History is all around if we look for it

From: Jennifer Allison, Lees Lane, Northallerton.

I WAS disappointed to read of the debate held by Hambleton District councillors at which the view was put forward that Northallerton has very little history.

Our castle has not survived quite like those at Helmsley or Pickering, but we do have a motte and bailey with a dramatic history. In addition, the site of the Bishop’s Palace is very clear still, with its moat, even if it is now ‘the old cemetery’. We do not have a Minster or Cathedral but our All Saints’ Church is on the site of an Anglo-Saxon Minster and is a fine building with a wealth of interest inside, much of it reflecting our changing history.

Reference was made to Register House, beautifully cared for by Joe Cornish. As a building, it is very little altered from the early 18th century, and it also made a very important contribution towards Northallerton becoming the county town of the North Riding.

In addition, we have a fine Georgian High Street with such gems as Bettys and Waterstones, a very attractive Old Grammar School building dating from 1776 and the famous Porch House just opposite.

Moreover Northallerton has some splendid early 20th Century buildings: County Hall itself, the superb facade to the Station Hotel and the Barclays Bank building, to name but three.

However, an interest in local history is so much more than the actual buildings, as witnessed by the huge numbers who flocked to see the prison site, or the hundreds who filled the forum to hear a distinguished medieval historian discuss the significance of the Battle of the Standard in 1138 AD.

Local history is about what made us how we are. Why is the town the shape it is? How did we earn our living? What national dramas were lived through here? How many famous – or infamous – people have visited, even if they did often pass through on the Great North Road on their way to somewhere else!

I accept that we still need to find more ways of presenting information and many people locally are working on that, but I do feel there may be other reasons for visitors not staying long, like the lack of toilets and no convenient bus park.