Laurence Sterne was perpetual curate here from 1760, living just up the lane at Shandy Hall through the years he wrote and published Tristram Shandy; he’s buried in the churchyard. St Michael’s itself, finished by about 1430, is unusual for its octagonal west tower. Coxwold is a handsome estate village on the edge of the Howardian Hills. Open and free; Thirsk is the nearest station, roughly 13km west.
