Archeological finds indicate there was a settlement in Thirsk around 500–600 BC. The town's name is derived from the
Old Norse word
þresk meaning
fen or lake. Thirsk is mentioned twice in the 1086
Domesday Book as
Tresche, in the Yarlestre
wapentake, a village with ten households. At the time of the
Norman invasion the manor was split between Orm and Thor, local Anglo-Saxon landowners. Afterwards, it was split between Hugh, son of Baldric, and the Crown.
House of Mowbray Most of Thirsk was granted to a
Robert de Mowbray from
Montbray in
Normandy, for whose descendants the
House of Mowbray and the
Vale of Mowbray are named. By 1145, what is now Old Thirsk had gained a
Market charter giving it town and
borough status. The remaining land in the parish was under
manorial rights. The Mowbray family built a
castle on the north side of Castlegate. It is not mentioned in the
Domesday Book and an exact date is not recorded for its construction, but it was completely destroyed by 1176 following an uprising against
Henry II.
William de Mowbray, 6th Baron of Thirsk, 4th Baron Mowbray, was one of the 25 executors of the
Magna Carta in 1215. The Mowbrays built a manor house on the old castle site which was destroyed by the Scots in
1322. With no direct succession, the daughter of
Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk, who had married into the Berkeley family, inherited the manor. Her son,
William de Berkeley, 1st Marquess of Berkeley, inherited it on her death. For some years, the manor was held by
Thomas Stanley Earl of Derby, whose successors held it after William's death, until 1723.
Bell, Industrial Revolution and modern In that year, it was sold by
James, Earl of Derby to
Ralph Bell of
Sowerby, "whose descendants thereafter held the manor". It remained in the Bell family into the 20th century.
Thirsk Hall in Kirkgate is a
grade II* listed three-storey town house built in 1720 and extended in 1770 by York architect
John Carr. A 1767 act of Parliament, the
Codbreck Brook Navigation Act 1766 (
7 Geo. 3. c. 95) provided for building a navigable waterway to the town from the
River Swale along
Cod Beck. The project ran out of funds and was never completed, although remains can be seen of the wharf and a
lock near Lock Bridge. A 'squalid' but 'humane' poorhouse, for up to 40
paupers of the parish, was established in 1737 between Long Street and St James Green. One hundred years later in 1837, the Thirsk
Poor Law Union was formed to serve the wider district. Despite mob protests and the 'burning of
effigies', it erected a
workhouse on Sutton Road in 1838, initially with a capacity of 120 beds. The building was used for military and first-aid purposes during
World War II. Before conversion to housing, it was used to rear chickens and as a factory.
Another took place on 31 July 1967 on the
East Coast Main Line. On that occasion an express train travelling north collided with a derailed freight train. Seven people were killed and 45 injured. ==Governance==