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Malton
Malton Market Place
Population	4,000
OS grid reference	SE788722
• London	230.7 mi
District	Ryedale
Shire county	North Yorkshire
Region	Yorkshire and the Humber
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	MALTON
Postcode district	YO17
Dialling code	01653
Police	North Yorkshire
Fire	North Yorkshire
Ambulance	Yorkshire
UK Parliament	Ryedale
List of places UK England Yorkshire

Malton is a market town in North Yorkshire, England. The town is the location of the offices of Ryedale District Council and has a population of around 4,000 people.

It is located to the north of the River Derwent which forms the historic boundary between the North and East Ridings of Yorkshire. Facing Malton on the other side of the Derwent is Norton.

Malton is the local commercial centre. In the town centre there are lots of small traditional independent shops. The market place has recently become a meeting area with a number of coffee bars and cafés opening all day to complement the public houses. Most of the town's real estate is owned by the Fitzwilliam estate.

History

The town stands on the site of a former Roman settlement, although no firm conclusion has been agreed upon as to which this settlement actually was. The uncertainty surrounds, in particular, the exact location of the Roman town of Derventio. Contradictory records describe Derventio as being either 7 or 17 miles east of York. The former is consistent with the site of a Roman settlement known to have existed in proximity to the current village of Stamford Bridge, in which case the settlement at Malton is more likely to have been Delgovicia. The latter places Derventio at Malton.

If there is still academic debate about the name, what is certain is that Roman Malton was, from the second half of the first century after Christ, a busy and a lively place. Consisting firstly of the important cavalry fort whose remains lie in Old Malton under the former pasture land known as Orchard Fields, right beside a disused railway cutting, it eventually extended to include an adjoining area of civil settlement or vicus on the north bank, immediately south of the fort and sited above the necessary river crossing or bridge(s) below. Right opposite, on the southern side of the modern river Derwent (whose name is immediately traceable back to that Derventio commonly suggested as most likely place name in Roman times) was an area of ‘grid iron’ street planning and metal workshops which we know from an inscription included a goldsmith’s shop managed for its owner by a young slave. These ‘planned’ Roman streets on the south bank therefore seem natural precursor to the more industrial atmosphere and activity which modern Norton still retains to this day, whilst Roman Malton across the river could boast at least one fine townhouse that was furnished with painted walls, mosaic floors, heated rooms and sculptural architectural decoration, examples of which can all be seen in the Malton Museum in the Old Town Hall.

Likewise, what we know of Roman horse-keeping activity seems to echo modern Malton’s continuing reputation as another Yorkshire town famous for racehorse breeding and training. Derventio itself was a strategically important cavalry fort, 17 miles from the Legionary fortress at York (Eboracum) and standing at the very hub of Roman road networks extending right across North and East Yorkshire. Its known garrison, the Ala Picentiana, was a regiment or cavalry ‘wing’ of some repute, one arguably traceable from its first being raised in Gaul (modern France) under Julius Caesar himself; to its later serving in the Balkans (under a man called Picens whom the regiment is believed to be named after) before eventual posting to Britain. Marcus Claudius Bassus was a known commander of the regiment whilst in Malton, but another man called Candidus and his own links with the Ala at Derventio receive permanent record in a beautifully-lettered fragmentary dedication stone set up by the unit commander outside the south-east gate of the fort, then eventually found in 1970 before going on display in the Old Town Hall today.

As well as York itself, their road network shows us what key strategic and social links there were for Malton to the only other important Roman town located within the territory of the local Celtic tribe, the Parisii; namely their tribal capital, Roman naval-base and major ferry-crossing sited at Brough-on-Humber (Petuaria). As the historical novelist Clive Ashman so vividly puts it in “MOSAIC – the Pavement that Walked” (Voreda Books) his fictionalised account of not only the true-life, 1948 theft of a Roman mosaic from Brough, but also the original fate of the Roman villa it came from (and of the Ala Picentiana itself): “As for the glorious Ala traceable back to Julius Caesar’s Gallic Wars, it is an inevitable truth that hundreds of years later there came one final day when its men rode jingling out of Derventio fort, never to be seen there again.”

Once the Ala had gone, it was replaced towards the end of the Romans’ 350-year occupation by an irregular unit sent up from Brough – the Numerus Supervenientum Petuarensium. This proved just a temporary measure in what became ever darker times. From 367 AD until the last Roman troops withdrew around 405 AD, Roman Malton was attacked and ruined several times – by the end it was not much better than an enclosure of fallen rubble they were vainly cutting their fresh defensive ditches around. What they made of it all we can only guess, but we do know that these people living amongst the ruins of Roman Malton were about to enter that long period known to us now as the Dark Ages.

In Mediaeval times, Malton was briefly a parliamentary borough in the 13th century, and again from 1640 to 1885; the borough was sometimes referred to as New Malton. It was represented by two Members of Parliament until 1868, among them the political philosopher Edmund Burke, and by one member from 1868 to 1885.

Today

Attractions in modern Malton include the signposted remains of the Roman fort at 'Orchard Fields', the Malton Museum and a Gilbertine priory. Eden Camp, a military themed museum, is located just outside the town. Norton-on-Derwent is a town joining Malton, on the East Riding side of the River Derwent. It is known for its racehorse training. Malton Bacon Factory, Malton bus station and Malton railway station are actually located in Norton-on-Derwent. It is also known for its connection with Charles Dickens.

Malton holds a market every Saturday, as well as a farmers' market once every month. Milton Rooms is a popular entertainment building for young adults, and also holds pantomimes, local productions and council meetings, Malton also has a war memorial and several historical churches (Norton-on-Derwent also holds large church buildings). The town is served by Malton railway station. Malton also has many educational establishments. The Blue Ball Inn on wheelgate is also a popular public house for a social saturday night throughout the young adult population along with The Gate on yorkersgate and the Kings Head at the top of the market place.

Malton and the neighbouring village of Old Malton provide the settings for the collection of stories told in the book, "All is Bright - A Yorkshire Lad's Christmas" by Dave Preston.

The nearby village of Kirby Misperton is the location of Flamingo Land Theme Park and Zoo, Malton is a popular destination for people visiting North Yorkshire as Kirby Misperton is close-by, as well as being a middle-ground between York, Pickering (access to the North Yorkshire Moors and also a terminus of the North Yorkshire Moors Railway), Scarborough, Filey and Whitby.

Transport

By road

Malton is on the A64, which runs from Leeds and York to Scarborough, at the junction with the A169 to Pickering and Whitby. A by-pass was built in 1979, but the narrow streets through the town centre are still very congested.

By train

Malton railway station is on the TransPennine Express route, with fast trains every hour running from Scarborough to York, Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool.

Also there is plans to re-open the rail link between Malton and Pickering, which would create a new service from Malton to Whitby.

By bus

Malton is home to Coastliner (website), a division of the TransDev bus group, and is widely recognised for its fleet of modern, high-spec buses and its reliable, punctual service. Buses run from Leeds and York through Malton to Pickering/Whitby (840), Scarborough (843) and Bridlington (845).

There are also regular buses to Castle Howard (183) and Hovingham (196), and a number of other local bus routes.

References

• "DERVENTIO - (Malton) Roman Fort and Civilian Settlement" L.Peter Wenham (Cameo Books 1974)

• "The Romans In East Yorkshire" John H. Rumsby, English Life Publications 1980

• "MOSAIC – the Pavement that Walked" Clive Ashman (Voreda Books, London, 2008: ISBN 978-0-9556398-0-7)

External links

• Malton on Ryedale.co.uk

• Towns in North Yorkshire
• Market towns in England
• People from Malton, North Yorkshire