What to see and do in and around Levisham
Parish events and meetings.
Take a look around our parish.
Levisham is a beautiful moorland village situated within the North York Moors National Park about seven miles north of the market town of Pickering.
The village lies on the southern edge of the Tabular Hills, a plateau which extends to Levisham Moor and the Hole of Horcum. Skelton Tower dominates the view over Newtondale, the largest glacial valley in the North York Moors. The NYMR Heritage Steam Railway wends its way from Pickering to Whitby and Levisham Station lies a mile and a half downhill from the village itself.
Surrounded on either side by steep valleys cut by glacial melt waters, Levisham remained isolated and relatively inaccessible for much of its history. The village, with its long, wide, village green, is recorded in the Domesday Book (1086) as “a very small settlement” named Leuecen. This name derives from Old Norse and means the farmstead of Leofgeat’s people. The Anglican church of St John the Baptist was originally a Chapel of Ease. The previous church of St Mary, which dates from the 12th century, is situated in the valley between Levisham and Lockton. It fell out of use in the 1950s but burials in the churchyard continue.
Central is the Village Hall - the venue for Parish Meetings and available for hire. At the northern end of Main Street is the local hostelry, The Horseshoe Inn. At one time there were over ten farms within the village, predominantly sheep rearing, but there is now only one working farm.