Stainforth, Craven

Stainforth
Yorkshire West Riding
Stainforth
Location
Grid reference:	SD821673
Location:	54°6’7"N, 2°16’29"W
Data
Post town:	Settle
Postcode:	BD24
Local Government
Council:	Craven

Stainforth is a village in the West Riding of Yorkshire, in Craven and a few miles north of Settle.

The village is in Ribblesdale on the east bank of the River Ribble, and about a mile north is a rightly famed waterfall, Stainforth Force, where the Ribble tumbles over limestone ledges into a deep, broad pool which can be visited on a walk from the village. There was a Youth Hostel at Taitlands between 1942 and 2007.

There is another village named "Stainforth" on the opposite side of the county, also in the West Riding,

The parish church is St Peter's.

History

The village’s name means 'stony ford', referring to a ford on the Ribble which linked two villages half a mile apart north of Settle. Stainforth, on the eastern side, was formerly owned by Sawley Abbey, whose monks developed the estate which prospered, while Little Stainforth, under private ownership, declined. In the 1670s, Samuel Watson replaced the ford by a packhorse bridge whose arch spans a wooded stretch of the river, and a grassy patch leads downstream to Stainforth Force.

In Little Stainforth the three-storey Stainforth Hall was built at the same time and is now occupied as a farmhouse.

In 1870-72, the Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales said of the village:

STAINFORTH, a township in Giggleswick parish, and a chapelry partly also in Arncliffe and Kirkby-in-Malhamdale parishes, W. R. Yorkshire. The township lies on the river Ribble, 3½ miles N of Settle r. station; contains a pretty village of its own name; and has a post-office under Settle. Acres, 3,698. Real property, £3,109. Pop., 194. Houses, 38. The property is sub-divided. Two fine cascades are near the village.—The chapelry was constituted in 1843. Pop., 215. Houses, 42. The living is a p. curacy in the diocese of Ripon. Value, 104. Patrons, Trustees. The church is recent. Charities, £15.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Stainforth, Craven)

• Stainforth