IF anywhere in our green and pleasant land encapsulates the timeless idyll of an English country village, you’d be hard-pushed to find somewhere more typical than the lovely village of Thornton-le-Dale, the gateway to Dalby Forest and the North York Moors.

This picture postcard parish is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful villages in Yorkshire, with its chocolate box charm, peaceful surroundings and friendly atmosphere.

Taking a stroll around the village, you can’t help being impressed by the pretty cottages with their colourful gardens, the quaint shop fronts, the impeccably clean streets, perfectly maintained flower boxes and a picturesque view every which way you turn. It’s no wonder that it is such a magnet for tourists from far and wide.

It is believed that the area has been inhabited since Neolithic times, when the land to the north of the village was farmed, with remains dating back to 300BC having been unearthed.

The Romans also lived here, with pottery from somewhere between 50BC and AD50 having been discovered. The settlements around Thornton even appear in the Domesday Book.

The Saxons, too, made their mark – Ellerburn church and its cross are of Saxon origin. Meanwhile, All Saints’ Church, which overlooks the village from the top of the hill, dates back to Norman times, during which era, in 1281, the town was granted a weekly market when King Edward I bestowed it on John de Easton at ‘his manor of Thorneton’.

These days, there isn’t a market, although the market cross and stocks remain, but the village green is used for many events, including weekly Sunday afternoon concerts, and the annual Christmas lights switch on, a big event in the village.

The centre of the village is dominated by the picturesque Thornton Beck, which meanders through its centre, feeding into a lake hidden behind a screen of trees.

The beck is a favourite place for visitors to take a stroll along, past the jaw-droppingly gorgeous Beck Isle Cottage, a traditional thatched dwelling which has appeared on many postcards, jigsaws and calendars over the years.

The centre of the village is a bustling hive of activity, with many shops, a couple of pubs, restaurants, cafes, ice-cream shops, even a chocolate factory. Some of these businesses are new, such as The Old Butchery, which Andy Pond took over when the previous butchers, The Ginger Pig, closed its doors. Andy, whose wife Caroline works as a locum in the surgery across the road, opened the shop just four weeks ago, and is pleased with the new venture.

When I spoke to Andy, he told me that he loved the beauty of the village and his friendly customers, who, every afternoon, pop along to the shop when his ‘hot pies’ alarm goes off. There isn’t really an alarm, of course, it’s just that word gets round in a village like this.

“We have queues out of the door on Saturdays, and it really is going well,” he smiled, as the first flow of his pie fans started tricking through the door.

Across the other side of the village, Steve Tipping runs Thornton-le-Dale Fisheries, which he took on four years ago, and has never looked back.

“Thornton was my father’s favourite place,” he said.

“I saw this business was on the market, bought it and love it here – our customers are wonderful and I love being in the country as I’m into country sports, it suits me well. I think I’m here to stay.”

One business that has been in the village for many years is Wardhill Bros, the newsagents.

“The business has been in the family since 1856,” said Helen Ward, who was born and brought up in Thornton-le-Dale.

“It’s a nice village, quiet, with a good variety of shops, nice walks and a pretty stream; you can see why people visit.

“There are also quite a lot of events, the show, gala and plenty of sports, with cricket, football and bowls is very big here.”

Although just a village, Thornton-le-Dale has more than its fair share of landmarks. The row of 12 almshouses, just next to the beck, were donated to the village by Lady Lumley in 1656, along with a grammar school, no longer in use as a school but still used by the village community.

Further up the hill, situated in a fork in the road, is the fascinating All Saints’ Church and its graveyard – the resting place of, among others, Mathew Grimes, who guarded Napoleon Bonaparte at St Helena. It was into the church that I took refuge from a particularly heavy rainstorm.

This was fortuitous for several reasons. Not only did I not get soaked, but I had the fortune to encounter Maureen Faulkner, who was busy dusting the Mouseman’s roodscreen in the chancel.

Maureen was born in the village and, apart from a brief move to Pickering, has lived there all her life. Moreover, Maureen loves history, especially local history, and shared some of her early memories with me, giving me an insight into how different life in Thornton-le-Dale was several decades ago.

“My father’s family are from Thornton and there’s a long history of them being in the village,” she told me.

“Quite a lot of things have altered since I was a girl. I remember it as a little farm village and there were no cars.

“I remember when I was at school, there was a Roman chariot burial excavated above Ellerburn; it was believed to be a king.

“We wrote essays on it and that’s what got me interested in history, especially the history of the village.”

Mrs Faulkner also gave me an insight into the quirky confusion of the mystery of the ‘le’ in the village’s name, as some people don’t know whether it’s officially known as Thornton Dale, or with the added ‘le’.

“It was known as Thornton Dale until the Victorians added a ‘le’, then it was changed back, but no-one liked it, so it was changed back with the ‘le’ in it again,” she said.

The rain abating, I took an opportunity to walk back down the hill to stop off at Balderson’s café for a quintessentially English cup of Earl Grey tea and a cream scone – the perfect way to top off a visit to a typically quaint and beautiful English village.