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Thirsk

Racing In Thirsk
History of Thirsk and District
Thirsk Market Place

To many people this is James Herriot's town. Thirsk is closely associated with the famous author/vet and was the inspiration for the fictional town of Darrowby.

Thirsk is the very essence of a rural market town, with a cobbled market square and a brace of grand former coaching inns. Some of these coaching inns have now been converted into hotels, adding to the fantastic range of accommodation in Thirsk. The town has deep roots in the local agricultural industry and a twice-weekly outdoor market (on Mondays and Saturdays).

Many narrow streets and alleyways wind off from the market square, hiding all manner of charming individual small shops and eateries. You'll find a fantastic range of places to eat in Thirsk, from restaurants and bistros to cafés and traditional tea rooms.

Actor Christopher Timothy - James Heriot

It is no surprise that Alf Wight, the ‘real’ James Herriot, was part of a highly regarded veterinary practice right in the centre of the town. Alf Wight lived in and practised from the veterinary surgery at 23 Kirkgate which now forms the centrepiece of ‘The World of James Herriot’ Visitor Centre, one of the many great places to visit in Thirsk.

Kirkgate is a northern dialect term and means Church Street. And just a little further up from the Herriot Surgery in Kirkgate lies St Mary's Church, where Alf Wight married Joan. This 15th century church is well worth a visit - boasting a huge tower with a fine peal of eight bells. It is a fine example of late perpendicular architecture and has a magnificent roof and a remarkable font-cover.

Kirkgate has another famous son - Thomas Lord was born there in 1755. Thomas Lord was an accomplished cricketer and gave his name to the world’s most famous cricket ground. His house is now the Town Museum.

Thirsk is also well known for its racecourse, and meetings are very well attended.

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Racing In Thirsk

In the 17th and 18th centuries racing took place under royal patronage on the Hambleton Hills above the town, which was renowned as the 'Newmarket of the North'. James I had donated a gold cup for the Royal Plate in 1612. The course was laid out in 1854, after Frederick Bell of Thirsk Hall had been drinking in the Golden Fleece Hotel with some friends with the outcome that he decided to hold a race meeting on his nearby estate. The inaugural gathering was held on 15 March 1855, with runners stabled at local inns and taverns.

Sponsored by several of the prominent families in the district, racing was supported almost entirely by local effort. The Member of Parliament for Thirsk, for example, presented annually a Member's Plate, but it was essentially a rural meeting. At one period there was considerable opposition to the meetings from the Vicar of the time and it is on record that during a particularly hostile sermon Squire Bell and his sporting supporters walked out of the Church in a body.

The racecourse gained national attention in the 1880s when the legendary Fred Archer was engaged to ride at Thirsk. Royal patronage was resumed in 1895 when the Prince of Wales, the future Edward VII, attended the October meeting. A special grandstand was built for the occasion which, as the Royal Pavilion, stood on the course for some thirty years.

At the outbreak of war in 1914 racing was suspended and was not resumed until 1924. In that year a new Thirsk Race Company was founded to re-establish the sport on a proper business footing. The course itself was relaid and improved, the inadequate Royal Pavilion was demolished and a large new grand-stand built. The first meeting under the new regime took place on 8th August 1924. Since then, the Thirsk meetings have enjoyed a high reputation and, apart from a break during WW2 when Army units were stationed on the site, have continued on an annual basis.

The present racecourse at Thirsk holds thirteen meetings a year.

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History of Thirsk and District

Thirsk has a long history - It is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 under the name Tresche. There are at least two explanations for the derivation of its name: it may originate from a Viking word Thraesk, meaning lake or fen or it could be derived from the ancient British words Tre meaning town and Isk a river. The town’s roots certainly go back beyond the Normans, the Norsemen, the Angles and the Saxons to the Romans and the Celts.

Thirsk lies in the Vale of Mowbray, a plain at the northern end of the Vale of York, which is named after Baron Robert de Mowbray, Earl of Northumberland from 1080 to 1095, whose father Roger was a Norman noble and contemporary of William the Conqueror. Robert de Mowbray led an army which killed King Malcolm III of Scotland and a cross marks the spot north of Alnwick. The name Mowbray, by the way, was an anglicisation of a French word, Montbrai.

Robert’s nephew (also called Roger) fought the Scots in 1138 at the Battle of the Standard near Northallerton and later fought in the Holy Land. He was captured, but luckily for him he was ransomed and returned to England.

