Historical Description of Coxwold

"History, Directory & Gazetteer, of the County of York" by Edward Baines 1823

Coxwold, a parish in the wapentake of Birdforth; 9 miles SE. of Thirsk. A pleasant village situate on an eminence; at the entrance into the town from the West stands Shandy Hall, where Sterne resided seven years, and in which he wrote Tristram Shandy and other works. The church is an elegant structure, dedicated to St. Michael and of a very ancient date, supposed to have been built about the year 700. The tower is octagonal, and the chancel was rebuilt in the year 1777, by Henry Earl of Fauconberg. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Earl of Fauconberg. Here is a Free School which was endowed by Sir John Hart, Knight, alderman, citizen, and grocer of the city of London, wherein he provided competent maintenance and a stipend for one schoolmaster and one usher, dated 1600, salary £32. Here is an hospital for ten poor men. In the church are several monuments for the noble family of Belayse, the most elegant of which is that for the Right Honourable Thomas Belayse. Earl of Fauconberg, (in beautiful statuary) who died the 31st of December, 1710, aged 72; the most ancient, is one for Sir William Belayse, dated 14th of April, 1603, and at the bottom is wrote

"Thomas Browne dud carve this tome Himself alone of Hesselwood stone."
Population, 348.

Taken from "History, Directory & Gazetteer, of the County of York" by Edward Baines 1823