| Goathland | |
|---|---|
 Goathland village | |
.svg)  Goathland Location withinNorth Yorkshire | |
| Population | 438 (2011 census)[1] |
| OS grid reference | NZ831012 |
| Civil parish |
|
| Unitary authority | |
| Ceremonial county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | WHITBY |
| Postcode district | YO22 |
| Police | North Yorkshire |
| Fire | North Yorkshire |
| Ambulance | Yorkshire |
| UK Parliament | |
| 54°24′00″N0°43′12″W / 54.40000°N 0.72000°W /54.40000; -0.72000 | |
Goathland is a village andcivil parish in theScarborough district ofNorth Yorkshire, England.Historically part of theNorth Riding of Yorkshire, it is in theNorth York Moors national park due north ofPickering, off theA169 toWhitby. It has a station on the steam-operatedNorth Yorkshire Moors Railway line.
In 2015, it had an estimated population of 430.[3]
Goathland village is 486 feet (148 m) above sea level and has a recorded history dating back to just after the Norman Conquest, though the settlement was not mentioned in theDomesday Book.[4][5] The name Goathland is probably a corruption of 'good land'.[6] Alternatively it may come from 'Goda's land', Goda being anOld English personal name.[6] In 1109King Henry I granted land to Osmund the Priest and the brethren of the hermitage of Goathland, then calledGodelandia, for the soul of his mother, Queen Matilda, who had died in 1083. This is recorded in a charter held atWhitby Abbey.[7]
The village was aspa town in the 19th century.[citation needed]
There are several hotels and guest houses in the village. The largest, theMallyan Spout Hotel, is named after anearby waterfall. There is a caravan site, reached by driving along the track that was the route of the railway from 1835 to 1860. The route of the original railway passed by the Goathland Hotel, which acted as a local transport hub until the railway was shifted further east to the newerGoathland station.[8]
Much of the surrounding land is owned by theDuchy of Lancaster. The Duchy's tenants have a common right extending for hundreds of years to graze theirblack faced sheep on the village green and surrounding moorland.[9]
Thegrade II* listedSt Mary's Church, Goathland, was built between 1894 and 1896.[10] However, a chapel has existed in Goathland since at least 1521, being supplanted by a church in 1821.[11] Stone and other materials from the 1821 church were re-used for other buildings in the village. At that time, dressed stone was quarried locally and was in short supply, this being 15 years before the railway arrived in the village.[12] The war memorial, made from sandstone and modelled on the nearbyLilla Cross, is located on the village green.[13] It wasgrade II listed in November 2021, just before that year'sRemembrance Sunday services. The Lilla Cross is 5 miles (8 km) to the east and is a waymarker point on Fylingdales Moor.[14][15]
The village has a primary school, with a capacity of 49 pupils. The school was rated asgood by Ofsted in 2013.[16] The village had a library until 1966, and this was resurrected as a volunteer library and community hub in 2019, which is run from the village hall.[17]
TheGoathland Plough Stots, a troop which performs aLong Sword dance, are based in the village. EveryPlough Monday, the Plough Stots perform in the village and surrounding area raising money for local hospitals.[18]
The village was the setting of the fictional village of Aidensfield in theHeartbeat television series set in the 1960s. Many landmarks from the series are recognisable, including the shop, garage/funeral directors, the public house andthe railway station. The pub is called the Goathland Hotel but in the series is The Aidensfield Arms.[19] After interior shots were filmed in the hotel for some years, a replica of it was built in Yorkshire TV's Leeds studio.[20]
The first railway station in Goathland was located at the top of anincline. The station,Goathland Bank Top, was located in the village, and the carriages were drawn up the incline by the use of a rope-worked drum system. This railway station closed in 1865 when a newer one opened on a diversionary line toGrosmont. This closed to regular passenger traffic in 1965, and was re-opened as part of theNorth Yorkshire Moors Railway in 1973.[21] The village is 1.2 miles (2 km) west of the A169 road, and is served by four buses a day as part of theYorkshire Coastliner service between Leeds and Whitby.[22][23][24]
Goathland railway station is on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. The railway is run by a charitable trust with some paid staff but is mostly operated by volunteers and runs nearly all year including Christmas. It carries more than 250,000 passengers a year and is the second-longest preserved line in Britain. It linksGrosmont in the north withPickering in the south along the route of theWhitby - Pickering line built by George Stephenson in 1835 and upgraded in 1865. From 2007 some trains on the railway were timetabled to run to Whitby and in March 2014 work began in Whitby station to replace a platform and allow more North Yorkshire Moors Railway services to be timetabled between Whitby and Pickering.
Goathland railway station was used as the location forHogsmeade railway station in theHarry Potter films and the line filmed for Harry's journey.[25] It was also used in the 1995 filmCarrington.[26]
As well as serving as the location for the fictional village of Aidensfield, Goathland features in its own right as the setting for the denouement of Dan Chapman's 2014 dystopian thrillerClosed Circuit. It is explained that the antagonist owns the entire village and the nearby MoD site serves as a base for his operations.[27]
Goathland is a location inIce (2009), a novel by Australian writerLouis Nowra (Allen & Unwin, 2008).
Malcolm Saville's children's novelMystery Mine[28] is set in an area south-west ofWhitby on the north-eastYorkshire moors close to and around a village called Goathland. The book contains two maps showing the layout of a partly fictional geography of the area in which the book is set but Goathland,Wheeldale Moor and the Roman Road referred to in the book correspond to the real locations in this area south ofEskdale.
Goathland Cricket Club has a history dating back to 1874, when it was known as the 'Vale of Goathland Cricket Club'.[29] The club moved to their current ground on Centenary Cricket Field in 1876.[30] Goathland have two senior teams: a Saturday 1st XI that compete in theScarborough Beckett Cricket League[31] and a Midweek Senior XI in the Esk Valley Evening League.[32]
