__TIME LINE FOR GREAT AYTON
Bronze age c. 2000BC-800BC
Earliest evidence of human settlement in the vicinity.
A hoard of bronze implements hidden on Roseberry Toppin.
Hut circles and flint scatterings at Levensdale.
Iron age c. 800BC-300AD
Signs of successful farming and an increasing population.
Walled enclosure on Great Ayton Moor.
Evidence of settlement near Roseberry Topping.
Saxon and Danish period c.500-900AD
Successive waves of invaders from Germany and Scandinavia settle the area.
Local place names show both Anglo-Saxon and Danish influences.
Norman conquest and Middle Ages 11th – 15th centuries
Domesday Book (1087) lists several manors within the modern parish boundary.
Baldwin Wake’s Inquisition post mortem, 1282 indicates a thriving village community.
16th century
Ayton tenants of the Nevilles participate in Rebellion of the Northern Earls, 1569. Neville lands confiscated by the Crown.
17th century
Coulson family acquire lordship and lands of Great Ayton.
Enclosure of the open fields and common land, 1658.
Linen manufacture
18th century
Skottowe family succeed Coulsons.
Two famous Aytonians: James Cook and Commodore William Wilson.
Diary of Ralph Jackson.
Alum works at Cockshaw Bank, 1765-73.
19th century
Growth of industry (whinstone and jet mining; tanning).
Coming of the railway, 1864.
Increase of Quaker influence in the village.
Founding of the North of England Agricultural School, 1841.
Rapid expansion of the village (California).
20th century
Three ironstone mines in operation before and after the First World War.
The village during the Second World War.
Further expansion (new housing estates).
Post-war loss of village industry
Ayton increasingly becomes a commuter village, while retaining some shops and services.
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