WINTRINGHAM, a village east of Malton, has a name that, for those of us who suffer the cold northern spring, will come as a surprise.

Ham is an old English name for settlement – nothing strange there. But the most likely explanation for Wintring is that it derives from an antique word for vineyard, giving us, in chilly Ryedale, the Vineyard Village. Now we know that the Romans brought the vine with them when they conquered Britain.

Indeed, Roman legislation from the end of the first century AD limits wine exports from British, French and Spanish vineyards to defend the Italian market: the idea of ancient Chianti being protected from English wines is, to say the least, delightful. However, the name Wintringham is our only significant evidence for wine-growing in the north of Britain.

The name may date back to the seventh or eighth century of our era. Otherwise, the earliest medieval evidence for wine in our island is the 11th century Domesday Book which records 46 British vineyards. But the most northerly of these was in Suffolk rather than Yorkshire.

Not surprisingly, given how far to the north it stands, some have doubted the vineyard interpretation of Wintringham.

These doubters have suggested another explanation, one that, whatever its linguistic merits, is better suited to our climate – Village of the Winter People. So we have some Anglo-Saxon farmers with beaver hats and moleskin socks, their hands trembling from the cold as they try and tie the vines. Or we have a Dark Age ham or settlement buried in white Yorkshire snow.