An army barracks, with a Royal Air Force airfield enclosed within, is located to the north of the village.

There was a short interruption to this line in the 15th century when the manor was granted to the Neville family following the death of Henry Percy, 3rd Earl of Northumberland at the Battle of Towton in 1461, where he was fighting for the Lancastrians who lost.

The last of the family to hold the manor in their name was Josceline Percy, 11th Earl of Northumberland, though it passed to his daughter who married Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset.

[6][7] A motte and bailey castle was built at the strategic location of the junction of the River Swale and Cod Beck about 1071, soon after the Harrying of the North and re-fortified in 1174 by the Percy family.

The castle was succeeded by a moated manor house on an adjacent site, of which earthworks also remain.

[8] The manor house was the home of John Topcliffe, Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, who died in 1513.

The parish included the townships of Asenby, Baldersby, Catton, Dalton, Dishforth, Eldmire with Crakehill, Marton-le-Moor, Rainton with Newby, Skipton-on-Swale and Topcliffe.

It was located at the junction of the A167 and Catton Moor Lane to the north of the village near the present day MoD base.

[9] During the Second World War an airfield was constructed 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from the village which was for some time a Royal Canadian Air Force base.

[15] The village is located on the east bank of the River Swale just north of its confluence with Cod Beck, one of its major tributaries.

The villages of Baldersby St James, Cundall, Dishforth, Catton, Rainton, Asenby, Crakehill and Dalton all lie within a radius of 2.5 miles (4.0 km).

[16][17] It regularly features in the Met Office stats as having the lowest minimum temperature anywhere in the UK.

[1] The village is surrounded by farmland and it played an important role in the past as a major market place, much lessened these days.

On Catton Lane just outside the village is Topcliffe Mill, a Grade II Listed building.

In the late 1980s, Manor Close and a small part of Winn Lane were built on the site of a farm.

The A168 bypass was first considered in 1963 as part of "The North East Programme for Regional Development and Growth".

The Grade II listed building is located in the north side of the St Columba churchyard.