Frances and Marion compiled a ‘journey’ in Settle, with appreciation of past social history in this ancient township on a long-established east/west route for trade and travellers.  So many buildings and structural features of centuries past have retained their external appearance, especially from the great rebuild of the 17^th century, although of course much modern improvement developed internally.  Documentary evidence exists however of much earlier build and occupations.

The old market was granted by Henry III in 1249, ideally placed with well used links to all surrounding areas.  Service industries, retailers, craftsmen and women helped develop a growing economy, in addition to the already established agricultural importance.  By the end of the 18^th century there were dressmakers, tanners, boot and shoemakers, millwrights, tallow chandlers, and cotton manufacturers.  Inevitably innkeepers and licensed victuallers generally thrived, and essential professions established in the 19^th century – banks, legal services, medics and schools.

Some of the larger commercial buildings in the town were built by Quaker business families.  In the mid-17th century preachers came to Settle, to be attacked by some and listened to by others who later formed the first group of the Society of Friends in the town.

Non-conformity continued in Settle, with Methodism which was first preached in 1743, by Benjamin Ingham.  Others followed, which resulted in a room being rented in Kirkgate in 1771. John Wesley preached here in 1784, and a parcel of land was purchased “whereon stood a chapel” in Chapel Lane, replaced by the grander Bethesda Chapel in 1810, with a Sunday School in a rented room in The Folly.  In the later 1800s land with a cottage and a former smithy was bought on Chapel Square where a schoolroom was built in 1881 and used until 1930 when it was bought by Freemasons.  Primitive Methodism also established a chapel, Ebenezer Chapel, with the belief that the original Methodism was not being fully adhered to.  This site was then occupied by the Parish Church but it is now a private house.  A Zion Chapel was also built, in 1816, at one of the highest points in the town – Zion was an Old Testament hilltop fortress captured by King David and was the oldest part of the city of Jerusalem.  A group based in the industrial West Riding known as The Itinerants endeavoured to strengthen churches in rural areas.  Their stirring preaching drew great crowds in Settle and raised funds, and, together with a further donation from the Itinerant Society, and Zion Chapel was erected on land purchased from John Birkbeck.  Various ministers tended the chapel, and members contributed in many ways to the life of the community, but the chapel closed in 2015.  Settle’s Parish Church of the Holy Ascension was consecrated in 1838, built in the Early English style, with a wide nave and a polygonal bell tower, topped with a spire.

A canal was proposed to be built in 1773 to link with the Leeds and Liverpool canal to carry stone out and coal into Craven, but local landowners objected sufficiently to prevent the project.  We did locate, however, the building named Liverpool House.

In the early 19^th century railway companies built their own tracks and charged other companies to run on them.  The Midland Railway requested that its goods and passengers be carried by the London & North Western from Ingleton to Carlisle and Scotland, the station being in Giggleswick. The Midland Railway then built a new line in 1865 (the Settle to Carlisle line) which needed an Act of Parliament.  It took seven years to complete due to the difficulty of the terrain.

By the early 19^th century, and with the development of the textile industry, Settle had five mills where wool was being spun by machine.  Three of these, Runley, Bridge End, and King’s Mill in Lower Settle were originally corn mills.  Dog Kennel Mill and Brennands weaving shed were in Upper Settle.  Snuff Mill in Lower Settle followed Kendal, which by the early 19^th century was the leading snuff producer in Britain.  Tobacco was brought into the western ports of Whitehaven, Workington and Maryport.  Snuff Mill was rebuilt in 1830 after a fire and became known as King’s Mill, spinning cotton.