Thirsk’s location made it of strategic importance and the de Mowbrays built a motte and bailey castle - that’s one with a keep built on a mound (motte) and surrounded by an outer wall (bailey). The keep was probably made of timber.

Sadly there remains little trace of the castle that was the de Mowbrays’ home in Thirsk, other than part of the moat and ramparts in Castle Garth (formerly a Saxon burial ground) and place names such as Castle Yard. One theory is that the remains of the castle were used to build St Mary’s Church, although this is probably just folklore as there is no archaeological evidence to support this.

The parish church stood on the far bank of the Codbeck, a small tributary of the Swale, and overlooked the site of a holy well dedicated to St Mary, but which could possibly have been a sacred spot in pre-Christian times. We don’t know what the Norman building looked like, but by the fifteenth century the townsfolk were prosperous enough to undertake the building of a magnificent new church with a tower that stands as a landmark for all the roads that lead into the town.

St Mary's was completed about 1480 and remains today substantially unchanged in structure, a fine example of late mediaeval architecture. Alongside the church stands Thirsk Hall, the family seat of the Bells, squires of Thirsk since 1723. The York architect John Carr remodelled the early Georgian mansion late in the eighteenth century.

The oldest parts of Thirsk were centred on the eastern bank of the Codbeck around St James’s Green where there once stood a chapel. It was on the Green that elections for Parliament were held - under a huge spreading elm tree (until it was burned down by some over-enthusiastic youths, carried away by the joys of Bonfire Night celebrations) - and a regular cattle market took place on the Green into the early twentieth century.

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Thirsk Market Place

It was probably in the early middle ages that the Market Place was set out on the west bank of the Codbeck - and it has been the hub of Thirsk’s commercial and social activity ever since. An ancient market cross stood there for many years until, somewhat broken, it was replaced by the Clock Tower which still stands. The Clock Tower was built in 1896 to commemorate the marriage of the current Duke of York, later King George V, to Princess May of Teck, the future Queen Mary.

Until 1834 there was a Tollbooth opposite the Market Cross, and some nearby covered butchers’ stalls - the Shambles - were demolished in 1857. However, one relic of the tradition of open-air butchery survives - the Bull Ring, marked out in the cobbles near the bus-stand with a replica of the tethering ring at its centre. This was where mediaeval market laws required bulls to be baited by dogs before being sold for slaughter - fortunately this cruel custom had died out by the eighteenth century.

Thirsk was once a haven for a myriad of craftsmen - tinsmiths, blacksmiths, saddlers, cobblers, carpenters, plumbers, glaziers, tailors, and drapers to name but a few. They plied their trade to the local community from cottages, stables, workshops based in the long, narrow yards that backed onto the shops that fronted the Market Place, and reached by gateways or passageways, or ginnels. Some of the yards still survive - though you won’t find the same craftsmen practising in them.

At one time there were three coaching inns in the centre of Thirsk and taverns and public house ringed the perimeter of the Market Place - the market traders served the licensees and then spent some of their profits in the various hostelries.

The coaching inns reflected Thirsk’s importance as a staging post on routes northwards from York on the London/Edinburgh route from the eighteenth century onwards. Two of these inns, the Three Tuns and the Golden Fleece, are still in existence - but no longer serving quite the same function. The yards that once housed the stables for the relays of horses for the mail coaches are now car parks. But the decline of the mail coach started with the increase in rail travel in the 19th century.

Thirsk has had a station, albeit a mile out of town, since 1841 and the coming of the railway furthered the development of numerous existing industries including malting and brewing; milling; linen weaving, dyeing and bleaching; tanning and leather-working. At one time there were five brickworks and a foundry in the town. It was a veritable hive of industry.

The old industries are now long gone and tourism is a big part of the commercial life of Thirsk. You’ll be assured of a warm welcome in Thirsk, with plenty of things to see and do both in and near to the town.

With grateful thanks to Gaynor Garrity of Thirsk Racecourse Ltd for supplying information about Thirsk Racecourse.

Bow House is particularly indebted to Mr Cooper Harding, Curator of Thirsk Museum, who supplied a vast amount of detailed knowledge concerning Thirsk and Sowerby, and much of the above history is derived from his work.

 

More Thirsk accommodation.


Thirsk Tourist Information Centre
49 Market Place, Thirsk YO7 1HA
Tel: 01845 522 755