EMBSAY with EASTBY, situated on the road from Skipton to Harrogate, form a joint township and ecclesiastical parish, taken in 1855 from the parish of Skipton, 2 miles north-east from Skipton and 10 north-west from Keighley, in the Northern division of the Riding, Eastern division of the wapentake of Staincliffe and Ewcross, Skipton petty sessional division, union and county court district, rural deanery of West Craven, archdeaconry of Craven, diocese of Ripon and province of York. The church of St. Mary the Virgin is a stone building in the Early English style, consecrated in 1853, and consisting of chancel, nave, north aisle, tower and 1 bell; it has three stained windows, that at the east end being placed in this church as a memorial of the late vicar, the Rev. H. Cooper. The register dates from the year 1853. The living has been a vicarage from April 5th. 1866; yearly value £180, with residence, in the gift of the vicar of Skipton and held by the Rev. John Tyrwhitt Davy Kidd BA. of St. John’s College, Oxford. There are chapels for Wesleyans, Primitive Methodists and one for Swedenborgians, to which a school for boys and girls is attached. The charities are of the yearly value of £20. Here was formerly an Augustine monastery, founded in 1120. The Duke of Devonshire is lord of the manor. Sir Henry J.Tufton bart. the Duke of Devonshire and J. W. Atkinson esq. are chief landowners. The land is chiefly used as pasturage. The population of the ecclesiastical parish in 1871 was 1,104, and the area is 6,994 acres, great part of this is moorland; rateable value, £4,408 11s. 11d.; the area of the township is 4,460 acres.

Eastby is half a mile east from the parish church.

National school (mixed), Henry Wilkinson, master; a Sunday school is also held here.