Thornton-le-Moor is a village and civil parish in the county of North Yorkshire, England, situated equidistantly from the towns of Thirsk and Northallerton.
History
The Romans built two roads from a camp to the south at Thornton-le-Street. The modern A168 roughly follows the route of one road towards Northallerton before it headed to a fort at Cataractonium (Catterick).
The village name means the "thorn-tree settlement on the moor" derived from the Old English, þorn meaning a hawthorn tree, tūn, a farmstead and mōr, marsh or barren upland. Recorded as Torentun in the 11th century and Thornton in Mora or Thornton super Moram from the 13th to the 15th centuries, the village was probably held before the Norman Conquest of England by Edmund but by 1086 was recorded in the Domesday Book as belonging to Robert Malet. The manor consisted of five carucates. It was divided into three fees. In the late-13th century two carucates belonged to the barony of Greystock. Another part consisting of 2½ carucates was part of the Honour of Eye held of the Earl of Cornwall in the late-13th century who before 1312 granted nine oxgangs of land to Fountains Abbey. The third holding belonged to Thomas de Otterington in 1300.
Before 1657, the "way over Purgatory by Thief Hole was in want of repair". Purgatory, another part of the parish, east of the A168 road was the location of a messuage and farm that belonged to the see of Durham in 1739, and after 1803, a toll bar on the Yarm to Thirsk turnpike road.
After the passing of the Local Government Act 1972, from 1 April 1974, Thornton-le-Moor was part of the Hambleton District of North Yorkshire. It is now administered by the unitary North Yorkshire Council.
Geography
The village is at the foot of the ridge that divides the drainage basins of the River Wiske and the Cod Beck.</small>
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Religion
thumb|right|The site of St Barnabas' Church
Thornton-le-Moor was in the parish of North Otterington which had a church but no village. The village is connected to St Michael's Church in North Otterington by Endican Lane which joins the old corpse road from Thornton-le-Beans. An ancient chapel in Thornton-le-Moor was used as a school and place of worship for Nonconformists before it was demolished.