Bridge Cottage

11/12/2024

You might not associate the Yorkshire Dales with industry, yet the area was once full of mills of every description. Most of them are long gone, but every Thursday you can venture inside the atmospheric building of Gayle Mill to learn more. It's a great example of how these old buildings adapted from one purpose to another. Built at the start of the first Industrial Revolution in 1784, it was originally a cotton mill driven by water power through a 22ft diameter water wheel.

When cotton production became unproductive, the mill was converted to flax, used for sails and sacking. Once again it had to adapt and was used as a woollen mill in the 1820s. After that was no longer profitable, Gayle Mill was used as a dwelling, until it was granted yet another life in 1860 as a sawmill, before that production also ended in 1988. It then had another reincarnation, generating electricity for the surrounding area through the Hawes Electrical Company.

Gayle Mill had another chapter in its story - as a billet for soldiers, and the testing ground for Churchill tanks in the Mill Pond as they prepared them for the landings from the English Channel!

Gayle Mill is open on Thursdays from 10am until 4pm with guided tours every hour on the hour from 10am until 3pm.

Photo: Gayle Mill

07/12/2024

Puck, Hurrack Raine and Traddock: did you know every field has a ‘secret’ name, handed down through generations over hundreds of years? The names are known within farming and local families, but rarely to others. They’re wonderful clues to the past, with intriguing names like the ones above.

Some field names are quite obvious, referring to the location of the field such as West Pasture, Low Meadow or Far End. A field with Ing in its name usually relates to a meadow near a river. Others relate to the farming family (Puck is the condensed version of Peacock, a Dales family name).

My favourites are those that tell a story about the history of the area, or previous uses of the fields. There’s one in Swaledale now known as Bull Alley, which initially sounds like it was simply a place where a bull was kept. Closer research reveals it was originally Bowl Alley where the game was played.

A field with a name like Standing Stones immediately tells you what to expect. Kennel Field offers its own story. Hurrack Raine sounds great but is more mysterious: Hurrack may be old North Country Dialect for a pile of stones, and Raine old Norse for a boundary. Tenter Ground was where newly made cloth was pinned out to dry on hooks (why we say ‘on tenter hooks’ when we’re feeling stretched or stressed!).

Some old field maps have survived thanks to the Tithe Commutation Act of 1836, which meant fields were mapped and recorded during the 1840s. You can see some examples at the Keld Resource Centre

The field name of Traddock lives on in The Traddock at Austwick: the field it was built on was used for horse and cattle trading in the 1600s and known as the ‘Trading Paddock’, eventually shortened to the ‘Traddock’.

Photo: Paul Harris/YDNPA

02/12/2024

Thwaite's only famous residents....... so far........!!!

If you've heard how Sir David Attenborough was influenced by two brothers from Thwaite (story below), you might be interested in the small exhibition at the lovely Keld Resource Centre.

The Kearton brothers effectively became the world's first professional wildlife photographers in the 1890s. David Attenborough has spoken admiringly of their pioneering work, which he says inspired him and many others.

They were not rich and their first camera was a simple box camera but they were entranced by nature and their surroundings and went to extraordinary lengths to capture pictures of animals. Over time they started to use more complex cameras but they were all heavy instruments, using plate glass, so it was almost impossible to sneak up on a grazing animal in the way a modern photographer might do with a telephoto lens.

The brothers came up with some bizarre ways to get closer to animals. One of their methods used an ox which had been hollowed out by a taxidermist so the brothers could place it in a field or near a bird's nest, taking pictures from the inside of the ox, with the lens poking out from the head! After this success they used other 'camouflage' such as sheep, and made disguises for themselves such as trees and even a rubbish dump.

22/11/2024

There are some lovely walks, you can feel the history, quite magical!

Swaledale and Arkengarthdale are now tranquil dales, full of beauty but it wasn't always that way. Why is blink-and-you'll-miss-it Arkle Town so named? What are the strange derelict buildings?

As you arrive over the moor from Reeth you'll first pass by tiny Arkle Town, a surprisingly big name for such a small place, named when lead mining was an important industry with big ambitions for growth. ​There were once around 300 miners working in Arkengarthdale. The whole dale would have looked and felt very different, alive to the smells and sounds of the dangerous and arduous lead mining industry.

Look out for the six-sided powder house, once used to store explosives for use in the lead mines. Its thought that the unusual shape was to make it stand out from the rectangular field barns and symbolise that this was part of a successful and modern business. The lead mining industry flourished for a while but then struggled in the face of cheaper imports until it became uneconomic and the mines closed, leaving their desolate grey ruins behind.

If you drive on from Langthwaite towards Low Row you'll come to two interesting sites. The first is instantly recognisable to fans of All Creatures Great and Small - the 'water splash' which James Herriot and Siegfried Farnon drive over in the television series.

After that come the less romantic ruins of Surrender Lead Smelting Mill. You can still see the long horizontal chimney and wander around the ruins where two interpretation panels explain its operation - it was in use until 1880. It's incredible to imagine that once men would have worked here, feeding a furnace that reached 700 degrees, slogging away in shifts that lasted up to fourteen hours a day. And then they'd have to wearily walk their way home across the moor...

