THE last time you drove between Malton and Helmsley, did anything strike you as unusual? This may be a sparsely populated part of the world, yet the first half of the journey seems anything but.

This was The Street; an old Roman road, and the stretch between Amotherby and Hovingham is unique. Here you will find Ryedale’s Street Parishes; five villages in the space of seven miles, each with a fine Saxon church. It has been a centre of Christianity for more than 1,000 years, but the villages lie just off the main road with many buildings tucked away, and most of us drive past blissfully unaware of the history on display just a few metres from our car.

However, that’s not the case at Hovingham, where the winding road snakes through the village. And while I will no doubt be in trouble with residents of Appleton-le-Street or Barton-le-Street, to me this is the finest of all the Street Parishes.

Hovingham is an estate village, slap-bang between Malton and Helmsley. As you approach, the view down the High Street is of elegant limestone cottages under red pantiles and in the distance, the majestic Hambleton Hills. This is the epitome of a North Yorkshire chocolate-box village; a place time forgot to spoil, with handsome wide streets and a stream, not to mention an outstanding mansion house.

The whole place is an architectural gem, but as you wander past the green the school is striking, particularly its unusual Gothic oriel window.

Gazette & Herald: Hovingham School

And of course there’s cricket. Not just any old cricket, mind; the likes of Len Hutton, Freddie Trueman and Geoff Boycott have all played here.

Then there are the mineral springs of sulphurous, chalybeate and clear water. Never ones to miss a trick, the Romans discovered it and built a bath.

During the height of spa culture, Hovingham’s remoteness stopped it becoming a challenger to Harrogate or Scarborough, but a number of visitors did stop off to take the waters and there was once a spa villa and pump room. But by and large, the village was spared the excesses of Georgian and Victorian high society.

Hovingham Hall – a grand stone Palladian mansion – dominates the village, as do its owners the Worsley family who have lived here since 1750. Take the almshouses, erected by the family for aged widows, or the Worsley Arms hotel which was originally built to provide accommodation for spa visitors.

Thomas Worsley designed and built Hovingham Hall. A close friend of King George III, he was appointed Surveyor General to the Board of Works.

Thomas was a keen horseman and took the unusual step of placing his stable block at the entrance. But the façade has anything but an egalitarian appearance.

At the front of the house, cricket has been played since at least 1858 when a Hovingham team of 22 players took on an All England team. Sadly, the professionals proved too much for the villagers.

The Hall is one of two major attractions to Hovingham; the other being a shed. Artist Simon Thackray used it to make sculpture, paintings, drawings and prints before coming up with the idea of The Shed, a pocket-sized venue which presents world-class music, poetry and comedy. But The Shed has also been named the UK’s most offbeat arts centre for its events like knitting Elvis wigs and rowing down the river in over-sized Yorkshire puddings.

Gazette & Herald: Simon Thackray of The Shed

King Henry III granted a charter for Hovingham to hold a market in 1279, a tradition that continued until 1854. But at a time when rural economies appear to be ailing, the community here successfully relaunched the Hovingham Village Market. And within months it was crowned the UK’s Greenest Market 2010, by the National Market Traders’ Federation. Now the monthly market is held at the village hall on the first Saturday of the month and boasts more than 30 stalls.

Hovingham’s church has been here for about 900 years and over the doorway is a stone carved with a cross. Pre-dating the Saxon building, it’s one of the oldest surviving Christian relics in Ryedale.

The most striking feature in the simple chancel is a free-standing Viking Cross. Originally it would have stood high on a round column to mark the open-air spot where Christian worship took place before the ruined church was rebuilt in Saxon times.

Next time you drive between Helmsley and Malton you’ll have plenty of excuses to stop off in Hovingham, and don’t forget the villages to Amotherby, where Ryedale’s Street Parishes are a fascinating discovery.

Be warned, though; there may be five villages in the space of just seven miles and each with a fine Saxon church. They all have cracking pubs too.

Sometimes it’s safer to drive past blissfully unaware.