Goathland located in the heart of the North Yorkshire Moors it is known to millions as the setting of ITVs series Heartbeat, one of the most successful drama programmes ever made on UK television.
Goathland was chosen as the perfect setting for the ITV drama due to it being in such an isolated position in the North Yorshire Moors.

The name Goathland comes from one of two origins, either Goda-land which was a village made up of Dane or Norseman or God-Land the abode of a band of Christian brothers.The earliest spelling is Godeland in around 1100 but then changes to Gotheland in around 1926.

In 1267 Henry III gave the forest of Pickering to his second son Edmund, Earl of Lancaster,this area of land included Goathland and from that day to the present the ownership has descended down the family line. The history of Goathland is really traceable from around 1100 when detailed records were kept. Life was extremely hard for the people of Goathland as the village was and still can be very isolated especially in Winter and people mainly worked the land and in the small local iron and stone quarry works to provide a living for their families,which was very labour intensive.

In 1831 it was announced that a railway was to be built through the village and no other than George Stephenson was asked to conduct a full report. The line was opened on the 26th of May 1836 and in 1845 was bought buy the York and North Midland Railway Company who introduced superior steam locomotives, which meant that the village was more accessible to the already large amount of visitors that came to the village to enjoy its scenery and its clean air and numbers of tourists increased year after year after year.