Gayle, Yorkshire
| Gayle | |
| Yorkshire North Riding | |
|---|---|
 Gayle Beck | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SD870893 |
| Location: | 54°17’56"N, 2°12’0"W |
| Data | |
| Post town: | Hawes |
| Postcode: | DL8 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | North Yorkshire |
Gayle is a hamlet in the North Riding of Yorkshire, half a mile south of Hawes, which stands at the top of Wensleydale.
The Gayle Beck flows through the village and once powered the old mill, which featured on the BBC television programme Restoration.
History
Gayle was originally a farming settlement but the population grew during the late 18th century to around 350 with employment in local quarries, coal-mining in Sleddale and in a water-driven cotton mill on Gayle Beck.[1] The beck is noted for its steep descent through Gayle into Hawes and for the Aysgill waterfall a mile upstream of the hamlet.[2]
The population later contracted. In modern times the population is recorded within the Parish of Hawes for census purposes. Historically, the hamlet was in the Parish of Aysgarth, in the wapentake of Hang West.[3]
Hawes was a small village or hamlet until the late 1790s, when the Richmond to Lancaster Turnpike was diverted away from the moor south of Gayle to run through Hawes, which accelerated the growth of Hawes and established it as a parish.[4] Gayle is now part of the Parish of Hawes in the district of Richmondshire.[5]
East of the hamlet is the remains of what is believed to be an outpost of the Roman camp at nearby Bainbridge. The Cam High Fell road passed near Gayle, and the village itself may have been a point where Gayle Beck was either bridged or forded.[2][6] A ford still runs through the beck to the west of the grade II listed Gayle Bridge.[7] The main road through the hamlet ran east-west; the road into Hawes was not opened until 1829 as part of the act establishing the Hawes to Kendal Turnpike.[8][9]
Nikolaus Pevsner, writing in his book The Buildings of England; Yorkshire, the North Riding, describes Gayle as "...in its village way, is almost as intricate as Hawes, almost as intricate as an Italian stone village...".[10]
Gayle had a Methodist Church, constructed around 1755.[11] A breakaway Methodist sect, associated with the Sandemanians in Scotland, was previously associated with the village, but only their graveyard, east of the chapel, now remains.[3] The chapel was adapted into the village institute and is now grade II listed.[12]
Industry
Gayle Mill, built in the 1780s,[13] is now a Grade II* listed building,[14] and a scheduled monument. It featured in the BBC's 2004 Restoration contest.[15] Originally a cotton-spinning mill it was converted to a sawmill in 1878. It is the oldest structurally unaltered cotton mill in existence, and its Thomson Double-Vortex turbine built by Williamson's of Kendal in 1878 is believed to be the world's oldest surviving water turbine still in its original situation.[16][17] The mill has been restored and is now open to the public.[18]
A leat channels water from Gayle Beck into the mill over a distance of 328.1 feet (100.0 m). As the leat is boarded with timber, it is known as a pentrough.[19] A millpond was also built for the mill some way to the south on level ground beside the beck. This was built so that in times of low water flow, the water could be collected overnight and then released when needed the next day to power the mill.[20]
The hills and the valley of Sleddale to the south and west of the hamlet provided coal and peat for local consumption for heating purposes.[21] Many of the buildings in and around Gayle and Hawes were built with carboniferous sandstone quarried from Scar Head and East Shaw quarries south of the hamlet.[22]
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Gayle, Yorkshire) |
References
- ↑ Gill, M. C. (2008). "The Great Dales Coalfield". Memoirs (Keighley: Northern Mines Research Society) (86): 68–108. SSN 0308-2199.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Speight, Harry (1897). Romantic Richmondshire. Being a complete account of the history, antiquities and scenery of the pictuesque valleys of the Swale and Yore. London: E Stock. p. 483. OCLC 7241488.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Genuki: In 1822 the following places were in the Parish of Aysgarth: Yorkshire (North Riding)". https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/NRY/Aysgarth/more.
- ↑ Spensley, Ian Metcalfe (2014). Mines and Miners of Wensleydale. UK Book Publishing. p. 136. OCLC 897500715.
- ↑ "Gayle, Richmondshire - area information, map, walks and more". https://getoutside.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/local/gayle-richmondshire.
- ↑ Margary, Ivan D (1957). Roman roads in Britain. London: Phoenix House. p. 115. OCLC 399451.
- ↑ National Heritage List 1166665: Gayle Bridge (Grade II listing)
- ↑ "North Westmorland: Main roads | British History Online". https://www.british-history.ac.uk/n-westmorland-records/vol8/pp3-8.
- ↑ "Sheet 065 | British History Online". https://www.british-history.ac.uk/os-1-to-10560/yorkshire/065.
- ↑ Nikolaus Pevsner: The Buildings of England: Yorkshire: The North Riding, 1966 Penguin Books ISBN 978-0-300-09665-1page 184
- ↑ "Sandemanian Chapel (Village Institute), Gayle". http://www.outofoblivion.org.uk/record.asp?id=428.
- ↑ National Heritage List 1316894: Village Institute (Grade II listing)
- ↑ "Gayle Mill". http://www.outofoblivion.org.uk/record.asp?id=243.
- ↑ National Heritage List 1132000: Gayle Mill (Grade II* listing)
- ↑ Newton, Grace (27 November 2020). "Georgian mill in the Yorkshire Dales gets emergency restoration grant after rumours it was to be sold for housing". The Yorkshire Post. https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/heritage-and-retro/heritage/georgian-mill-yorkshire-dales-gets-emergency-restoration-grant-after-rumours-it-was-be-sold-housing-3049936.
- ↑ Fenwick, Nicola (30 October 2008). "Dales mill generates power again". Darlington and Stockton Times. https://www.darlingtonandstocktontimes.co.uk/news/3806457.gayle-mill-produces-electricity-after-1m-restoration/.
- ↑ "Progress made in mill restoration". BBC News. 26 February 2005. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/north_yorkshire/4299145.stm.
- ↑ "New era beckons for mill beside tumbling beck". The Yorkshire Post: p. 20. 22 March 2021. SSN 0963-1496.
- ↑ National Heritage List 1301235: Gayle Mill Pentrough (Grade II listing)
- ↑ GCAA 2011, p. 15.
- ↑ "Coal and peat". http://www.outofoblivion.org.uk/coal.asp.
- ↑ Everett, Shirley (2017). "Strategic Stone Study A Building Stone Atlas of North Yorkshire, West" (PDF). p. 6. https://www2.bgs.ac.uk/mineralsuk/download/EHCountyAtlases/North_Yorkshire_West_Building_Stone_Atlas.pdf.
- 'The North Yorkshire Village Book' (Countryside Books, 1991) ISBN 1-85306-137-9