Welcome to our village’s website, which we are at present updating. We will be giving information about the history and activities of the village and church, as well as posting the minutes of the Parish Council, to satisfy the Government’s Smaller Authorities Transparency Code.
Eryholme is situated in North Yorkshire on the south bank of the river Tees. It is a few miles off the A167 between the villages of Dalton-on-Tees and Great Smeaton.
It is a settlement of some 70 inhabitants and, although close as the crow flies to Darlington, Eryholme is in a tranquil corner of the countryside, with no shops, no pub and no bus service. However, it was described by Elizabeth Montague, the lady of the manor in 1775, as ‘a perfect paradise’ and its residents still agree. Eryholme is and always has been a farming community, today forming part of the Neasham Hall estate. Its simple church dates from ca 1200 and was restored sympathetically in 1889. The village was once much larger and more concentrated than today, as deserted medieval house platforms in its fields reveal. First recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086, it had an eventful early history, probably being sacked twice, ravaged by epidemics, almost abandoned before 1500 and convulsed by rebellion in 1569. Its farmers pioneered the improvement of dairy livestock in the eighteenth century and until 1745 it was part of the Great North Road, crossing the river Tees from the south to Neasham by ford and ferry. It is now peacefully off the beaten track. Aficionados of Downton Abbey may recall that the Countess of Grantham regarded it as a nice enough a place to live if one wanted a retreat from the world.
There is a fully illustrated history of the village now published, called A Perfect Paradise: Eryholme from 1066 to the Present, written by local historian Professor Anthony Pollard. A brief history is being prepared and can be found under the History tab.
