Aysgarth

Evidence of prehistoric activity has been recorded in the parish, including a Bronze Age burial. The village is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Echescard. The toponymy is derived from the combination of the Old Norse words eiki, meaning oak, and skarð, which may mean open space, cleft or mountain pass, so the probable meaning is Oak tree cleft, referring to the valley cut by the River Ure. At the time of the Norman Conquest, the manor was held by Cnut, son of Karli. Afterwards the manor was in the possession of Count Alan of Brittany, who granted lordship to Geoffrey of Swaffham. By the 13th century, the manor was in the hands of the Burgh family of Hackforth. The manor descended…