Kirby-on-the-Moor, now known as Kirby Hill, is a village in the Kirby Hill

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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

about north of the market town of

Boroughbridge Boroughbridge ( ) is a town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is north-west of York. Until a bypass was built the town lay on the main A1 road from London to Edinburgh, which c ...

, in

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in Northern England.The Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority areas of City of York, York and North Yorkshire (district), North Yorkshire are in Yorkshire and t ...

, England.

Geography

The village is on a section of the Great North Road that is now the B6265. It was part of the A1 until the section of the A1(M) west of the village was built. The village is above sea level. The

A1(M) motorway A1(M) is the designation given to a series of four separate controlled-access highway, motorway sections in the UK. Each section is an upgrade to a section of the A1 road (Great Britain), A1, a major north–south road which connects Greater ...

passes approximately 500m west of the village. The 2001 Census recorded the population as 355, of whom 294 were more than 16 years old and 168 of these were in employment. There were 155 dwellings of which 105 were detached. The 2011 Census recorded the population as 391.

Manor

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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

of 1086 records Kirby as ''Chirchbi'' in the

hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numerals, Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 (number), 99 and preceding 101 (number), 101. In mathematics 100 is the square of 10 (number), 10 (in scientific notation it is written as 102). The standar ...

Hallikeld Hallikeld was a wapentake, an administrative division (or ancient district) analogous to a Hundred (county division), hundred, in the historic county of the North Riding of Yorkshire. It was one of the smaller wapentakes by area and consisted of ...

. Gospatric, son of Arnketil held the manor of Kirby at the time of the

Norman conquest of England The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Normans, Norman, French people, French, Flemish people, Flemish, and Bretons, Breton troops, all led by the Du ...

. Afterwards the manor was seized by

the Crown The Crown is a political concept used in Commonwealth realms. Depending on the context used, it generally refers to the entirety of the State (polity), state (or in federal realms, the relevant level of government in that state), the executive ...

, but Gospatric remained lord of the manor on behalf of the King. At some date the manor passed to the Mowbray family, who later sold part of it to Newburgh Priory. After the priory was dissolved in the 16th century the Crown granted the manor to the Nevill family of Thornton Bridge. In 1672 the Nevill family sold the manor to Sir Robert Long. In the 19th century the Rawson family of

Nidd Hall Nidd Hall was a 19th-century country house, now a hotel, in the village of Nidd, North Yorkshire, England. It is a Grade II listed building. It is constructed of coursed squared gritstone and ashlar with grey slate roofs. It is built in 3 storey ...

bought the manor.

Church and chapel

Parish church

The oldest parts of the All Saints' Church, Kirby-on-the-Moor are

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...

and were built in the 10th century.

Chapel

There used to be a

Wesleyan Wesleyan theology, otherwise known as Wesleyan–Arminian theology, or Methodist theology, is a theological tradition in Protestant Christianity based upon the ministry of the 18th-century evangelical reformer brothers John Wesley and Charle ...

chapel in the village.

Economic and social history

In a rebellion of barons against

Edward II Edward II (25 April 1284 – 21 September 1327), also known as Edward of Caernarfon or Caernarvon, was King of England from 1307 until he was deposed in January 1327. The fourth son of Edward I, Edward became the heir to the throne follo ...

in 1322, Sir Andreas de Harcla mustered his army near Kirby Hill before the

Battle of Boroughbridge The Battle of Boroughbridge was fought on 16 March 1322 in England between a group of rebellious barons and the forces of King Edward II, near Boroughbridge, north-west of York. The culmination of a long period of antagonism between the King a ...

The Pilmoor, Boroughbridge and Knaresborough Railway ran through the parish. It was opened from Junction on the

East Coast Main Line The East Coast Main Line (ECML) is a electrified railway between its northern terminus at and southern terminus at . The key towns and cities of , , , , and are on the line. The line is a key transport artery on the eastern side of Grea ...

to in 1847 and operated by the North Eastern Railway. In 1875 it was extended from Boroughbridge to . In 1964

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Comm ...

ways closed the line. Since 1996, residents of Kirby Hill have campaigned to stop developers from gaining planning permission for a motorway service area on the A1(M) about north-west of the village. A campaign group, Kirby Hill RAMS (Residents Against Motorway Services) opposes the development. Led by its Chairman, Gareth Owens, RAMS succeeded in opposing the plans at when they came befor
Harrogate Borough Council
s Planning Committee and at three major public inquiries when the developer appealed. On 16 October 2012 the then

Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government The secretary of state for housing, communities and local government is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom and is the Cabinet minister responsible for the overall leadership and strategic direction of the Ministry of Ho ...

Eric Pickles Eric Jack Pickles, Baron Pickles, (born 20 April 1952) is a British Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party politician who served as Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Brentwood and Ongar from 1992 United ...

, formally rejected the plan after the third public inquiry. On 19 November 2019, Harrogate Borough Council's Planning Committee rejected a new MSA scheme at the same site proposed by

Applegreen Applegreen Limited is an Irish company founded in 1992 that operates 620 petrol stations in Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and Great Britain (under the Welcome Break arm) and the United States. It is a major petrol retailer in Ireland, ...

. However, the application was granted outline planning permission, subject to a long list of conditions, in April 2021 by a Government Planning Inspector, David Rose, after a fourth Public Inquiry.

did not progress the granted permission for two years and in March 2023 submitted an application to Harrogate Borough Council to vary the permission that had been granted. This was approved by the new unitary authority,

North Yorkshire Council North Yorkshire Council, known between 1974 and 2023 as North Yorkshire County Council, is the local authority for the non-metropolitan county of North Yorkshire, England. Since 2023 the council has been a unitary authority, being a county coun ...

. in December 2023

submitted a reserved matters planning application, which will again have to be determined by the Local Planning Authority. Kirby Hill RAMS opposes the application. Kirby Hill is Britain's longest-running proposed motorway services controversy. Kirby Hill has a pub, th
Blue Bell Inn
It is on Leeming Lane, the main road through the village.

Schools

Kirby Hill Church of England Primary School has a modern school building, opened in June 2002. The old school near the Vicarage was built in 1867. For secondary education the parish is in the catchment area of Boroughbridge High School and

Ripon Grammar School Ripon Grammar School is a co-educational, boarding and day, selective grammar school in Ripon, North Yorkshire, England. It has been named top-performing state school in the north for ten years running by ''The Sunday Times''. It is one of the b ...

Governance

Kirby Hill and District Parish Council has eight members. From 1974 to 2023 it was part of the

Borough of Harrogate The Borough of Harrogate was a local government district with borough status in North Yorkshire, England, from 1974 to 2023. Its council was based in the town of Harrogate, but it also included surrounding settlements, including the cathedral ...

, it is now administered by the unitary

. The village is part of the Skipton and Ripon constituency of the

UK Parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of ...

References

Bibliography

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External links

Kirby Hill near Boroughbridge

All Saints' Church Kirby-on-the-Moor, also known as Kirby Hill

Kirby Hill Primary School
{{Authority control Civil parishes in North Yorkshire Villages in North Yorkshire