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Catterick refers to two settlements in the county of North Yorkshire, England. Catterick Village, sometimes merely Catterick, is the smaller of the two and lies on the A1 road. The other, Catterick Garrison, previously Catterick Camp, lies approximately six miles to the North West and is presently Europe's largest Army Garrison.
The name of Catterick was recorded about 150AD by the mapmaker Ptolemy as Κατουρακτονιον Katouraktonion, which is Celtic for "battle ramparts".
Catterick Village
The village dates back to Roman times, when Cataractonium was a Roman fort protecting the crossing of the Great North Road over the River Swale. It was mentioned in the poem Y Gododdin, where the Battle of Catraeth (thought to be Catterick, then a seat of the Kingdom of Rheged) led to the death of many soldiers. In later times, it prospered as a coaching town where travellers up the Great North Road would stop overnight and refresh themselves and their horses; today's Angel Inn was once a coaching inn. Saint Anne's Church overlooks the village and has Norman roots.
At the 2001 Census, Catterick Village had 2743 residents, most of whom work in the adjacent Garrison, in farming, or in the local towns of Richmond, Darlington, Northallerton or on Teesside. The village has its own barracks, previously RAF Catterick.
Catterick Garrison
The Garrison, at a population of around 12,000, plus a large temporary population of soldiers, dwarfs its younger neighbour. It is not a single fenced base like some people envisage, but several separate barracks which a town has developed around; the Garrison has recently gained its first large supermarket, McDonalds and the like. The road signs have been changed to read "Town Centre" instead of "Camp Centre" (which is actually a roundabout). The Garrison has spread out to and included three villages which are now almost (generally civilian-occupied) suburbs: Colburn, Scotton and Hipswell.
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