national parks of England and Wales, National P ...

. At the bottom of the village, the road crosses the Esk Valley Railway, allowing access to

Sleights railway station Sleights is a railway station on the Esk Valley line, Esk Valley Line, which runs between Middlesbrough railway station, Middlesbrough and Whitby railway station, Whitby via Nunthorpe railway station, Nunthorpe. The station, situated south-west ...

. The road crosses the River Esk on a high bridge, opened on 26 January 1937. The road continues up the hill to reach the A171

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

trunk road. At the top of the village is Blue Bank. Due east of the village is the hamlet of Iburndale. Due to road accidents, Blue Bank, with a gradient of 1 in 4 (25%), has an

escape lane A runaway truck ramp, runaway truck lane, escape lane, emergency escape ramp, or truck arrester bed is a traffic device that enables vehicles which are having braking problems to safely stop. It is typically a long, sand- or gravel-filled lane c ...

of soft sand. The Horticultural & Industrial Society show has been held each year since 1880. Since 2006 the show has been held on the sports field, with classes for produce, fruit, flowers vegetables, crafts, cake decorating, photography, flower arranging etc. Additional attractions include a bouncy castle, face painting, tombola and a fun dog show. The infamous Victorian forger Edward Simpson was born here in 1815.

Amenities

There is a village shop, a branch of the

Spar SPAR, originally DESPAR, styled as DE SPAR, is a Dutch multinational that provides branding, supplies and support services for independently owned and operated food retail stores. It was founded in the Netherlands in 1932, by Adriaan van Well, ...

chain, a post office, tearoom, two

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

s, a butchers, Botham’s bakers, a

fish and chip Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

restaurant and a hair dressers salon.

Sport

The village sports field, which is mainly used for cricket, has a new pavilion built in 2006. The money for the new build was collected through local fundraising. Until 2018, the cricket team used to play in the Eskdale League on Saturdays. In June 2011, a new Sleights Football club was formed and joined the Scarborough and District Saturday League, with several players coming from Sleights, but training and playing at Caedmon School in Whitby. They were promoted from the league's Third Division to the First in the space of two seasons. They joined the Beckett Football League in 2017 and returned to play at Lowdale Lane in the village after a 20-year absence on Saturday 23 September 2018. Their first game back home was a 4–1 win over Kirkbymoorside Reserves, Joe Hugill scored the first goal. There is also a bowls club which is used by people from Sleights and neighbouring towns and villages.

Education

The village contains only one school, Sleights Church of England primary school. The school has approximately 100 pupils and is graded as Good by Ofsted and SIAMS (2019). Students aged over 11 years old travel to nearby schools in

Religion

There are three places of worship in the village, St John's Church of England Church, dedicated to

St John the Evangelist John the Evangelist ( grc-gre, Ἰωάννης, Iōánnēs; Aramaic: ܝܘܚܢܢ; Ge'ez: ዮሐንስ; ar, يوحنا الإنجيلي, la, Ioannes, he, יוחנן cop, ⲓⲱⲁⲛⲛⲏⲥ or ⲓⲱ̅ⲁ) is the name traditionally given t ...

, English Martyrs Roman Catholic Church, on Eskdaleside and, at the bottom of the village, the

Briggswath Briggswath is a village in the Scarborough 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 ...

and Sleights Methodist Chapel. The churchyard of St John's is the burial place for all denominations in the parish. The author Alfred J. Brown and his wife are buried there.

Name

First found in a document from 1223 as ''Sleghtesc''. Like other place names in Yorkshire, the etymology of Sleights is

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 ...

. It means 'smooth or level fields' from ''slétta'' 'flat land, plain, prairie', like the Norman place name Eslettes (''Esletis'' ab. 1040), same etymology as many places in Denmark called

Sletten Sletten is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Finn Sletten (born 1952), Norwegian jazz musician * Iver Sletten (born 1974), Norwegian footballer * Jakob Hveding Sletten (1872–1936), Norwegian priest and musician *Klaus Sletten ( ...

.Beaurepaire

Notes

External links

"Sleights Village"
Eskvalley.com. Retrieved 24 December 2011 * {{authority control Villages in North Yorkshire Borough of Scarborough