Distance: 2.5 miles Time to complete walk: 1.5 hours
Safety Tips: A very safe walk - no issues
A gentle ramble around the market town of Thirsk. Ideal for a pub walk or even a dog walk as long as they are on a lead.
A walk with no climbing and a great walk to introduce yourself to walking.
There is plenty to do in Thirsk and anyone who has watched or read the books by James Herriott will enjoy a visit to the James Herriott museum in Thirsk.
The Thirsk Walk
Getting There
From Middlesbrough follow the A19 south until you come to the Thirsk turn-off. Follow the road into Thirsk and then as you come out of Thirsk take a sharp left turn into Sowerby. Parking is on the street between the two churches in Sowerby and there are plenty of parking spaces.
Map of the Thirsk walk
From Sowerby follow the road down away from Thirsk until you come to the Methodist Church on your left. Look for a street named Blakey Lane to the left and follow this road over the bridge.
Methodist Church in Sowerby
Turn left into Blakey Lane
After you cross the bridge, turn left on a public footpath and then follow the path beside a stream through two kissing gates and to a footbridge.
Go through kissing gates
Instead of going over the footbridge, continue on the path ahead to the right to a stile and then follow the path going past a development of flats until you come to a main road.
Go past the flats
Cross the main road and immediately follow the path to the left which goes under the bridge and curves to the right and follows the river bank.
Follow the path along the river bank
Follow the path with the green to your right. Shortly you will come to another green to your right, Cross the road and head towards the left away from the road and to the edge of the housing. Follow a path to a metal bridge.
Cross the road
Follow path to a metal bridge
Go over the bridge and follow the path with white railings. to a green near a church.
Cross the road to visit the church.
Double back from the church and follow the road signposted as the Marage Road.
Double back on Marage Road
Go past a coach car park. Bear right following signs to the town centre and as the lane bends to the right go down an alley on the right.
Go down the alley
Look for a right turning which goes past a seating area of a café/restaurant. Passing through an entrance to the yard area and then enter the town centre with the clock facing you.
Thirsk town centre
Cross the road and head for the pub The Golden Fleece and a few shops down near the Timpsons shop to the left of The Golden Fleece go into an alley between the shops signed as Roses Yard.
The Golden Fleece
Roses Yard
Cross a lane and go down Villa Place. Bear left and and turn right to follow a bend to the back of the swimming pool. Cross the field following the path parallel with the beck. You will soon arrive at the footbridge you passed towards the beginning of the walk. Turn right and follow the path away from the footbridge and back to the road you parked on in Sowerby. I would highly recommend a visit to the James Herriot museum in Thirsk as part of your visit.
Go past the swimming pool
Follow path back to the footbridge
James Herriot Museum
Inside the museum
Thirsk
According to the 2011 UK Census, the population was 4,998. Thirsk is a popular tourist destination close to the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors. It has a variety of small and medium-sized businesses. It was the home of author James Herriot and birthplace of Thomas Lord, after whom Lord's Cricket Ground is named. Thirsk racecourse is on the western edge of the town.
Local archeological finds indicate there was a settlement here around 500–600 BC.The town is mentioned twice in the Domesday Book as Tresche, in the Yarlestre hundred. At the time of the Norman invasion the manor was split between Orm and Thor, local Saxon landowners. Afterwards the manor was split between Hugh, son of Baldric and the Crown. Most of the land was granted thereafter to Robert de Mowbray, after whom the surrounding vale is named.
By 1145, what is now Old Thirsk was known as a borough, whilst the remaining land in the parish was subject to manorial rights. The manor continued to be in the possession of the Mowbrays, despite several claims, until the death of the 16th Lord Mowbray in 1476. With no direct succession, it passed to the daughter of Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk, who had married into the Berkeley family. Her son, William de Berkeley, 1st Marquess of Berkeley, then inherited the manor on her death. It remained with this family until 1723 when it was sold to Ralph Bell of Sowerby. It remained in the Bell family into the 20th century.
The name is derived from the Viking (Old Norse) word þresk meaning fen or lake
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