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Danby = Home or farm in the valley.
Danby is a village and civil parish in the Scarborough district of North Yorkshire, England. According to the 2001 UK census, Danby parish had a population of 1,411, a reduction on the 2001 UK census figure of 1,515. The statistician Karl Pearson spent a lot of time there.
Danby is located within the North York Moors National Park and is home to The Moors National Park Centre.
Danby is served by a rail network between Middlesbrough and Whitby and an Arriva bus service. Danby village incorporates the Duke of Wellington pub, and the neighbouring Post Office. The village lies on the Esk Valley Walk.
The Danby Beacon was one of a line of beacons up to twenty miles apart, and dates back to the 1600s when the country was living under the threat of invasion from France. It was to have been lit when the soldier stationed nearby had sight of a foreign fleet.
Danby Beacon is now a national landmark, which is used as a reference point by thousands of visitors and walkers each year. Over the years, the old wooden beacon aged so much that it eventually disintegrated and fell down - the landmark was lost.
A new beacon was unveiled in 2008 by Lord Downe, President of the Danby Beacon Trust. The flame-shaped basket is made out of blued stainless steel, blending in with the sky. The flames are mounted around a cup that is decorated with bronze - a reminder of the Bronze Age burial mound which part occupies the site.
During the Second World War, the site became home to one of the first radar stations guarding the north-east coast. The station was responsible for guiding Group Captain Peter Townsend, when he intercepted and shot down the first enemy aircraft to fall on English soil during the war.
The radar station, which continued to function until the 1957, was the precursor of the Fylingdales early warning station, 15 miles south-east, whose three giant golf balls became one of the North York Moors National Park's biggest attractions.
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