Selby is a market town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England, 12 miles (19.3 km) south of York on the River Ouse.

[5] Archaeological investigations in Selby have revealed extensive remains, including waterlogged deposits in the core of the town dating from the Roman period onwards.

[6] The town of Selby is on the main route north from the Midlands and is the traditional birthplace of King Henry I, fourth son of William the Conqueror, in 1068/69;[7] the connection is supported by William and his wife Matilda's unique joint charter of Selby Abbey, far to the north of their usual circuit of activities, which was founded for Benedict of Auxerre in 1069[8] and subsequently supported by the de Lacy family.

[9] Selby Abbey was closed in 1539 as part of the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII and the majority of the buildings have since been demolished.

On 28 February 2001 a vehicle crashed off the M62 down an embankment onto a railway track, where it was struck by a passenger train heading to London.

[13] Selby and its surrounding area came to national prominence once again through another tragedy on 18 July 2004, this time through four exceptionally violent murders carried out by former refuse collector Mark Hobson.

Hobson, 34 at the time, killed his girlfriend, Claire Sanderson, 27, and her sister Diane at a flat in the nearby village of Camblesforth.

He subsequently murdered an elderly couple, James and Joan Britton, at their home in the village of Strensall, near York.

It has been represented by Labour MP Keir Mather since July 2023, after he won a by-election held in the predecessor constituency Selby and Ainsty.

Its popularity as a tourist destination, owing to Selby Abbey, has led to a large amount of development and renovation in the town and surrounding area.

More have been built at various points along the riverfront, the result of an ongoing project to improve an area that had been largely derelict since the decline of the shipbuilding industry.

One famous vessel of the Cochrane and Son's shipyard of the town is the preserved trawler Ross Tiger at Grimsby's National Fishing Heritage Centre.

Most of the shipyard buildings are still standing (as of February 2014) and the site, along with interviews with former employees and archive film, was featured in a 2013 video production 'Cochranes of Selby'.

For a time Selby was the leading coal-mining area in the UK and featured some of the most advanced mining technology in Europe.

Wistow Colliery, which was part of the Selby Coalfield, holds the UK record for coal mined in one week—200,743 tonnes in 1995.

The 110 square miles (280 km2) Selby Complex, employing 3,000 miners plus contractors and ancillary staff, closed on Friday 14 May 2004 despite rising demand for coal in the UK.

The expansion not only increased the volume of town-centre shops but also provided large-scale, convenient parking for the town centre.

[37] Two of the town's supermarkets, Tesco and Morrisons, are looking to expand their stores, the latter meaning the resiting of the Abbey Primary School.

Train services from Selby railway station run directly to London King's Cross, Leeds, Liverpool Lime Street, Manchester Piccadilly, York and Hull.

The project was delayed owing to technical difficulties with the swing bridge over the River Ouse, but was eventually completed in July 2004.

It is expected that the development of the Abbot's Staith could offer opportunities for social, educational, historical and economic solutions for the town while also promoting tourism.

[44] The club was founded in 1919 and their most successful season was perhaps 1953–54, when they won the Yorkshire Football League and reached the first round of the FA Cup – meeting Bradford Park Avenue and getting their highest ever attendance of 7,000 fans.

The company previously owned the Selby Post and purchased the title from Johnston Press when they ceased publication of the paper in August 2013.

[51] Published weekly, the paper costs 60p and covers the Selby district, including the town centre and villages such as Sherburn-in-Elmet and as far as Tadcaster.

[52][53] In 2014, despite the shift to online news, The Goole and Selby Times together were only one of three newspapers in the country actually to increase print sales.