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Northallerton, Yorkshire, England. Geographical and Historical information from 1750.

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NORTHALLERTON:
Geographical and Historical information from the year 1750.

"NORTHALLERTON, a parish in the North Riding of Yorkshire, commonly called Alvertonshire, is 176 cm. and 229 mm. from London, and lies on the r. Wiske. Its only street, which is about half a m. long, is well built. It has a good Mt. on W. for cattle, corn, &c. It has a Fair, Jan. 25. and another, upon St. Bartholomew's day, a Beast Fair, the most frequented of any in England, and the most noted for large, fat oxen. History says, it has been much obliged to the Bps. of Durham, one of whom, viz. Hugh de Pudley, built an hos. here for the poor. In 1138, the English routed the Scots near this place, in that called the battle of the Standard because of the particular standard the English then fought under, which, as 'tis painted in old books, was a huge chariot, bearing a tall mast with a cross on the top, and under that a banner. 'Tis observed, that this, like the carrorium of the Italians, or the oriflamb of France, was deemed sacred, and never used, but when the Gt. lay at stake. The field of battle is to this day, called Standard-Hill, and some caverns in it, where, perhaps, the Scots were buried, the Scots Pits. In the 16th of Edw. II. this T. was plunder'd by the Scots under K. Rob. Bruce."

[Transcribed by Mel Lockie © from
Stephen Whatley's England's Gazetteer, 1750]