Fairburn

The name of Fairburn was first attested around 1030, as Faren-burne. This name comes from the Old English words fearn ('fern') and burna ('spring, stream'), and thus meant 'spring characterised by ferns'. Fairburn was historically a township in the ancient parish of Ledsham in the wapentake of Barkston Ash in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The township became a separate civil parish in 1866. From 1974 to 2023 it was part of the Selby District, it is now administered by the unitary North Yorkshire Council.

The village sits on the eastern edge of a narrow ridge of southern magnesian limestone which runs from near Worksop in the south to near Richmond in the north. The geology gives rise to a particularly flower-rich limestone grassland which still exists in areas unsuitable for cultivation, whilst alluvial soils and clays are found in the river valley bottoms. This outcrop of limestone was used to construct many of the older houses in the village.