A great local character of Settle was Thomas (Tot) Lord, a prominent figure in the town and known to all.   He was a greengrocer’s son, served in the Great War and, on returning, he started buying and selling.  He was also a keen explorer of the abundant caves in the area and became a founder member of the Cave Rescue Organisation in 1935.  His caves venture, most notably in Victoria and Attermire led to the discovery of a wealth of ancient material.  Tot Lord bought Townhead in 1948, a dilapidated mansion overlooking Settle, and turned the ground floor into a museum which included the bones of exotic animals such as hyena, elephant, rhinoceros and hippopotamus.  Townhead and Pig Yard Museum no longer exist, but Tot Lord’s memory definitely lives on.

Our group was led through so much of Settle’s history, identifying feature buildings, into narrow alleys with interesting buildings huddled closely as in Bishopdale Court, viewing dominant Marshfield House with extensive gardens, courtyard and stabling, built c.1750 for Thomas Salisbury – the area now divided into flats.  Many earlier inns have been re-established as other businesses or homes, but some are still functioning, such as the Talbot Arms and the Golden Lion.  Where the Town Hall now stands was a tollbooth with a nightwatchman’s room and town lock-up, but in 1832 this architecturally impressive Town Hall was built, believed to be in the French style.  The Shambles in the Square was originally an open market with barrel-vaulted cellars in c.1675.  It was enclosed later that century and the arches added.  Workshops and a slaughterhouse were in the basement, shops on the ground floor, single-storey dwellings above.  In 1898 the 17^th century dwellings were rebuilt and a second storey added by the Settle Market Buildings Company. The numerous gantries of early warehouses still exist but often have been converted into windows.  We noted Dr. Buck’s house in the Square, where his great friend Edward Elgar visited regularly.

Many prominent buildings belonged to the town’s prominent Quakers, such as Birkbeck and Sutcliffe.  The Friends’ Meeting House was an interesting inclusion in our visit, with a datestone of 1678.   The Quakers acquired a piece of land in 1661 for a peppercorn rent for use as a burial place and followed that with a Meeting House and stables.  It was a simple single-storey building but the roof was raised and a second storey added later.  The burial ground has been made into a charming and simply natural garden, the gravestones moved to the rear wall, all set in alphabetical order.  In 1860 five enthusiastic Friends were inspired by the Adult Schools Movement and a schoolhouse was built, with additions later, and women’s classes began.  During the second World War the buildings were fitted out to house evacuees.  The Adult School was eventually turned into Garth House and some of the rooms made into hostel accommodation for Friends.  Now it is used by a wide range of organisations and groups (many non-Quaker).

It was a hot sunny day so we ambled slowly through so much of Settle’s long, immensely busy history, realising how little we had known of our near neighbour.

Preparation done by Frances and Marion.

Report and photos by Phyllida.

MONASTIC ARNCLIFFE

The Group returned to Arncliffe on Thursday, 28^th May, to reflect on the influence in the community of the occupation of Fountains Abbey’s Cistercian monks in the 13th-16th centuries.  Following an introduction to set the scene and explain the background, and viewing Old Cote across the river, we walked from St. Oswald’s Church to Botany Lane which continued as the Monks Road to Malham.  A view point from Botany House showed the broad landscape of worked farmland, and also the remains of the millpond for the 14^th century cornmill.  There was much discussion on stonework evidence of the early mill, a sluice, and the overgrown leat from the millpond when we walked on Brootes Lane beside Cowside Beck.  Brootes Lane was the ancient route to Darnbrook, another of Fountains Abbey granges, and on to Great Close and Malham.  Overall we needed to use our imagination and absorb the atmospheric landscape to try and understand life here in monastic times.

Arncliffe at that time was a settlement of the Anglians who founded the village and named it.  They were modest farmers, providing for their families in their wood and thatch homes, and making ingenious use of the landscape.  It was the Anglians who created the terraced cultivation (lynchets) on the fell slopes and a rotation system, the valley floor being too marshy for crops at that time but suitable for livestock grazing.  Domestic animals would be kept close to their homes, and the extensive but not dense woodland would provide fodder for the pigs.  Fruit trees, herbs and wayside plants, and bees were also valuable resources……….a simple but often harsh existence.

