Nestled in the heart of Malton, Wheelgate is home to several businesses and has a rich history. Howard Campion reports.
THIS is a quite uniquely named street, there only being two other places having such a name – an entertainment park in Nottinghamshire and a hotel in the Lake District.
In Malton it is without doubt the ‘main street’ with a great variety of businesses as well as a high traffic density.
On one side were once four butchers – Bower’s, Co-op, Inman’s and Brighty’s – as well as Dent’s fishmonger.
There were three public houses (now all closed) as well as Malton’s principal Co-operative store.
It was also once home to the town’s post office, Woolworth’s and a lemonade factory.
One building that is certainly missed by older residents is the Primitive Methodist Chapel, which opened in 1867 and was said to have had seating capacity between five and six hundred.
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It was closed in the 1950s and had been used as a music venue in its later days.
A Mr Sturdy lived at the chapel’s site before 1867 which was originally a field with three cruck cottages, one of these having been subsequently dismantled and rebuilt at Hutton-le-Hole’s Ryedale Folk Museum.
A photo of a religious gathering held outside the chapel shows there to be a small domed building in the background.
This has always provoked curiosity and is shown as a small circle inside the blue area of the map.
Nothing remains of it now. And not far away is the Cross Keys, its cellar being the 15th century under croft of a hospital dedicate to St Peter.
Wheelgate is the commencement of Roman Road 814 (Malton to Hovingham) and there have been a few suggestions as to how it gained its status within the town.
One idea is that New Malton developed in an organised fashion as a ‘grid pattern’ of streets within the town wall.
It has been said that one part of that grid comprises Wheelgate, Saville Street and Greengate which are crossed at right angles by Finkle Street, St Michael’s Street and Wheelgate Square (also known as Co-op Yard or Wright’s Yard).
Wheelgate’s route out of Malton leads into Newbiggin.
Probably an early suburb of Malton, its early residents would have encouraged the growth of trade in neighbouring Wheelgate.
- Howard Campion is a trustee at the Malton and Norton Heritage Centre
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