AS AN incomer to North Yorkshire of nearly three years' standing, I am still discovering fascinating villages. Such a village is Upsall, several miles from Thirsk.

During my time in the county, I have constantly been amazed by the variety of villages, their lovely old trees, ample grass verges and village greens. Obviously land was plentiful in days gone by.

It is a far cry from my home, the wild, rugged and steep valley market town of Holmfirth, in the Holme Valley, made famous by the television programme Last of the Summer Wine.

There, the "dark and satanic" former mill houses are crammed on to the hillside at each side of the valley, beautiful in a different way to the genteel feel of North Yorkshire. There you are lucky indeed if you manage to get a parking space with your home.

Many of them have under or over dwellings, are three-storey, being built as they are clinging to the side of the valley in whatever space is available.

But, back to Upsall.

Approached by a winding, narrow country lane, I was on my way there on a story. That story came to nothing, but I came away with another idea after experiencing a sense of wonder that such a village could exist. My curiosity was aroused.

My research discovered a tale of two castles.

What was the history of the magnificent mansion/castle on top of a knoll overlooking the village? Why did all the village houses, some small some great, have Gothic style chimneys and why was there an ancient cross, now at ground level in the centre of the village, near the parish church?

Typical of the curious mixture of the houses was one such cottage, named Bassett Hall, which had peacocks grazing in the front garden, and then when I stopped to ask directions I noticed the magnificent house standing proudly above the village.

I was told that this was New Building, sometimes Upsall or Kirby Knowle Castle, and that there used to be a proper castle on the site.

In the centre of the village stands the old blacksmith's shop, its doorway formed in stone in the shape of a horseshoe and the words Upsall Town engraved in stones above it.

It is a village that time seems to have passed by, a village that time seems to have forgotten.

Now in the parish of South Kilvington, Upsall at one time was part of Kirby Knowle and the original fourteenth century Upsall Castle was within its boundaries.

The village has a population of 60. There is no shop and little public transport. In fact, therein lies another story. A "bus" operates on demand, a shared taxibus on Mondays to Thirsk (for the market) setting off at 9.55 and returning at 12.50.

Geographic and historical information on the village dates back to 1890. The present mansion "castle" is a modern structure, built by Capt E H Turton, landowner and farmer, in 1875, from the designs of the late George Goldie.

The Turtons have farmed the land for 200 years, the last family owner being Gerald Turton, former North Yorkshire county councillor and son of the former MP for Thirsk and Malton.

It is an elegant stone mansion, in the Gothic style, with a noble entrance of Aberdeen granite. Carved on a slab, nearby, is this pious reflection: "Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it."

The ruins of the old castle, which had previously occupied the site, were removed for the erection of the present mansion, and now there remains scarcely a trace of the feudal home of the Scropes and the Constables. There is in the history books no information of the destruction of the castle, nor of its desertion by its owners. Its decadence probably began with the exile of John Constable; and, if we may believe tradition, its ruin was hastened by John Danby, the puritan, who carried away many of the dressed stones to start building the castle after a fire had left it derelict. The park contained about 600 acres, and was stocked with deer.

There are many curious legends and traditions connected with the old castle. The oft-told story of a subterranean passage appears among them, and a still stranger one attributes the rebuilding of the early castle to the discovery of three crocks of gold revealed in a dream.

Briefly told, it is as follows. Lord Scrope dreamed three nights in succession, that, if he went to London Bridge, he would hear of something very much to his advantage.

He travelled from Upsall to London, took his station on the bridge day after day without receiving the coveted information, and was beginning to mourn his folly, when a tinker asked him why he loitered so long on the bridge.

After some hesitation he related his dreams. The tinker. laughing at his simplicity, said: "I see you are as poor as I am, but if only I could get to Yorkshire, I too dreamt last night that under an elder tree in Upsall Castle, there was a pot of gold," and inquired if he knew of any such place.

Lord Scrope hurriedly returned home, found the crocks of gold himself and rebuilt the castle.

A farmhouse now occupies a corner of the old castle site, built from stones from the ruins.

The village, which consists of a few farm houses and cottages, is situated behind the castle. It is said that a market was held where the ancient cross now lies at ground level. One of the farm houses in the park is named Nevison Hall, and is said to have been the birthplace and occasional residence of the notorious freebooter, Will Nevison, whom Charles II nicknamed Swift Nick on account of his wonderful feats of horsemanship.

His parents were of the better class, the gentlemen yeomen of the day, and the walls of the house were long adorned with mementoes of him. After many hairbreadth escapes, he was, at last, captured and hanged at York, on the May 4, 1685, according to Bulmer's History and Directory of North Yorkshire.

William Grainge's Vale of Mowbray history book also tells us about New Building and the original castle.

"Proudly on an isolated knoll, surrounded by green fields, a lofty plantation, in one of the most picturesque spots stands the mansion, New Building.

Though called 'new' it is of considerable antiquity and was formerly styled Kirkby Knowle Castle.

The site was mentioned in 1085 in the Domesday Survey, when the land belonged to Robert de Mowbray, Earl of Northumberland. It was later held by Hugh de Upsall and subsequently the family of Lascelles.

About 1568, a fire broke out and destroyed the greatest part of the original castle. Of four towers, only one was left intact.

It had 50 apartments and vaults and a priest hole - a hidden cavity by which clandestine priests could escape."

Upsall is an estate village, like many found in North Yorkshire, with pretty cottages and fine large houses dominated by the huge chimneys, most of which have been renovated by new money and incomers.

Thirsk historian Cooper Harding said: "The old rambling Upsall Castle was built when lords of the manor had more money than they knew what to do with. In those days, if the cottages of a village got in the way of the view, a whole village could be moved. There was no such thing as planning and each lord of the manor tried to outdo the other."

They had sole rights over everyone who lived in the village. Workers who lived in the cottages had to watch their Ps and Qs as their homes depended on their job.

Tenants were allowed to plant flowers in the front gardens of such villages to make the it look pretty, but they were not allowed to pick them. Vegetables were allowed to be planted in back gardens.

In some villages of this time, it was even stipulated there be no children!

In others it was decreed that children should not be seen on the road after late afternoon to give the village a sleepy, calm air, Mr Harding told me.

Times have changed, of course, and now some village scenes are dominated by huge power lines, and tourists come to visit and picnic.

Yet it is easy in the sleepy village to imagine times gone by