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Thornton Watlass (#27 on map) is now a civil parish and a small village in the Hambleton District of North Yorkshire, England. It is located north of Masham and south of Bedale (#3) on the eastern slopes of the Ure Valley at the entrance to Wensleydale and the Yorkshire Dales National Park. It is 11 miles North of Ripon, 4 miles from the A1 major road, 11 miles from the main railway line at Northallerton and 18 miles from Teesside Airport. Its population was 180 in 2000, 190 in 2005, 224 in 2011 and 240 in 2016.
The village lies at the junction of Watlass Lane and Watlass Moor Lane. At the centre of the village is the triangular village green, surrounded by houses, some of which are built from local stone. Thornton Watlass Church dates from the 11th century. The village forms part of the Thornton Watlass Estate, and Thornton Watlass Hall, an ancient a large [[wikipedia:listed building|Grade I listed Georgian two-storey gabled and stone country house, lies just to the north of the village.
The estate had descended in the Thoresby family until the heiress Agnes Thoresby married Thomas Dodsworth in 1415. The original house was substantially rebuilt in 1723–27. The west wing was added in 1780 and the east wing in 1800.
By the mid-1700s the house and estate had descended in the Dodsworth family to Henrietta, daughter of John Dodsworth and sister and heiress of Frederick Dodsworth, who married John Silvester Smith of Newland Park, Drax [Yorkshire]. John Silvester was created a Baronet in 1784. His son, the 2nd Baronet, adopted the name Dodsworth in 1821 and the 4th Baronet later assumed the family name of Smith-Dodsworth. Sir David John Smith-Dodsworth, the 9th Baronet, now occupies the house.
Prior to the nationwide municipal reorganization of 1974, Thornton Watlass was part of Bedale Rural District. Historically, Thornton Watlass was an ancient and ecclesiastical parish in the wapentake of Hang East.
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