| Country: | England |
| Static Image: | HolyTrinity back 8812.jpg |
| Static Image Caption: | Holy Trinity Church, Wensley |
| Coordinates: | 54.3018°N -1.8586°W |
| Official Name: | Wensley |
| Population: | 151 |
| Population Ref: | (2011 census) |
| Unitary England: | North Yorkshire |
| Lieutenancy England: | North Yorkshire |
| Region: | Yorkshire and the Humber |
| Post Town: | LEYBURN |
| Postcode District: | DL8 |
| Postcode Area: | DL |
| Os Grid Reference: | SE092895 |
| London Distance Mi: | 200 |
| London Direction: | SSE |
Wensley is a small village and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. It consists of a few homes and holiday cottage, an inn, a pub and a historic church.[1] It is on the A684 road 1miles south-west of the market town of Leyburn. The River Ure passes through the village.
The etymology of the name ultimately originates from a compound of an Old English form of the god Woden (attested Wednesleg 1212, earlier Wodnesleie, see Wednesday). Wensley gives its name to the dale Wensleydale.
For a century after its charter in 1202, Wensley had the only market in the dale and this continued into the 16th century. Plague struck Wensley in 1563,[2] some surviving villagers fled to Leyburn, but the village recovered a century later when Charles Paulet built Bolton Hall in 1678 and became Duke of Bolton.[3] Bolton Hall, is now from the heart of Wensley, near Preston-under-Scar, Richmondshire; it was rebuilt after a fire in 1902.[4]
Wensley's Holy Trinity Church dates to 1300 and is a Grade I listed building. It is now redundant and cared for by the Churches Conservation Trust.[5] It was featured as the wedding venue of James and Helen Herriot in the British television series All Creatures Great and Small, in the episode "The Last Furlong".[6] [7] Wensley's railway station is now closed. It was situated 1miles to the north between Wensley and Preston-under-Scar, on the Wensleydale Railway line which still passes the village.
Leyburn Old Glebe nature reserve lies about 400m (1,300feet) east of the village.
Ernie Gillatt, a footballer active in the 1920s, was born in Wensley.[8]