cross in the churchyard; this and the
Market Cross are the town's two
scheduled monuments. The Romans had a presence here, but the first permanent settlers were the
Angles. Around 900 AD the
Vikings invaded, burning and laying waste to the church. They also introduced sheep farming, for which the town is still known. Masham was historically a large parish in the
North Riding of Yorkshire. As well as the town of Masham the parish included the
townships of
Burton-on-Yore,
Ellingstring,
Ellington High and Low,
Fearby,
Healey with Sutton,
Ilton cum Pott and
Swinton. In 1866 the townships became separate civil parishes. Masham Moor was an area of moorland to the west of the parish bordering the
West Riding, common to the parishes of Masham and
East Witton. It was divided between the parishes of Healey, Ilton cum Pott and
Colsterdale in 1934. The area of the ancient parish, except Burton-on-Yore, was known as Mashamshire from the 12th century or earlier.
St Mary's Church was most likely founded in the seventh century and stood somewhere near the present town hall on what used to be known as Cockpit Hill. The graveyard yielded 36 burials in a recent excavation. The present church – while having some
Anglo-Saxon stonework and the stump of an eighth-century prayer cross – is mainly
Norman with fifteenth-century additions. Masham was given to
York Minster in the medieval period but, as the archbishop did not wish to make the long journey north to oversee the town's affairs, the parish was designated a
peculiar. During the Middle Ages, Masham developed as a small town with milling, mining, cloth making and tanning industries. The town received its first market charter in 1251. Masham's importance as a major sheep market is the reason for the large market place and its Georgian houses. The market originally thrived because of its nearness to
Jervaulx and
Fountains Abbeys, with their large flocks of sheep. From 1875 the town was served by the
Masham branch of the
North Eastern Railway. Passenger services were stopped in December 1930, with
goods traffic continuing until 1963. The station was across the River Ure at
Low Burton. The naturalist
Charles Hedley (1862–1926) was born in Masham, where his father, the Rev. Canon Thomas Hedley, was vicar. On 5 July 2014 the
Tour de France Stage 1 from Leeds to Harrogate passed through the town. ==Governance==