[13] The opening of the Yorkshire Dales Railway to Threshfield in 1902 brought new visitors, many of whom settled, some finding work in Skipton or in the developing limestone quarries.

"The nice thing was that there weren’t any modern houses in the town center ... so we didn’t have to change anything completely.

[22] Grassington Festival is a two-week-long annual event started in 1980, with music, performance and visual arts, held in a number of venues around the village.

Events include war re-enactments, dances and a variety of military and civilian vehicles on display from the period.

[24] In the winter Grassington holds the Dickensian Festival, with period costumes, Christmas activities and commercial selling.

[26][27] The town was transformed into the fictional Darrowby[28] for the filming of the 2020 television series of All Creatures Great and Small for Channel 5.

On Sundays, additional DalesBus services operate – including double-decker DalesBus 875 from Wakefield, Leeds and Ilkley to Grassington, Kettlewell and Buckden, continuing during the summer months to Aysgarth and Hawes in Wensleydale.The village used to have a railway station terminus, which was shared with Threshfield, on the Yorkshire Dales Railway.

The station remained open to freight and railtour traffic until 1969 when the tracks were removed to a point 2 miles (3.2 km) to the south, at the limestone quarry at Swinden.

[37] In 1909 Grassington received its first electricity from a hydroelectric plant at Linton Falls, which continued to operate until 1948 when the National Grid arrived in the area.

In March 2012 a new hydroelectric power plant was opened using the same but restored turbine house, which provides 500,000 kWh of electricity a year, using two Archimedean screws.