The village of High Grantley dates back at least to the 1600’s and being the estate village of Grantley Hall was once entirely owned by the local landowners, Sir William and Lady Aykroyd. As with many of England’s great houses death duties forced the landowner to sell the village properties in 1948.
High Grantley is set on the hill above Grantley Hall and overlooks beautiful Skelldale. The river Skell, which runs through the Hall grounds meets the River Laver and River Ure in Ripon, ultimately joining the Ouse before passing through York and reaching the North Sea via the Humber.
In times gone by Grantley boasted its own blacksmith, miller, shop, reading room and post office.
The Village Hall was founded in 1929 as a charitable trust via a donation by Sir William and Lady Aykroyd of Grantley Hall. Its first real purposes were as a meeting place for the local Women’s Institute (who meet there to this day) and as a bath house for the villagers, not many village properties in those days having running water.
The Hall and the nearby Village Playground are held in charitable trust by the Trustees, and as a registered charity (No. 500595) the Trust’s objects are as follows:
“For any religious and charitable purpose or purposes calculated to promote the spiritual, moral, intellectual or physical improvement or welfare or the reasonable recreational advantage or benefit of the inhabitants of the said parish of Grantley and of the surrounding district.”