Bronze age c. 2000BC-800BC

• Earliest evidence of human settlement in the vicinity.
• A hoard of bronze implements hidden on Roseberry Topping. · Hut circles and flint scatterings at Levensdale.

Iron age c. 800BC-300AD

• Signs of successful farming and an increasing population. · Walled enclosure on Great Ayton Moor.
• Evidence of settlement near Roseberry Topping.

Saxon and Danish period c.500-900AD

• Successive waves of invaders from Germany and Scandinavia settle the area. · Local place names show both Anglo-Saxon and Danish influences.

Norman conquest and Middle Ages 11th – 15th centuries

• Domesday Book (1087) lists several manors within the modern parish boundary.
• Baldwin Wake’s Inquisition post mortem, 1282 indicates a thriving village community.

16th century

• Ayton tenants of the Nevilles participate in Rebellion of the Northern Earls, 1569. Neville lands confiscated by the Crown.

17th century

• Coulson family acquire lordship and lands of Great Ayton. · Enclosure of the open fields and common land, 1658.
• Linen manufacture

18th century

• Skottowe family succeed Coulsons.
• Two famous Aytonians: James Cook and Commodore William Wilson. · Diary of Ralph Jackson.
• Alum works at Cockshaw Bank, 1765-73.

19th century

• Growth of industry (whinstone and jet mining; tanning). · Coming of the railway, 1864.
• Increase of Quaker influence in the village.
• Founding of the North of England Agricultural School, 1841. · Rapid expansion of the village (California).

20th century

• Three ironstone mines in operation before and after the First World War. · The village during the Second World War.
• Further expansion (new housing estates). · Post-war loss of village industry.
• Ayton increasingly becomes a commuter village, while retaining some shops and services.