RESIDENTS of a market town have documented their passion for its rare architecture in a book to mark the millennium.

The Stokesley society has published Buildings of Stokesley, a Small Georgian Market Town to highlight the unique state of the buildings in a town that time forgot.

A modestly prosperous town for centuries, it became rapidly overshadowed by Middlesbrough during the industrial revolution. But the decline in its fortune proved a saving grace for its buildings. The rapid expansion and urbanisation of Teesside meant that few Georgian buildings survived the changing times. But neglected Stokesley remained virtually untouched, and as such parts of it have remained a treasure trove of Georgian vernacular architecture.

Mr Hugh Charman has been chairman of the Stokesley society for more than 20 years, and helped produce the book.

"About four years ago, we decided to write a book about the buildings of Stokesley," he said. "It was going to be a paperback or a booklet, then about two years ago we changed tack. We decided to go for a high quality publication that people will keep as a memento of the millennium."

The project was part funded by a £2,750 millennium festival award. "If we hadn't got the grant, we simply wouldn't have been able to do this," Mr Charman said.

The book details the main buildings at the heart of the town, including the history of the high street, College Square and the east and west ends of the town. "What we tried to cover is primarily the buildings but we've also tried to cover the local history," said Mr Charman.

The name Stokesley is thought to come from "Stoc-ley", two Anglo-Saxon words meaning "dairy farm meadow." A survey in 1050 by Saxon King Edward the Confessor valued the manor at £24. After the wasting of the North by William the Conqueror in 1069, the Domesday Book has it worth a mere £8.

The Domesday Book also notes that the town even then had a mill and a church. The manor became a Norman trade and administrative centre, and has retained some medieval features. The spacious centre comes from when the middle of the town was pasture land. In times of attack from ravaging Scots or marauding wolves, the townsfolk could herd their livestock into the centre for protection.

With the advent of ironstone mining in the Cleveland Hills and, more importantly, competition in the textiles market from mills in Yorkshire and Lancashire, the town's fortunes fell. Population censuses illustrate its decline. In 1811, the population was 1,439, which rose to 2,310 by 1841. It then began to drop, reaching a low of 1,513 in 1891.

This Georgian heyday has meant that, apart from a few Victorian additions, most of the centre's buildings are from this period. Mr Charman pointed out a few personal favourites. "Barclays bank is a very fine building, as is the block in College Square," he said.

"But one of the points we are trying to get across is that there are many fine buildings but there are also detailed points that people will miss if they are not looking for them. One of the special features in the town is serpentine bow windows. This is where the brickwork actually curves to accommodate the bow. It is a very rare Georgian feature and we have several examples in Stokesley."

Along with pointing out these interesting and unusual spots, the book also details the history of the buildings themselves. A fine example is the story of the Methodist churches. The original Wesleyan chapel was built in 1812. When it became too small, the congregation bought an old coaching house, the Black Swan inn, and built the new Methodist church there in 1886.

The old chapel was put up for sale. As the Methodists were fervently against alcohol, they stipulated that it must not be used as a place of entertainment or an inn. The sale went through and the congregation were horrified to discover it had been bought by the Wiggins family - the local brewers.

Such attention to detail is a marked feature of the book, and comes from extensive research, years of interest and above all, the society's passion for the town. The Stokesley society was founded in 1962, largely as a pressure group fighting to conserve the town's architectural heritage. The book is dedicated to the memory of its inspirational president, Mr Maurice Wilson, who died in March this year.

"Maurice had many interests and among them was local history," said Mr Charman. "His family had lived in Stokesley for generations. He was quite active on our other projects, such as the two videos of old photographs we produced, which have proved quite popular.

"This book is very important to us in that the success of keeping up the standards of buildings in the town depends on residents being interested. I think the book will help generate that interest.

"The Georgians built in a very harmonious way and we hope people will preserve that, and that new buildings will be in keeping with the town. There is a growing interest in our heritage, and people now are even starting to restore historical architectural features. This can only be good for the town and for the people who come here."

l Copies of Buildings of Stokesley, priced £16.99, are available from The Broadway and the Yorkshire Store is Stokesley and from Guisborough Bookshop