Where the church of St. Oswalds stands, spiritually important beside the running river Skirfare, was almost certainly an Anglian place of worship before the original church was built in 1100 AD.  The de Arches family (later known as Darcy) were Lords of the Manor of Arncliffe then, apportioned by William de Percy who had been granted huge areas of Northumberland and Yorkshire by King William.  Following the Domesday Survey of 1086 Percy enclosed the whole area of Littondale Forest for hunting and cultivation.  The ‘forest’ was actually a landscape of scrub trees with mostly ash and hazel.

Then in came the Cistercian monks of Fountains Abbey.  Monasteries existed much earlier in England, from about the 5^th century, with educated monks who could read and write and create magnificently illustrated manuscripts of learning, but they were almost entirely enclosed Orders, confined within the Abbeys.  But when the monastic Orders from France followed King William and established their Abbeys they were not only educated but were industrious and understood economics, and integrated with communities.

Fountains Abbey was founded in 1132 and soon was expanding its estate and establishing a workforce of lay brothers from the peasant communities who vowed to keep to monastic rules.  The monks realised the value of sheep and their fleeces in this northern region, and as they acquired their land, established outlying granges, they developed a huge industry in sheep farming.  English wool was in great demand in the 13^th century, and sales to the continent of surplus supplies brought high profits.  The habits worn by the monks were of low quality wool, the ‘choir’ monks in fleece-white habits, the lay brothers in brown habits, and animal skins were also worn in winter months.

In 1175, before monks arrived in Arncliffe, the manor of Hawkswick was held by William de Mauleverer who granted some land to Fountains Abbey and access over bridges on the rivers Skirfare and Wharfe, which the Abbey was required to maintain.  Later, Thurstin de Arches bought all the remaining estate of Mauleverer and granted the entirety to the Abbey, which extensively increased their land-holding.  (Substantial earthworks around Arncliffe Cote and Hawkswick Cote have been investigated by archaeologists which appear to be medieval and likely related to monastic occupation.)  About forty grants of land were actually made relating to Arncliffe and the Abbey, in exchange for prayerful monks to consider these benefactors as worthy of God’s pleasure, for the salvation of their souls.  Grants gave right of tenure and the income from the land, but not absolute ownership as the land was returned to the King or family control later.

Presumably the settled Anglians retained their dwellings and much of their life in their village when the monks began to establish their presence, but they became tenant farmers of the Abbey and had to comply with the productive management of sheep.  A monastic grange complex was established, at Old Cote.  In fact, the current 17^th century building is on the footings of the grange, and it is thought that there is evidence of the original building behind Old Cote.

Grange buildings were highly functional agricultural complexes.  The buildings were frequently combined under a single roof, including shared dormitories for lay brothers, basic kitchens and secure storage for farm tools, harvested grain and animal fodder.  There would need to be adjacent folds, byres and stables for livestock.  The brothers slept on straw mattresses covered with single blankets or animal skins.  They were better fed than ‘choir’ monks because of their hard and long labour, from daybreak to dusk, disciplined, often solitary workers and required to allow prayer-times in each day.

The number of lay brothers necessary at a lesser grange like Arncliffe would be about ten, with a grangemaster in charge, managing wool production from probably 300-400 sheep.  Neighbouring Kilnsey was a more prominent grange, with its own chapel, and up to twenty brothers.

(Fountains Abbey, at the height of its prosperity, would have had 800 lay brothers, most of them allocated to outlying granges……..until the depopulation from the Black Death plague in the 14^th century when surviving PEASANTS became more valuable workers.)

Lay brothers at Arncliffe were responsible for rearing sheep for the best quality wool, shearing, dipping, treating the fleeces against parasites with a kind of ‘tar’, and cultivating land for produce for their community and for the livestock.  In the more marshy pasture hemp (ditchweed) would be grown as this fibre was harvested and prepared to use as twine and making sacking for the fleeces. Stock was seasonally moved to trading areas, mostly at Great Close, Malham, using the established tracks, lanes.

