CAYTON was registered in the Doomsday book as Caitune and no doubt existed many years prior to 1066 A.D. The property boom, which followed the dissolution of the monasteries in the 16th & 17th centuries, saw a number of Cayton farmers buy their own properties, some of these men flourished & provided leadership to a Cayton community with no resident gentry.
Entrance Gate to the Village of Cayton.
Cayton Bay is an almost natural extension of the northeast boundary of Cayton, stretching down to the cliffs overlooking the North Sea & beach. Cayton Bay is bounded on the north side by Osgodby & Scarborough & to the south by Killerby cliffs.
This parish is situated on the coast to the south of Scarborough, & comprises the township of Cayton, with which Osgodby was united by a Local Government Order in 1886. It contains 3504 acres of land. The population in 1881 was 609. The Earl of Londesborough is the principal owner & Edward Donner, Esq., Rusholme, Manchester, the lord of the manor.
The Hull & Scarborough branch of the North Eastern Railway skirts the parish on the south & has a station near the village which is distant about 4 miles S.E. from Scarborough.
The Church, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, is an ancient structure consisting of chancel, nave, north aisle & square embattled tower with crocketed pinnacles containing 3 bells. It was restored in 1862 when the flat roof was replaced by an open timbered one, the gallery removed & several new windows inserted. the chancel retains its ancient piscine & from the discovery of another at the east end of the north aisle, we may infer the presence of a chapel (probably a chantry), there in catholic times. The south doorway is Norman with zigzag moulding. Other parts of the church are Early English & later styles. The font is modern.
St John the Baptist Church, Cayton.
There are monuments of the Bieilbys of Killerby & of the Wyvilles of Osgodby, but none are more ancient than the 18th Century. Cayton had its church at the time of the Norman Conquest. The living is a perpetual curacy united with the vicarage of Seamer.
The Wesleyans & Primitive Methodists have chapels in the village.
Cayton can be traced back to a time before the Doomsday Book of 1086 & like many villages in the are was involved in farming & working the land. this only started to change after the second World War when farming became more mechanised& transport allowed workers to travel & find more lucrative work in factories & offices further a field.
Up until the 1950’s Cayton was still a farming community with a Blacksmiths shop (although not shoeing many horses) two inns 7 the church & chapel, the school (which is now the Jubilee Hall) & the Village Institute where the Village Hall is today. At that time there was a butchers, Post Office, shops & a doctor’s surgery for a population of around 500.
Today there are no farmsteads left in the village, land has been developed for housing giving us a population of around 2800. The Post office has survived, along with the shops, hairdressers, fish & chip shop, garage, & a successful school. The population of the village increases during the summer months when the camp sites in the area are populated.
Cayton in Bloom Wheel on Mill Lane, Cayton.