To many people from West Yorkshire, Malton exists as no more than a road sign as they travel past on the way to and from the coast.

They are missing a treat. The busy market town is a pleasure to visit, with a good mixture of both independent and high street shops, cafes, fine buildings and interesting historical links.

We began with a stroll along Yorkersgate, past the Palace Cinema. Built in 1845, it originally served as a corn exchange, but farmers thought it was too far from the market and it failed as a trading venture. At one time it was a centre for hiring female servants, but by 1914 was converted into a cinema. It had closed and reopended twice since then, and was most recently brought back to life in 2002.

Just off Yorkersgate, running alongside a small shopping arcade – which has been eerily lacking in shoppers every time I’ve visited – Chancery Lane is home to a small Georgian building known as Dickens’ House. The place is so called due to the friendship between its 19th century owner, solicitor Charles Smithson, and Charles Dickens. The author stayed at the Smithson’s house, Easthorpe Hall, outside Malton, and later at Abbey House in Old Malton.

Malton has strong links with Dickens, who visited several times and modelled certain characters on people he met in the town. John Brodie in Nicholas Nickleby is based on an acquaintance of Smithson, while a Mrs Jump of Middlecave Road is believed to have been the inspiration for Mrs MacStinger in Dombey And Son. Charles Smithson himself has been refashioned as Mr Spenlow of Spenlow and Jorkins in David Copperfield.

It is widely believed that the Chancery Lane offices were the model for Scrooge’s counting house in A Christmas Carol and that the church bells which feature so prominently in the novel were influenced by those of St Leonard’s on Church Hill.

Such is Dickens’s legacy that the town has a Charles Dickens Society which aims to raise the profile of the author’s connections. The group has devised a special trail taking in the places Dickens visited.

The last time I visited Malton with my family we spent an enjoyable hour in the town’s museum in the Old Town Hall, a striking building of mellow sandstone which originally had open arches – still visible inside – to house market stalls. Sadly, this quirky attraction, once full of interesting artefacts, has closed and the building stands empty.

It also housed the Tourist Information Centre, which we found had relocated to the library. We were alarmed to hear that this is shortlived, and that the centre is due to move again, out of Malton entirely. It is destined to become part of a TIC in Pickering, covering the whole of Ryedale. That’s a great shame – I think Malton is enough of an attraction to deserve its own.

The town’s importance dates back centuries. It had an important strategic role in both Roman and Medieval periods – its name, which may refer to the holding of a ‘moot’ or meeting, suggests this. In the first century AD, the Romans established a fort in a commanding position overlooking the River Derwent which skirts the town.

The centre which grew up on either side of the river became important for the surrounding countryside. The Saxons came to live and farm east of the fort in what is now Old Malton and it was here, in the 12th century, that Eustace Fitz John established the Gilbertine Priory of St Mary.

Closed during the dissolution of the monasteries, it is now the far smaller St Mary’s Priory Church. A 20 minute walk, or five minutes in the car from the town centre, it is worth a visit, particularly for its medieval stone drying coffins in the churchyard, into which bodies were put to decay before they were buried. A drawing inside the church suggests what the building may have looked like in its heyday.

Back in Malton, St Michael’s is affectionately known as ‘the church in the market place’. On Saturdays it casts its shadow over the colourful tarpaulin roofs of the market stalls.

The town’s livestock market, just off the town centre, is destined to relocate to an out-of-town site. Locals are divided over plans for retail use on the land.

Malton has numerous cafes and pubs offering snacks and hearty meals. We chose Cooplands, a small bakery-cum-cafe on Wheelgate, where we sat and watched customers coming and going.

One of the highlights of any visit to Malton – and one that should not be missed – is a trip to Ralph Yates. Originally an iron foundry, the shop supplied agricultural machinery made with iron from Middlesbrough and coal from the West Riding, to farms. It stocks everything, from dish cloths, to wellington boots, greetings cards, wood burning stoves, toys and DIY goods. I could browse in there forever. My husband and I came away with a cake tin, a dustbin, a pair of slippers, a fake egg and a box of tissues.

Another shop steeped in character, George Woodall & Sons, which dates back to 1884, draws me in year after year to peruse its range of twine and string. Its quirky contents include rams’ harnesses, mops, dog whistles and wetsuits.

Factfile

  • Malton lies just off the A64 Scarborough road. It is accessible by rail from Leeds or York.
  • For more about Malton and surrounding areas, visit visitryedale.co.uk.