GILLING WEST village is situated south of the busy A66 Trunk Road and three miles north of Richmond. In the village there is a post office/shop and two pubs, The White Swan and The Angel, both of which serve food. There are many interesting attractive cottages and larger houses some dating back to the 16th century. At the north end of the village the green was formerly a walled pinfold for the enclosure of stray animals. There are remains of a water spout with an iron animal mask. Also at the north end of the High Street is a large house which at one time was the old parsonage. This was replaced in 1807 by a new vicarage at the left-hand side of the Church drive when William Wharton (in preparation for his marriage in 1808) had a complete street demolished to provide a suitable site (now Gilling Hall, a private residence). The present vicarage was built on the opposite side of the drive in 1979. Situated between Gilling Bridge and the Angel Inn is a blacksmith's workshop where visitors are welcomed by the blacksmith. These premises, like many others in the area have at one time been temporarily used as settings for such popular TV series as "All Creatures Great and Small".
The Parish Church is dedicated to St. Agatha, patron saint of Catania, Sicily and it is here that there can be found some evidence of Gilling West's past.
The Domesday Book records that a Church existed in Gilling (Ghellinges) in the year 1086 and it has long been thought that the present church arose on the site of a monastery destroyed by the Danes. The Church was either restored or rebuilt about the end of the 11th century with additions in the 14th century, Many major alterations were carried out in 1845.
Gilling was once a place of considerable importance, in the 7th century being a principal seat of the Kings of Deira, the southern part of the Anglian Kingdom of Northumbria.
From the 9th century Gillingshire was ruled by the Earls of Mercia, the last of whom, Edwin,had his stronghold on Castle Hill near to where Low Scales Farm now stands. However the Norman Conquest brought many changes and William gave Edwin's lands to his kinsman Alan Rufus, who built his mighty castle several miles away in Richmond - this led towards the demise of Gilling's former high status in the area.