The Goldsborough Hoard
Evidence of early settlement in the village comes from a Viking hoard which was discovered in 1859 during construction outside the north wall of Goldsborough Church. Coins and artefacts dating from 700 to 1050 were found in a leaden chest including fragments of Viking brooches and arm-rings, together with 39 coins. It forms one of the largest collections ever discovered in the UK and is now held at the British Museum in London.
Domesday Survey
In the Domesday Survey of 1086 Goldsborough is referred to as "Godenesburg" and to this day there is some fine Norman architecture in St Mary's Church in the village.
Richard de Goldsburgh took the name of the village and his family held the manor for over four hundred years. Effigies in the church include one of Richard de Goldsburgh who accompanied Edward I against William Wallace in 1298.
Construction of the Hall
In the 16th century there was a family feud and the thatched manor house situated at the far end of the village was burnt down. In 1599 Sir Richard Hutton, a London lawyer, originally from Cumbria, bought out all the claimants to the land and built Goldsborough Hall on its current site. The village remained tenanted to each subsequent owner of the Hall for the next 350 years.
Owned by the Lascelles Family
Daniel Lascelles, whose family eventually became the Earls of Harewood, bought Goldsborough Hall and the estate in the late 1750s and the entrance gates to the village date back to this time. The Lascelles family used the Hall as the heirs in waiting’s family home or as a Dower House.
Home to a Princess
The village became famous in the 1920s when HRH Princess Mary, King Charles’s great aunt, came to live at Goldsborough Hall following her marriage to Viscount Lascelles.
In 1923, hundreds of visitors turned out when the Princess’s son George was christened in the village church with King George V and Queen Mary in attendance. The following year in 1924, her other son Gerald was also christened in the church.
In the 1950s, following the death of Princess Mary's husband, the 6th Earl of Harewood, the village was put up for sale. In 1952, villages were able to purchase their own homes for the first time in 1,000 years.
St. Mary's Church, Goldsborough
This delightful church, which stands adjacent to the Hall's grounds, is 13th-century Norman in origin with 14th-century additions and contains fine effigies of eminent local families who owned the Hall over the years.
There are floor slabs and stained glass windows commemorating the Byerley family in the 1750s and the marble tomb of Daniel Lascelles from 1784.
In the churchyard there is a standing stone dating back to 500AD where trading took place and taxes were paid. This later became the site of a 9th-century Saxon cross that makes up one of the pillars in the church.
In the 1850s one of the largest collections of UK artefacts was discovered in the churchyard, dating back to 750AD, this collection is now housed in the British Museum as the Goldsborough Hoard.
When Princess Mary lived at Goldsborough Hall in the 1920s she did a great deal for the church including the donation a magnificent set of altar frontals.
The church is open to visitors during the summer and during the National Garden Scheme openings in March/April and July.
Goldsborough Village today
Goldsborough remains a quiet and peaceful village, set in the heart of the Yorkshire countryside. The village has a country pub, dating back to 1600, called The Bay Horse Inn.
The Inn is the sister property of the Hall and serves home cooked food daily along with real ales, fine wines and luxury accommodation. More details: bayhorseinn.co.uk