Leeming is a village 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

Leeming lies a mile east of the current

A1(M) A1(M) is the designation given to a series of four separate motorway sections in the UK. Each section is an upgrade to a section of the A1, a major north–south road which connects London, the capital of England, with Edinburgh, the capita ...

road, south of the larger village of

Leeming Bar Leeming Bar is a village in the civil parish of Aiskew and Leeming Bar, in North Yorkshire, England. The village lay on the original Great North Road (Dere Street) before being bypassed. It is now home to a large industrial estate and the mai ...

and north of the small hamlet of Londonderry. Nearby is the RAF base of

RAF Leeming Royal Air Force Leeming or more simply RAF Leeming is a Royal Air Force station located near Leeming, North Yorkshire, England. It was opened in 1940 and was jointly used by the RAF and the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). Between 1950 and 19 ...

. Before the opening of the £1 million bypass in October 1961, the A1 passed through the village following the path of

Dere Street Dere Street or Deere Street is a modern designation of a Roman roads, Roman road which ran north from Eboracum (York), crossing the Stanegate at Corbridge (Hadrian's Wall was crossed at the Portgate, just to the north) and continuing beyond int ...

, parallel and close to the main runway of the airfield.

Climate

History

The name derives from the river-name, which turned settlement-name. The etymology may be linked with

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

*lemanio "elm-tree", but there are other possibilities. An archaeological survey undertaken on Kelsall Villa (a Roman site near to

) describes it as deriving from the river with ''Leming'' meaning bright stream. In April 2008, the nearby base's remaining

Tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with the surface of Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, although the ...

F3 squadron ( 25 Sqn) was disbanded. The base has been redeveloped as a communications station with the formation of No. 90 Signals Unit, the first elements of which began arriving in 2006. Three flying squadrons remain at the base, 11 Squadron (Qatar), Northumbrian Universities Air Squadron and the

Yorkshire Universities Air Squadron The Yorkshire Universities Air Squadron (more commonly known as YUAS) is a Royal Air Force flying training unit that currently operates out of RAF Leeming in North Yorkshire, England. One of fourteen University Air Squadrons, the unit tradition ...

. The village churchyard is the burial place of Flt Lt

John Quinton Flight Lieutenant John Alan Quinton, George Cross, GC, Distinguished Flying Cross (United Kingdom), DFC (2 February 1921 – 13 August 1951) was a British navigator and pilot who was posthumously awarded the George Cross for an act of outstand ...

GC DFC, who sacrificed himself to save an air cadet by providing the cadet with the only available parachute after a mid-air collision.

Governance

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 t ...

in the same name exists. This ward stretches south to Carthorpe with a total population of 3,500. From 1974 to 2023 it was part of the district of Hambleton, it is now administered by the unitary

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 ...

Biogas plant

In July 2016, an £18 million

biogas Biogas is a gaseous renewable energy source produced from raw materials such as agricultural waste, manure, municipal waste, plant material, sewage, green waste, Wastewater treatment, wastewater, and food waste. Biogas is produced by anaerobic ...

plant was opened at the southern end of the village adjacent to RAF Leeming. The Clapham Lodge facility takes in of

food waste The causes of food going uneaten are numerous and occur throughout the food system, during food production, production, food processing, processing, Food distribution, distribution, Grocery store, retail and food service sales, and Social clas ...

annually from local farms and food manufacturers and produces biogas (

biomethane Renewable natural gas (RNG), also known as biomethane, is a renewable fuel made from biogas that has been upgraded to a quality similar to fossil fuel, fossil natural gas and has a methane concentration of 90% or greater. By removing carbon diox ...

) and fertiliser from its

anaerobic digestion Anaerobic digestion is a sequence of processes by which microorganisms break down biodegradable material in the absence of oxygen. The process is used for industrial or domestic purposes to Waste management, manage waste or to produce fuels. Mu ...

(AD) plant. The plant generates approximately of biogas per year which is fed directly into the Northern Gas Network pipeline and is enough to power almost 4,800 homes. The fertiliser is then sold off to local farms. Local firms such as R & R foods (based at

) and Wensleydale Creamery in

Hawes Hawes is a market town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England, at the head of Wensleydale in the Yorkshire Dales, and historically in the North Riding of Yorkshire. The River Ure north of the town is a tourist attraction in the Yorks ...

both supply waste product for use in the biogas plant. Wensleydale Creamery, famous for producing

Wensleydale cheese Wensleydale is a style of cheese originally produced in Wensleydale, North Yorkshire, England, but now mostly made in large commercial creameries throughout the United Kingdom. The term "Yorkshire Wensleydale" can only be used for cheese that ...

, signed a contract in 2019 for the biogas plant to take on the

whey Whey is the liquid remaining after milk has been curdled and strained. It is a byproduct of the manufacturing of cheese or casein and has several commercial uses. Sweet whey is a byproduct resulting from the manufacture of rennet types of hard c ...

by-product from their cheesemaking. This will add an additional of green gas to the plants' output every year, which is enough to power 800 homes.

References

External links

History
{{authority control Villages in North Yorkshire