The village of Hipswell is at the eastern end of the civil parish, and effectively forms a suburb of Catterick Garrison.

Hipswell was mentioned in the Domesday Book in 1086 as being in the hundred of "Land of Count Alan" and the county of Yorkshire, the population was estimated at 6 households.

In 1870-72 John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Hipswell as:a township and a chapelry in Richmond district, N. R. Yorkshire.

Hipswell Church of England Primary School which caters for nearly 200 pupils,[7] is the local primary education provider, Risedale School is also located in Hipswell, which provides secondary and further education for the surrounding Garrison area.

[9] Hipswell churchyard was the initial burial ground for soldiers from Catterick Garrison and its Military Hospital in the First World War.