The Bishop Monkton Local History Group was formed in 2018

Over the years, various groups had formed starting to look at 'village history' so, after a short lull, a number of new villagers called a meeting from which emerged the current Local History Group.

The Group's purpose is to research and display all aspects of the village and parish, including items of interest outside the area but which directly interface with the village community. 

Research will include people, buildings, transport, infrastructure, retailing and farming plus a variety of events both in the village and on a regional or national level.

Display is in the form of a website, Bishop Monkton Yesterday- click here-together with talks about, and visits to, interesting locations and topics, many with links to the village.

There are many pictures of the village of yesteryear to be found on the Group's website.

Some of the Group's Projects include -

Covid & Lockdown - a very full collection of images and records of what life was like during  Covid and its resultant periods of lockdown. Scroll down for more on this project.

Seven Pubs in the Village (Parish) - a video and images/records of these hostelries.

The Archbishop's Palace - examination of records, a LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) Survey and presentation by 'experts'.

National and Local Events Celebrations, including videos, of those held in the village.

Press Reports through the Ages covering the village and its activities.

Interesting Buildings in the village and their history.

Village Characters over the years.

Best Years of our Lives - a project completed in 2025 to capture the history of the village school and other education in the village.

To contact the Secretary by email click here. A membership form can be found at the bottom of this page.

Below is a record of a major exhibition in the village - 'Images of Isolation', centred around the Covid pandemic of 2020. This is a combination of a whole range of memories and stories of very differing types, photographs, written articles and poems, descriptions of differing events and musical recordings, including recognition on regional television, showing how a changed life was handled. There were 10 sections, together created into a video.  Here, as a sampler but in .pdf form, is the first Section, Welcome and the last Section, Conclusions.