The village is mentioned in
Domesday Book as
Fingall, when it belonged to
Count Alan and had 13 villagers. The origin of the place-name is the
Old English words
Fin,
inga and
hall meaning a nook of land of the family or followers of a man called Fina. The place-name appears as
Finegala in
Domesday Book of 1086 and as
Finyngale in 1157. Finghall was a large
ancient parish in the
wapentake of
Hang West in the
North Riding of Yorkshire. The parish included the
townships of Finghall,
Constable Burton,
Akebar and
Hutton Hang, The 12th-century
church is dedicated to
St Andrew and is adjacent to the beck and quite near the A684 road. It is thought that the Medieval village of Fingall was clustered around the church but was abandoned during a plague. The village had a
railway station on the Wensleydale Railway, which opened in the 1850s and closed in 1954. It was reopened on the heritage
Wensleydale Railway in 2004. The village has an annual Spring Bank Holiday Barrel Push, which sees competitors push an metal beer barrel over a distance of . ==Culture and community==