The name is derived from the Latin word for a camp, castra, indicating that the Roman army may once have been based near here.

This was done by Osbert de Arches at the time of the Norman Conquest and confirmed in the reign of Richard I.

[1] The village is listed in the Domesday Book as Acastre in the wapentake of Ainsty in the West Riding of Yorkshire, having 11 households under the lordship of Wulstan, who was replaced by Robert Malet in 1086.

[1] The site of the St Andrew's College, 1,440 feet (440 m) to the north-east of the farm, is a scheduled monument and includes extensive earthworks of buildings and a moated enclosure.

It is part of the Appleton Roebuck and Church Fenton electoral division of North Yorkshire Council.