Melsonby – North Yorkshire village in 28 Years Later film

Melsonby, near Richmond, sits around a mile from the A1(M) and A66, and is a small rural village surrounded by North Yorkshire countryside.

But its combination of quiet lanes, historic buildings, and open landscape has helped put Melsonby on the map for reasons stretching from Hollywood filmmaking to an extraordinary Iron Age discovery.

The village was among the locations used during the production of 28 Years Later in 2024.

Melsonby in North Yorkshire (Image: GOOGLE)

Directed by Danny Boyle, the film made extensive use of real landscapes across northern England to create a Britain transformed after decades of infection and abandonment.

Locations across the North East and northern countryside were selected to provide the isolated and overgrown landscapes needed for the film.

Yet the village’s real history is arguably every bit as remarkable as its appearance on screen.

Melsonby is a compact community close to Richmond, with traditional homes, surrounding farmland, and St James’ Church at its heart.

The church is a Grade II*-listed building and forms one of the most prominent historic landmarks in the village.

But the discovery which transformed Melsonby’s archaeological importance came much more recently.

In 2021, metal detectorist Peter Heads discovered a collection of ancient objects buried in a field near the village.

Realising the potential importance of the find, experts were brought in and Durham University archaeologists excavated the site in 2022 with support from Historic England and advice from the British Museum.

What emerged became known as the Melsonby Hoard.

More than 800 objects dating back roughly 2,000 years were discovered, making it one of the largest and most significant Iron Age finds unearthed in Britain.

The collection includes parts of wagons and chariots, elaborate horse harnesses, bridle bits, ceremonial spears, and the remains of a large cauldron.

Twenty-eight iron tyres provide evidence that both two-wheeled chariots and four-wheeled wagons were being used.

Some of the horse equipment was decorated with coloured glass and Mediterranean coral, suggesting the people who owned the objects were connected to networks stretching well beyond northern Britain.

Researchers believe the extraordinary collection belonged to people of considerable wealth and status.

Many of the objects appear to have been deliberately burnt or broken before being buried.

Archaeologists believe that destruction may itself have been a powerful symbolic act, demonstrating the wealth and position of those involved.

The discovery has challenged older assumptions that Iron Age elites in northern Britain were less wealthy or influential than those living farther south.

It also places Melsonby close to the heart of a landscape once associated with the Brigantes, the powerful Iron Age people who controlled much of northern England around the time of the Roman conquest.

Today, objects from the hoard have gone on display at the Yorkshire Museum, bringing national attention to a village that many motorists may otherwise pass without noticing.

For residents, however, Melsonby remains a small and close-knit North Yorkshire community.

Melsonby lies little more than a mile from the A1(M) and close to the A66, placing two of the North’s major roads almost on its doorstep.

That means thousands of motorists pass nearby while travelling between Darlington, Scotch Corner, Richmond, and North Yorkshire.

Yet leave the main roads and Melsonby quickly feels removed from them.

The result is a village with two very different claims to fame.

Its countryside became part of the world of one of Britain’s best-known modern horror franchises, while beneath nearby fields lay evidence of extraordinary wealth and power more than 2,000 years earlier.