A Show That Comes Back Every September
The Stokesley Agricultural Show, founded at the Golden Lion in 1859, and the stories it has gathered since.
Confidence: Confirmed
Stories
Articles researched and written by members of the Group. Each story is tagged by topic, place and period so you can follow your interests.
Church, Chapel and the Mob
Nine centuries of churches and chapels in Stokesley, from the Domesday priest to the Methodist church on the site of the Black Swan.
Confidence: Confirmed
Crossing the Leven
The bridges and the mill on the Leven, from the Domesday mill to the wheel by the town bridge.
Confidence: Mixed
Eight Hundred Men at the Manor House
During the First World War the Manor House became a 60-bed Red Cross hospital, run by Anne Gjers and staffed by local women volunteers.
Confidence: Confirmed
Jane Pace Goes to the Other Side of the World
Jane Henty, née Pace: from Stokesley, by local tradition, to Portland Bay in 1836.
Confidence: Mixed
Nine Centuries of Lords
The lords of the manor of Stokesley, from Domesday to the Wynne-Finches, as told by the Victoria County History.
Confidence: Confirmed
The Fall of Stone Hall
The oldest and most prominent building on the High Street was saved from demolition, bought by a civic trust and then lost when a corner collapsed into the street.
Confidence: Likely
The Grey Lady, the Flying Glass and the Worm of Sexhow
From the Grey Lady of the Golden Lion to the Worm of Sexhow: local ghost stories drawn from national collections and books in the library.
Confidence: Tradition / legend
The Line That Came and Went
The North Yorkshire & Cleveland Railway at Stokesley, from its opening in 1857 to its closure in 1965.
Confidence: Confirmed
The Wise Man of Stokesley
John Wrightson, the 'Wise Man of Stokesley', sold cures and second sight in the early 1800s. A real man wrapped in legend.
Confidence: Mixed
Walking the Plank
The 'Plank' bridges over the River Leven are rarer than most people realise. Elsewhere such bridges are called 'liggers'; Stokesley folk have always called them 'Planks'.
Confidence: Confirmed
When the Leven Comes Up the Street
Two centuries of floods on the River Leven, from 1817 to the £3.7m flood scheme completed in 2022.
Confidence: Confirmed