Masham - North Yorkshire

We are planning on heading up to Masham for three days. Masham has a large market square.

We will be staying at the King’s Head Hotel, which is in the market square. The King’s Head Hotel is a fine Georgian building which dates back to the eighteenth century. In its time it has been a posting house, and an excise office. It looks warm and inviting from the outside, on a cold winters night!

The village of Masham itself was established in Saxon times. There is an air of old England about the town, with its quaint almshouses and spacious market place which holds a traditional market twice a week.

Masham Church is mentioned in the Domesday Book, and a round pillar in the churchyard, with figures representing Jesus and the Twelve Disciples is believed to be part of a cross carved over one thousand years ago!

There are amazingly not one, but two breweries in the town – Theakston’s and the Black Sheep Brewery. Theakston’s Brewery is home to the famous ale known as “Old Peculier”

The name is from the chairman of a special court.

In olden days, the journey from York to Masham was both arduous and dangerous, so the Archbishop of York established the Peculier Court of Masham to avoid having to make regular visits (peculier is a Norman word meaning particular).The chairman of this court is known as the Official and he has a special seal to mark his approval or decision.

The Court has a great deal of local power and the following are some of the offences dealt with in the past:

Not coming to church enough

Keeping a hat on during communion

For bidding the church wardens to do their worst

Not bringing children to be baptised

Husband and wife living apart
Drunkenness
Swearing

Brawling and scolding

For harbouring Roman Catholic Priests

For carrying a dead man’s skull out of the churchyard and laying it under the head of a person to charm them to sleep!

It sounds as though Masham was a bit of a wild place in days gone by!