What Happens Here in Marske

Walking and Cycling

There is excellent walking in the Marske area. A great walk is from the village upstream on Marske Beck to Helwith, where there is a tea garden (see Helwith Tea Garden Facebook page). It is possible then to walk onwards to Washfold and Hurst, descending over Fremington Edge to Reeth. The Little White Bus serves Reeth and can drop people by Downholme Bridge (Little White Bus).

The Coast-to-Coast walk (e.g. see unofficial coast to coast website) passes through the village – and as the village is roughly halfway between typical overnight stopping points in Reeth and Richmond walkers are often in the village around lunchtime.  The church in Marske provides for these walkers by supplying chocolate bars, blister plasters and orange juices.  More information on the Wainwright coast to coast walk is set out here.

The roads around Marske provide challenges for road cyclists. The climbs out of Marske on Hardstiles, Clapgate and Marske Edge (the road that rises out of the village towards Cordilleras Farm) all have sustained gradients of 10-15%.

Scott Trial

Since 1963 the world famous “The Scott Trial” has begun near Park Top Farm at the top of Clapgate.  From here landowners give permission (for the day of the trial only) for trialists to challenge themselves on a 130km course that runs via Orgate and Telfit towards upper Swaledale and Arkengarthdale.  A short page on the Scott Trial is to be found here.

Hunting, shooting and fishing

Marske was historically one of the centres in Swaledale for traditional hunting, shooting and fishing. During the early part of the twentieth century for example Marske Hall was typically rented by the Huttons to wealthy families from the South who would come to shoot grouse, partridge and pheasant.

Land in New Forest, including common land, in the East Arkengarthdale Estate is used for grouse shooting today. The river Swale around Downholme Bridge was a site for otter hunting until the 1950s. Some grouse-hunting still continues around Marske, although the acquisition of land by the Catterick Training area now means that these pursuits more dominate the upper parts of Swaledale and Arkengarthdale. Some grouse hunting takes place on the moors above Telfit Farm towards the top end of Marske Beck.  A page on fishing on the Swale is to be found here.

Horse-racing history

There is no horse-racing in the area now, but 300 years ago things were very different.  In around 1755 a horse race on Richmond High Moor in sudden snowstorm ended without anyone being able to see which horse had won. (The date 1755 is uncertain but the author of this website favours the interpretation of Huggins².)  The two racehorse owners, Sir Mark Milbanke (of Barningham Estate) and John Hutton (of Marske), agreed that, rather than re-run the race, they should spend the prize money on a piece of silver to be presented to Richmond Corporation.  The result was a silver tankard, now named the Snow Tankard, which is said to be the oldest sporting trophy in the country.  The Trophy can be seen in the Green Howards Museum in Richmond. The tankard itself if said to have been made in 1686³.

The owners of both Clints and Marske Estates had been prominent in breeding racehorses.  The Stables Block at Marske Hall was built in 1741 by John Hutton (1691 to 1768)⁴.  Similarly, a stables block was added to the Clints Hall estate after 1761 by its owners the Turners of Kirkleatham.  The horses from these stables were exercised on the fields that surround Deer Park and Gingle Pot Farm respectively. 

From the Hutton stables the horse Marske (1750-79), and its offspring Eclipse (1764-89), won many races^6,7.  Another horse from the Hutton stable, Silvio, won the Richmond Race Cup in 1764. Silvio gave its name to Silvio House in Richmond (now 10 Hurgill Road), and the winning jockey then created another racing stables there⁸. The cup itself remained in the Hutton family until the 1950s, and is now in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, USA. The design, by Robert Adam, represents one of the earliest neoclassical models for silver cups, and became the standard for race trophies.

1764 was also significant as it was the last year that the Richmond Race Cup was raced for at High Moor (on the Marske-Richmond road)². The 1765 race meeting took place on the new racecourse on the fringes of Richmond, with it’s historic grandstand from 1775^9,10.  The Richmond Cup was awarded every year from 1757 until 1858, and a new cup was made to Robert Adam’s design for each occasion. Another example of a “Richmond Cup” (from 1771) was sold by Bonhams auctioneers in 2012¹¹, and further example (from 1802) was sold for £30,000 in 2019^8,2.

The bloodline continued. The thoroughbred horses, which form the basis of the worldwide racing industry in over 50 countries, can be said to have had its origins in North Yorkshire and the Tees Valley¹².

1. Rees, David Morgan. 2000. In the Palm of the Dale. a portrait in words and pictures of a Yorkshire Dales village.[↩]
2. Huggins, M. A Short History of Richmond Racecourse and its Grandstand. 2021. Richmond Burbage Pastures Publishing.[↩][↩][↩]
3. Green Howards Museum. Label associated with Snow Tankard Exhibit. Viewed in 2023.[↩]
4. Historic England.  Official listings of Marske Hall and Marske Stables. https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1157772?section=official-list-entry.  Accessed 2023.[↩]
5. Richardson, R. 1759. A Plan of the Clints Estate. Coloured estate plan in North Yorkshire County Archives, Ref ZAZ(M)3.[↩]
6. Wikipedia. Marske (horse). Accessed 2023.[↩]
7. Wikipedia. Eclipse (horse). Accessed 2023.[↩]
8. Northern Echo.  19 Sep 2021.  The Champion Racehorse from Richmond whose name lives on.[↩][↩]
9. Hatcher, J. 2004. The History of Richmond, North Yorkshire. Blackthorn Press.[↩]
10. Wikipedia. Richmond Racecourse. Accessed 2023.[↩]
11. Bonhams. 12 June 2012. Auction of Fine Silver and Gold Boxes. Website accessed 2023.[↩]
12. Wilkinson.  Early Horse Racing in Yorkshire and the Origins of the Thoroughbred by David Wilkinson.  2003. Old Bald Peg Publications.[↩]