Monks travelled on foot frequently to and from the Abbey, across the open moors on well-trodden routes, but more substantial tracks on lower levels were necessary for oxen-driven carts carrying heavy goods, and for moving livestock.

Fountains Abbey had secured most of Littondale, all Malham Moor and much of Malham, and all Bordley.  At the Dissolution of the monasteries in 1539 these lands were returned to the Crown. Through the Augmentations Office, many of the lands were sold as large areas, either to local lords or to local families who may have been holders under the monasteries.  Much of Littondale land was sold initially to Sir Richard Gresham and on to the Cliffords of Skipton Castle.  Sheep farming continued as a prosperous industry, and the huge wool and textile milling industry developed………

Phyllida Oates

Sources of reference:

Upper Nidderdale Landscape Partnership

Nidderdale History Group: ‘History of Nidderdale’

Arthur Raistrick: ‘Old Yorkshire Dales’

Sonia Wilkinson: ‘Kilnsey, a Dales Township’

Numerous websites

28^th May 2026

 A group of eight set off on the annual visit to Rodley Nature Reserve on the floodplains of the River Aire on the edge of Leeds. The journey was in an unexpected flash thunderstorm with torrential rain and large hailstones clattering on the car roof. Luckily it cleared nicely on arrival.

We were immediately greeted by the familiar call of a song thrush which was hard to spot in the thick foliage of the trees and shrubs. We were reminded that it was going to be one of those days when more birds would be heard than seen. On the way to the riverside and wetlands the group saw or heard an array of resident and migrant birds including Goldfinches, Greenfinches, Blackbird, Robin, Wren, Dunnock, Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, Blackcap and Sedge Warbler. As it got hotter damselflies, Small Whites, Orange-tips, Painted Lady and Peacocks fluttered around. The metallic blue body and black bands on the wings of a male Banded Demoiselle and the shiny green body of a female looked stunning in the sunlight.  A Red kite circled over the Scrub followed by a Buzzard being mobbed by a corvid. At this point the group decided to settle at the picnic benches by the river for a mid morning coffee break and was treated to the display flight and song of a Whitethroat which is always a delight. From the hide overlooking the wetland, Little egrets, Herons, Oystercatchers and Lapwings were seen and Cetties, Reed Warbler and Reed Bunting were heard. The quick torpedo flight of a Kingfisher going over the hide with a flash of blue as it disappeared into the reedbeds caused a bit of excitement. 

We ate lunch in the cool comfort of the visitor centre while watching the display screens showing live coverage of five Barn Owl and four Kestrel chicks. After lunch more wetland species Moorhen, Tufted Duck, Coot, Mallard, Mute Swan with six cygnets, Gadwall were seen. Disappointingly the Little and Great-crested Grebes remained elusive! Sand Martins, Swallows and Swifts swooped around us catching insects and the bright green of a Ring-necked Parakeet flashed by. 43 three species in all were seen .

 An enjoyable day!

Report by Pragna Unia

Only four members of the bird group were able to come to the day’s very pleasant outing to a nature reserve just south of York. As soon as we stepped out of the car we were surrounded by glorious birdsong, much of which was being delivered by warblers – Willow, Garden, Sedge, Reed, and Cetti’s warblers, Blackcap, Whitethroat, and Chiffchaff.  Reed Buntings, Song Thrush, Robins, Blackbirds, and Skylarks, also made lovely contributions throughout the day.

A male Marsh Harrier gave us several very nice sightings, as well as both Little Egret and the Great White. There were a number of Herons, along with a few species of ducks on the pools, and a sedate pair of Mute Swans with cygnets.

Although we prepared for rain, there were only a couple of light showers when we were luckily in hides.

A peaceful and quiet reserve, apart from the sound of the birds!

We saw 43 species.

Report: Clare Dunn