Congratulations to the whole community in the village of Sessay near Thirsk as the southern part looks set to be formally designated as Hambleton’s 54th Conservation Area by Hambleton Council in December.
The designation of a Conservation Area in Sessay is down to the local community - the initiative of residents and others passionate about the village’s local distinctiveness and history.
The centrepiece for the proposed Sessay Conservation Area is St Cuthbert’s Church (Grade II*) by eminent Victorian Architect William Butterfield who also designed the neighbouring school and several estate cottages. Close by lies a lost medieval manor and village. Butterfield’s composition of church and school is set within a surviving medieval landscape of ridge and furrow fields, today consisting of three farmsteads. Sessay’s historic buildings, landscape, woodland fringes, ponds and associated wildlife all combine to create a unique and well rooted place of special character
This honour coincides with England’s first ever Conservation Area established 50 years ago in Stamford, Lincolnshire. Well done to all.