West Burton is considered to be one of the most beautiful villages in the Yorkshire Dales National Park with a large village green and no through road.
The village has a real sense of community, with a small shop and tearoom, a pub and a family-run butcher’s shop. There is also plenty for the visitor to see and do. As well as The Old Smithy Antiques, there are miles of footpaths for walks of all abilities, from easy to strenuous. Afterwards, you can relax at the Fox and Hounds Inn. A wide variety of different types of accommodation is available to rent both in the village and the surrounding area.
For art lovers, within the village is the West Burton Cauldron Falls one of the waterfalls drawn by Turner during his tour of the North of England. It’s frequently listed as one of the loveliest waterfalls in North Yorkshire.
There is evidence of Iron Age settlements to be found in the Parish, though the first dwellings on the site of the present village were probably Saxon. The Domesday Book – referring to it as Burton – records it as a relatively small community. Most of today’s buildings were built between the late 18th and late 19th centuries when West Burton was a thriving market town, based on mining rather than agriculture, but with a large number of service businesses. The structure of the Parish has remained largely unchanged since then.
For more information on the history of the area please see “History of West Burton.”