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A Brief History

Brompton is a village in the Hambleton District of North Yorkshire, England, about 1.6 miles (2.6 km) north of the county town of Northallerton. Although it is practically a suburb of the nearby county town it has a separate identity and remains very much a rural village.  It is near the site of a battle in 1138 between English and Scots armies and was the location of mills producing linen goods from the 18th century onward. With well over 2,000 people the village has grown considerably since the 1800s.

The village is mentioned in the Domesday Book as Bruntone in the Allerton hundred. Prior to the invasion, the manor was granted to Earl Edwin, but subsequently granted in 1086 to the Crown and  added to the lands that were the possession of the Bishop of Durham St Cuthbert and remained so after 1086. In 1836 those lands were transferred to the see of Ripon. The village became an ecclesiastical parish in 1843.

The etymology of the name is derived from a combination of the Old English word brōm, meaning broom and the Old English suffix of tūn, meaning farm or settlement. Put together they mean broom farm.

The traditionally held location for the site of the Battle of the Standard in 1138 is land just north-west of the village, on an area of land bounded by the A167 road to the west, an overgrown track known as Scotpit Lane to the south and Brompton Lane to the east that is called Standard Hill. This site was also where local militia gathered prior to the campaign to retake Scotland by Edward I in 1303.

The village was an important centre for linen making and weaving in the 19th century with eight mills in the village at its peak in 1820 but declined by the early 20th century. The last mill John Pattison Yeomans was located in what is now the residential area of Linen Way. Bricks from the demolished chimney of the John Wilford Mill on Station road now form a memorial to linen workers which is situated on Water End Green, opposite the Village Inn. The village is now largely residential with just a few small businesses.

Brompton Linen has a high reputation and won Gold medals at the Great Exhibition in 1851 and in the Paris Exhibition of 1855.

The village of Brompton has one of the earliest online interactive war memorials where it is possible to find out information about and see photographs of the soldiers to have died in the First World War and the Second World War from the Brompton area.

The river running through the village is named Willow Beck. This was the water source for the linen mills and as result created regular floods, mainly at the Water End area of the village. Since the factory's demolition flooding is no longer commonplace and the last time any properties suffered flood damage was 2000. Extensive flood defence work has since been carried out, mainly to protect the school and Station Road area by the building of flood banks. Engineering work has also been carried out on various parts of the river such as the removal and widening of bends in the banks and creating a bypass when the water reaches its peak.

Each May Bank Holiday weekend the village holds a Carnival and Sports event which brings in many visitors and hosts a variety of attractions.

St Thomas’s Church occupies a central position in the village, adjacent to the village green. The building has 12th Century origins and is of coursed squared stone and ashlars. The Church comprises a continuous chancel and nave extended eastwards and westwards during the 14thc, with a N aisle, and a 15thc SW tower of three stages above the porch. Several hogback tombs, a cross shaft and other pieces of Anglo-Danish origin, of exceptional quality, have been conserved within the Church. A comprehensive programme of restoration of the Church was the begun in 1863. The surviving Romanesque element is the arcade in the N aisle.

Methodism in Brompton started in late 1780’s in a weavers cottage close to the location of the present Methodist Church. The first Chapel was built overlooking the Green in 1794 and was later enlarged to a seating capacity of 400. In 1820 a Primitive Methodist Chapel was built on Cockpit Hill. After 150 years both Chapels combined to the Wesley Sunday School on the Green were services are now held. 

In 1851 a Baptist Chapel was built on Station Road opposite the Primary School but no longer functions as a Chapel. 

Brompton Community Primary School is located in the centre of the village and falls under the local authority of North Yorkshire. This mixed-sex primary school has 189 pupils, with a capacity of 211, aged from three up to eleven, and the type of establishment is community school. The school has 7 teachers. The most recent Ofsted inspection was in December 2012 resulting in a good rating and this was confirmed following a short Ofsted Inspection in January 2018.