The village of Bagby is situated two and a half miles west of Hood Hill, at the south western corner of the National Park, and is a sizable linear village, probably of Scandinavian origins. The village was recorded in Doomsday as Baghebi, the village or farmstead of Baggi. It was part of an unusual double parish, with the main church at Kirby Knowle. St. Mary's Church in Bagby was a chapel of ease for the church at Kirby Knowle, and contains a sanctuary, nave and vestry all rebuilt in stone in 1862.
The small hamlet of Balk, just to the east of Bagby, was also once a small village, with its own mill pond, mill race and weir on the Balk Beck, which still runs to the east of the hamlet.
Like many rural areas the inhabitants gained the vote as a result of the 1832 reform act. In this case the parliamentary rotten borough of Thirsk was expanded to include Bagby and a number of neighbouring villages.
Grid Reference: SE 464 804
Bagby is located between the A 19 and the A 170 just to the east of Thirsk