STOKESLEY, a small town, a township, a parish, a sub-district, and a district, in N. R. Yorkshire. The town stands on the river Leven, near the North Yorkshire and Cleveland railway, amid pleasant environs, 9 miles SE by S of Stockton-upon-Tees; consists chiefly of one spacious street; is a seat of petty sessions and a polling place; and has a post-office‡ under Northallerton, a r. station with telegraph, two banking offices, two chief inns, a town hall of 1853, a church rebuilt in 1777, three dissenting chapels, a Roman Catholic chapel, a Church institute, an endowed school with £139 a year, a workhouse, a weekly market on Saturday, and fairs on the Saturdays before 14 Feb., Palm-Sunday, Trinity-Sunday, and 19 Oct. The township comprises 1,744 acres. Real property, £8,393; of which £50 are in gasworks. Pop., 1,993. Houses, 465.—The parish contains also Great Busby, Little Busby, Newby, and Easby townships. Acres, 6,239. Pop., 2,401. Houses, 547. The living is a rectory in the diocese of York. Value, £1,206.* Patron, the archbishop of York.—The sub-district contains 9 parishes and 4 parts. Acres, 60,236. Pop., 7,853. Houses, 1,651.—The district includes also Hutton sub-district, and comprises 79,345 acres. Poor rates in 1863, £4,355. Pop. in 1851, 9,387; in 1861, 10,381. Houses, 2,208. Marriages in 1863, 71; births, 380,- of which 31 were illegitimate; deaths, 224,-of which 65 were at ages under 5 years, and 12 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 692; births, 3,139; deaths, 1,830. The places of worship, in 1851, were 16 of the Church of England, with 3,063 sittings; 2 of Independents, with 254 s.; 1 of Quakers, with 300 s.; 15 of Wesleyans, with 1,734 s.; 9 of Primitive Methodists, with 717 s.; and 1 of Roman Catholics, with 120 s. The schools were 16 public day-schools, with 729 scholars; 14 private day-schools, with 365 s.; 17 Sunday schools, with 603 s.; and 1 evening school for adults, with 16 s.

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