Masham (/ˈmæsəm/ MASS-əm) is a market town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England.

As well as the town of Masham the parish included the townships of Burton-on-Yore, Ellingstring, Ellington High and Low, Fearby, Healey with Sutton, Ilton cum Pott and Swinton.

[6] St Mary's Church was most likely founded in the seventh century and stood somewhere near the present town hall on what used to be known as Cockpit Hill.

The present church – while having some Anglo-Saxon stonework and the stump of an eighth-century prayer cross – is mainly Norman with fifteenth-century additions.

Masham was given to York Minster in the medieval period but, as the archbishop did not wish to make the long journey north to oversee the town's affairs, the parish was designated a peculiar.

During the Middle Ages, Masham developed as a small town with milling, mining, cloth making and tanning industries.

The market originally thrived because of its nearness to Jervaulx and Fountains Abbeys, with their large flocks of sheep.

[10] Prior to local government reform in North Yorkshire in 2023, the town lay within the Borough of Harrogate.

The market place, the largest in the district,[15] is tightly bordered on its south and west sides by ranges of two- and three-storey buildings.

[19] Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC North East and Cumbria and ITV Tyne Tees.