There are so many buildings scattered across the landscape, harking back to those difficult times. Perhaps you have photos of some of them to share?

20/11/2024

Time to put on vests and hats! A little story about flat caps, Clapham in the Yorkshire Dales & Peaky Blinders: know why woollen flat caps are so popular? Their story goes back almost 500 years.

In order to protect the wool trade, a law was passed in 1571 that all non-noble men and boys over 6 should wear a wool cap on Sundays and public holidays. They were fined if they didn’t. By the time the law was repealed in the 1590s, the tradition had stuck. It continued through the centuries, especially in colder areas with easy access to wool and tweed – hence its Northern English associations.

At various times tweed caps have enjoyed a fashion-boost, such as thanks to Burberry’s. The real life Peaky Blinders wore baker boy and flat caps as part of their smart dress, sometimes hiding razor blades in their hats.

Nowadays you’re guaranteed to see well-worn flat caps on heads anywhere that farmers gather. Practical and long-lasting, you can see why Yorkshire-men favour them!

Here in the Yorkshire Dales, family-owned Glencroft, based in a cow shed in beautiful Clapham are still producing timeless ‘proper’ clothing. They recently created their most sustainable flat cap yet: the 'Norber' named after the unusual limestone formations in the Dales. It’s made with locally sourced British wool tweed, woven in a traditional mill by Saddleworth Moor.

Given how little farmers are now paid for their wool, I imagine a few would be in favour of bringing back the law that had such an enduring impact on British fashion and Northern stereotypes?!

17/11/2024

Great photo looking up the Swale valley

A farmer going about his business in Swaledale.

16/11/2024

Happy Birthday!

14/11/2024

There are some fabulous walks in , especially the 'golden triangle' of Thwaite, Muker and Keld

I couldn’t resist taking this little gate perched high on Kisdon Hill looking out towards Swinner Gill in Swaledale.

14/11/2024

??? 😍

Testing your Dales knowledge for a Thursday morning... can you name this village 🤔

📸 Wendy McDonnell |

07/11/2024

Got into a “ravel”

Ever been 'on tenter hooks', 'had the wool pulled over your eyes' or 'got down to brass tacks'? We’re still using many expressions connected to sheep, wool and textiles in our every day speech, even if we don’t always realise it. Textiles were such an important part of the economy, it’s not surprising that countless sayings relate to the woollen industry.

Spindles were used for spinning wool, usually with a small round weight or stone fixed to the bottom. This was called a “whorl” and made the yarn tension more constant but sometimes took a while to get right. Nowadays we use the expression 'give it a whirl/whorl' to mean 'have a go'.

Spinning was traditionally done by women. Some one who was bad at spinning wasn’t expected to make a good wife, leading to the term 'spinster', meaning an unmarried woman whose only task was to spin.

After cloth was washed it was stretched out on frames and left to dry. It was held in place 'on tenter hooks' to prevent it losing its shape or flying away.

Factory or machine-made clothes or textiles were seen as less special, more ordinary than handmade clothes. These clothes were the 'run of the mill'.

We often describe some one as 'dyed in the wool', meaning someone whose views won't change. This saying originally came from when raw wool was dyed before it was processed or combed, and it was said to hold its colour longer.

'Getting down to brass tacks' means focusing on the detail. It relates to fabric being measured between two brass tacks set into the cutting counter.

When wool was spun on to a reel or “weasel”, it made a sound when a certain length of yarn was reached – as in 'pop goes the weasel' in the nursery rhyme.

White wool can be dyed many colours but wool from black sheep can only be spun into black wool, so you don’t want too many black sheep in your flock, hence the expression 'black sheep of the family'.

Judges were said to have the 'wool pulled over their eyes'. This apparently came from judges wearing wool wigs that slipped over their eyes so they became blind to the facts of the case.

Do you still use these expressions? Or others relating to wool and sheep?

02/11/2024

Each morning we open a window to the and share some of its special qualities. Whatever your plans in the National Park this weekend, we hope you have a great time.

📸 Swaledale

28/10/2024

Great soup too 🙌

23/10/2024

February from this year’s calendar. This was my favourite days photography ever as I had Swaledale to myself in a heavy snowfall.
The calendar is available from: https://walkingmanphotography.co.uk/product/2025-calendar/?v=7885444af42e

19/10/2024

Great photo of Ivelet Bridge

Welcome to the 🙌

It's starting to look a lot like autumn 🍂 This was taken earlier in the week at Ivelet Bridge in Swaledale 🧡 Make sure you share your autumnal pics with us!

📸 Wendy McDonnell

14/10/2024

10/10/2024

Wow! First time I have seen Aurora Borealis, photo taken in Thwaite 🙌

10/10/2024

What a “bonkers” idea!

They say it takes a village to raise a child. It certainly takes families with children to maintain a community like ours. A recent policy change by North Yorkshire Council threatens to make our community fail, with implications for all. The Council has decided it will no longer provide free school....