The settlement of Hutton Lowcross is mentioned in the
Domesday Book as belonging to Robert of Mortain, and having ten villagers and one priest. The name derives from the
Old English Hō-tūn Loucros, meaning
a spur of a hill and Loucros was a local name for an area of
Guisborough, similar in name to
Lowthorpe (another Yorkshire settlement) where the
Low part is a personal name of someone from that area (
Logi). The name of the settlement has been recorded with various spellings and spaces, with
Hutton Low Cross being quite prominent in the late 19th century. Modern day
Ordnance Survey mapping shows the settlement as
Hutton Village (with a capital V), and the area that it is located in as
Hutton Lowcross. In the 12th century, the village was known as
Hoton, and later, when mining was a key industry, the village was also occasionally called
Codhill, the same name as the ironstone mine in the area. Hutton Village is south-west of Guisborough, set in a narrow dale that carries the Hutton Beck northwards towards Guisborough and
Skelton Beck. A nunnery was founded at Hutton Lowcross in the middle of the 12th century; however, the nuns soon moved on to another site in
Nunthorpe, further west. The area also had a leper hospital, the exact location of which is unknown, and it was lost before
the Dissolution. In the woods behind the village is a large outcrop of sandstone known as the
Hanging Stone. The name is thought to derive from its precarious position, rather than anyone being hanged there. From the 1850s onwards, the area was part of the ironstone mining industry of Cleveland. A mine was situated to the south of the village, for which an inclined branch railway was built connecting with the
Middlesbrough and Guisborough Railway between and stations. The inclined railway ran right through the middle of Hutton Village. Besides a seam of ironstone in the area,
jet was also found to be in abundance to the south of the village. Similarly, the number of houses in 1851 was nine, but ten years later, the number of dwellings was 53. In 1864, Sir
Joseph Pease employed
Alfred Waterhouse to design
Hutton Hall, a large country house to the north of the village. Hutton Gate railway station was built near the village in the 1850s. Originally it was a private station for the Pease family, but in 1904, it became a public station until its closure in 1964. The station site is now overgrown, with one platform still left over, and the railway trackbed is now a footpath. Historically, the village was in the parish of Guisborough and the
Wapentake of
Langbaurgh. It is now in the civil parish of Guisborough, part of the
Redcar and Cleveland unitary authority in North Yorkshire. The village comes under the
Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland constituency at Westminster. The Hutton Lowcross area was awarded conservation area status in 2004, though this was awarded by the
North York Moors National Park Authority, as the village and Hutton Hall lie just within the national park boundary. However, the village itself is not included due to the houses having "little architectural or historic value". ==Notable people==