on
in 1066. Central to the imposition of Norman rule was the building of castles.
There are well-preserved castle ruins at Helmsley, Pickering and Scarborough
and others existed at Ayton, Danby, Mulgrave and Whorlton. In the eleventh and
twelfth centuries monasteries were established on the moors at Whitby Abbey, Rievaulx
Abbey, Byland Abbey and Mount Grace Priory. Gifts of land and money were
bestowed on these establishments and the monastic orders became notable
landowners, eventually owning about a third of the land in the area. The abbeys
managed their land as sheep farms and became very rich on the profits. They
continued to take in land from the waste and what remained of the forest and in
the process gave the moors the distinctive landscape that still remains. Being
envious of the wealth of the monasteries, Henry VIII of England closed them
down, and confiscated and sold off their property. This was bought by
individual people, some rich but some who had been tenants of the monasteries,
and became privately owned land.
Post-medieval
In many areas of the moors and their associated dales the settlements took
the form of isolated farms and hamlets rather than villages. Very few had an
open field system of agriculture so Enclosure Acts were rarer than in other
parts of England. The seventeenth century saw a major acceleration in the
reclaiming of marginal waste land and in the eighteenth century forward looking
landlords attempted to improve their lands using drainage schemes and
fertilisation measures.
The 19th century
In the 19th century railways were built from Pickering to Whitby (1836),
Middlesbrough to Whitby (1868) and Scarborough to Whitby (1884).
Locally sourced iron ore has been processed on the North York Moors
