[4] In 1779 there was some excitement and a parental pursuit, when the seventeen-year-old Miss Armystead eloped to Gretna Green with her own fortune and her beau Mr. Horseman, to avoid an arranged marriage with a seventy-year-old man.

The primary reason for site selection for SAC designation is the great crested newt which breeds in a pond with wildly fluctuating levels, so that sometimes it is large, and sometimes nearly dried out.

[1][nb 1] Because newts need to forage and hide in the grass, and breed in the water, the pond, grassland and hibernation habitats should be considered and protected together.

Newts can hibernate in tree roots, in the bases of hedges and drystone walls, under logpiles and below rubble or stone heaps.

[14][15] The situation of the great crested newt on this site was assessed in 2013 by the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust,[16] as "unfavourable and recovering" and at medium risk.

[18] In 2018 there was a disagreement between the developers Hallam Land Management and Stockeld Park, and the local group Better Wetherby Partnership.

Hallam maintained that their housing development planning application would not compromise the water levels at Kirk Deighton SSSI.

[19] Harrogate Borough Council's habitat regulations assessment of July 2019 bears on the matter of local planning applications.

Any local planning requiring land intake and potentially affecting air and water pollutants would have a detrimental effect on the newts.

[21][22] The Wetherby neighbourhood plan of 2020 seeks to maintain the green wildlife corridors between neighbouring villages, including Kirk Deighton.

[23] Other SSSIs in this area of North Yorkshire are: Bishop Monkton Ings,[24] Brimham Rocks,[25] Cow Myers,[26] Farnham Mires,[27] Hack Fall Wood,[28] Hay-a-Park,[29] Mar Field Fen,[30] Quarry Moor,[31] and Ripon Parks.