WITTON (West), a parish, with a village, in Leyburn district, N. R. Yorkshire; 4 miles WSW of Leyburn r. station. It has a post-office under Bedale. Acres, 3,715. Real property, £4,696; of which £60 are in quarries. Pop. in 1851, 550; in 1861, 659. Houses, 145. The increase of pop. arose from the opening of a lead mine. The property is much subdivided. An ancient castle of Ralph Fitz-Randal was here, and has left some vestiges. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Ripon. Value, £103. Patron, Lord Bolton. The church is ancient but good. There are chapels for Wesleyans and Roman Catholics, a national school, and charities £31.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))