Wensley, North Yorkshire

Wensley is a small village and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. It consists of a few homes and holiday cottage, an inn, a pub and a historic church.^[2] It is on the A684 road 1 mile (1.6 km) south-west of the market town of Leyburn. The River Ure passes through the village.

The etymology of the name ultimately originates either from a compound of an Old English form of the god Woden (attested Wednesleg c. 1212, earlier Wodnesleie, see Wednesday), and the Old English leah meaning wood or meadow.^[3] Another possible route for the first part is the personal name Wændel.^[4] Wensley gives its name to the dale Wensleydale.^[5]

From 1974 to 2023 it was part of the district of Richmondshire, it is now administered by the unitary North Yorkshire Council.

For a century after its charter in 1202, Wensley had the only market in the dale and this continued into the 16th century. Plague struck Wensley in 1563,^[6] some surviving villagers fled to Leyburn, but the village recovered a century later when Charles Paulet built Bolton Hall in 1678 and became Duke of Bolton.^[7] Bolton Hall, is now 1.2 miles (1.9 km) from the heart of Wensley, near Preston-under-Scar, Richmondshire; it was rebuilt after a fire in 1902.^[8]

Wensley's Holy Trinity Church dates to 1300 and is a Grade I listed building.^[9] It is now redundant and cared for by the Churches Conservation Trust.^[10] It was featured as the wedding venue of James and Helen Herriot in the 1978 BBC television series All Creatures Great and Small, in the episode "The Last Furlong".^[11][12]

Wensley's railway station is now closed. It was situated 1-mile (1.6 km) to the north between Wensley and Preston-under-Scar, on the Wensleydale Railway line which still passes the village.

Leyburn Old Glebe nature reserve lies about 440 yards (400 m) east of the village.

Ernie Gillatt, a footballer active in the 1920s, was born in Wensley.^[13]