Malton is a town of two halves. Old Malton to the north east of its bigger neighbour, New Malton, is the older settlement and grew up around a C8th Saxon church.
The Domesday Book records a church and small settlement here. The name of Ladyspring Wood suggests there were springs near here and the church may have been built on a pre-existing sacred site.
The Saxon church seems to have been destroyed in 1138 after the Battle of the Standard between the opposing forces of Matilda and Stephen. All that remains of this church is part of an Anglo Scandinavian cross shaft displayed at the back of the present church.
Eustace Fitz-John, the local landowner, donated the damaged church and land to the Gilbertine order for the building of a priory. This was dissolved in the Reformation although the nave survives as the parish church. This is definitely worth visiting and is “reviewed”:https://www.silvertraveladvisor.com/travel-product/attraction/209390-st-marys-priory-church separately.
It is an attractive linear settlement with stone cottages line either side of the main road through the settlement. There is a small green between the main road and Town Street. The “Royal Oak Pub”:https://www.theroyaloakoldmalton.co.uk/ is here.
The “Wentworth Arms”:https://www.wentwortharmsmalton.co.uk/ Wentworth Arms is on the corner of Westgate with a thatched cottage next to it.
A grammar school was built in old Malton in 1547 and continued as a school until 1835. The building still has its small bell tower and is now a private house.
Apart from the pubs and St Mary’s Priory, there is little else to encourage the visitors to stop.
