A MAJOR move and expansion into one of Malton's most historic buildings has been made by commercial and private-client lawyers Crombie Wilkinson.

Four additional lawyers and support staff are joining the firm's new Malton office at Forsyth House, Market Place, which has been at the heart of the area's business activity for hundreds of years, to extend its services to the market town and surrounding agricultural and business community.

Crombie Wilkinson, with 85 staff, is one of York and North Yorkshire's biggest law firms. and having been founded in 1860 is one of the oldest. The firm also has a Selby office.

It is leasing two-storey Forsythe House from local landowner The Fitzwilliam Estate. Part of the building dates from medieval times, when its cellars are thought to have been shops run by Gilbertine monks.

Five lawyers and six support staff have relocated from offices at 4 Old Maltongate, where the firm has been based for the last 12 years.

Among lawyers joining the expanded Malton office is assistant solicitor and agricultural specialist, Anthony Baines, who is relocating from the firm's York office.

Further appointments are expected in the early summer.

Malton office partner-in-charge, Jenni Bartram, one of the firm's four managing partners, said: "We outgrew our former offices some time ago. This is an exciting move and significant investment which will enable us to enhance and extend our services to this important community for years to come.

"Forsyth House is a wonderful, historic building with more space and better facilities for our staff and for clients who will not have to travel to York to access a wide range of legal services as there will be room for our specialist lawyers from other offices to meet them here, if necessary.

"There is more optimism in rural areas and the agricultural community than for many years and this move and the new appointments, which add a combination of experience and enthusiasm, are about ensuring that top-quality legal services are available on the community's doorstep."

Most of Forsyth House dates from the 17th and 18th centuries, including a Georgian facade. In the mid 19th century it was occupied by two locally well-known surgeons, Zebulon Mennell and Joshua Hartley, both members of The Royal College of Surgeons, and was the base of the town's main GP surgery into the 1950s.

Crombie Wilkinson is well known for its specialist services to the agricultural sector. These include buying and selling agricultural land, Agricultural Holdings Act Tenancies, farm business tenancies, sporting agreements, and planning and farm diversification issues as well as company and commercial property law, employment law, family and child law advice, residential property services and wills and trust planning.