Hovingham: The Yorkshire village keeping quintessential English traditions alive

Hovingham, it would appear, really comes to life at the weekends – and not just due to a tourist trade which many villages in these parts are now forced to rely on so dearly.

Last weekend saw the increasingly popular Hovingham Village Market taking place. On the first Saturday of the month (except January), the village becomes a hive of activity with shoppers milling around what has now grown to more than 50 stalls offering fresh produce, food and drink, arts and crafts and homeware.

It is run by volunteers and has been held in its current form since October 2009. There has, though, been a market at Hovingham since 1256.

Anyway, in the last year or so there have been 10,000 visitors to the market days which have raised more than £132,000 for local groups.

Tomorrow, there is a cream tea in the village hall with proceeds for the Bell Refurbishment project. They’re taking place most Sundays for the foreseeable.

In fact, a quick look at the list of regular activities in the village gives you an idea of the sense of community here.

The supermobile library visits at the beginning of the month, there is a community coffee morning and each week there is pickleball and a Fizz and Chips Friday at the local pub.

What a way to start a weekend? In fact there should be a case for a fizz and chips Friday to be incorporated into the national calendar like bank holidays are.

Over at the village hall, as well as being used for meetings and events, it is a base for Hovingham Bowls Club, Hovingham Tennis and the Family History Research Centre of Ryedale Family History.

Also for every day life, you will find here a village shop, bakery, hairdressers, physiotherapist and a pub with rooms, The Worsley Arms, which has been family run for some years now.

It’s not bad at all for a village that could be considered small with its estimated population at around 360.

However, Hovingham is certainly not the type of village you pass through and forget.

Imposing possibly is too strong a word, but the history, charm and beauty of it certainly won’t be lost on you.

Hovingham is like a statement village and a real life snapshot as to what rural estate life would have looked like down the years – and it wouldn’t look out of place as the backdrop to a period drama.

The village is mentioned in The Domesday Book and evidence has been unearthed, quite literally, of Roman activity.

When Hovingham Hall gardens were being built, a Roman bath, tesselated pavement and other artefacts were uncovered.

The 1881 census records show that there were 600 people living in the village, a figure which has decreased over time to the 360 odd that it is now.

It is usually the way that village populations grow along with the rest of the world but not here.

Not like a lot of rural villages across Yorkshire.

However, it could be to do with Hovingham being, and still is an estate village, but at that time village life would have been much more insular in that residents would work at the estate, live in estate properties, shop and socialise at the local pub, probably owned by the estate.

The Worsley family have been at the helm of Hovingham Hall, undoubtedly a focal point of the village and indeed the wider region, for several generations and centuries.

They are an English family that is derived from Sir Elias de Workesley, a Norman knight who was a youth at the time of the Norman conquest.

There have been two baronetcies created for the Worsley family, one in the Baronetage of England and one in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom.

The Worsley baronetcy, of Appuldurcombe in the County of Hampshire, was created in the Baronetage of England in 1611 for landowner and politician Richard Worsley.

The Worsley baronetcy, of Hovingham Hall, was created in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom on August 10, 1838 for William Worsley.

Hovingham Hall, as we know it today, was built in the 18th century, between 1750 and 1774 by Thomas Worsley VI and is grade I listed.

It was developed, most unusually for a country house, around a stable block and the afore-mentioned cricket pitch, is said to be the oldest private pitch in England.

Legendary cricket names such as Herbert Sutcliffe, Len Hutton, Freddie Trueman and Geoff Boycott are known to have played here.

Colonel Sir William Worsley, 4th Baronet, was the captain of Yorkshire County Cricket Club in 1928 and 1929. He was also Lord Lieutenant of the North Riding of Yorkshire from 1951 to 1965. His fourth child and only daughter, who went on to become the Duchess of Kent and a member of the Royal family, was born at Hovingham Hall.

The Worsleys have made significant contributions to local, village life over the years.

Hovingham Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School was built by Lady Worsley in 1864 and Marcus Worsley provided the funds for the re-building of the Grade II listed church in the village, All Saints, in 1860.

The house is currently lived in by Sir William Worsley (the great, great, great, great grandson of the builder) and his family.