Birkby is a village and civil parish

Civil parish

In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...

 about 6 miles north of Northallerton in the Hambleton

Hambleton

Hambleton is a local government district of North Yorkshire, England. The main town and administrative centre is Northallerton, and includes the market towns and major villages of Bedale, Thirsk, Great Ayton, Stokesley and Easingwold....

 district of North Yorkshire

North Yorkshire

North Yorkshire is a non-metropolitan or shire county located in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England, and a ceremonial county primarily in that region but partly in North East England. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972 it covers an area of , making it the largest...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

.

The village lies very close to the East Coast Main Line

East Coast Main Line

The East Coast Main Line is a long electrified high-speed railway link between London, Peterborough, Doncaster, Wakefield, Leeds, York, Darlington, Newcastle and Edinburgh...

, it is possible to see Birkby from the left hand side of a southbound train on the line. The nearest station was Cowton railway station

Cowton railway station

Cowton railway station is a disused station on the East Coast Main Line, it is situated in the Hambleton district of North Yorkshire in England the station is situated around east of the village of East Cowton....

 but that has long since closed, the nearest station is now Northallerton

Northallerton railway station

Northallerton railway station serves the town of Northallerton in North Yorkshire, England. The station lies on the East Coast Main Line north of York...

Birkby lies on a minor road that runs between East Cowton

East Cowton

East Cowton is a village and civil parish in the district of Hambleton in North Yorkshire, England.The village used to be known as "Long Cowton" and before that "Magna Cowton"....

 and the A167

A167 road

The A167 is a road in North East England. Most of its route was formerly the A1 as most of it is the original route of the Great North Road until the A1 was re-routed with the opening of the A1 in the 1960s....

.

St Peter's church in Birkby dates from 1776. During some 19th century renovation work the bases of two Norman

Normans

The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...

 columns were discovered under the floor of the chancel

Chancel

In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar in the sanctuary at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building...

 and others were found under the nave

Nave

In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church. "Nave" was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting...

. They had evidently formed part of a much earlier and more ornate building than the one that now occupies the site. Part of the shaft of a Saxon

Anglo-Saxons

Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...

 cross was also unearthed, and is now built into the wall of the west end.

Adjacent to the church is an impressive rectory

Rectory

A rectory is the residence, or former residence, of a rector, most often a Christian cleric, but in some cases an academic rector or other person with that title...

, as the road passes the rectory grounds it is overhung by a number of horse chestnut tree

Common Horse-chestnut

Aesculus hippocastanum is a large deciduous tree, commonly known as Horse-chestnut or Conker tree.-Distribution:Aesculus hippocastanum is native to a small area in the mountains of the Balkans in southeast Europe, in small areas in northern Greece, Albania, the Republic of Macedonia, Serbia, and...

s.

There are the foundations of an older settlement opposite the rectory near Hill Top Farm.

It is thought that the name Birkby may be a corruption of Bretby or Bretaby, which means village inhabited by persons of mixed Viking

Viking

The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...

 and ancient British blood. Another theory has it that the name derives from the birch

Birch

Birch is a tree or shrub of the genus Betula , in the family Betulaceae, closely related to the beech/oak family, Fagaceae. The Betula genus contains 30–60 known taxa...

or birk trees that grew there.