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Gayle, North Yorkshire

Coordinates: 54°17′56″N 2°12′00″W / 54.299°N 2.200°W / 54.299; -2.200
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Not to be confused with Gayles, North Yorkshire.

Gayle
Gayle Beck
Gayle Beck
Gayle is located in North Yorkshire
Gayle
Gayle
Location within North Yorkshire
OS grid referenceSD870893
Civil parish
Unitary authority
Ceremonial county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townHAWES
Postcode districtDL8
PoliceNorth Yorkshire
FireNorth Yorkshire
AmbulanceYorkshire
List of places
UK
England
Yorkshire
54°17′56″N 2°12′00″W / 54.299°N 2.200°W / 54.299; -2.200

Gayle is a hamlet 0.4-mile (0.64 km) south of Hawes in Wensleydale, North Yorkshire, England.[1] It is noted for the beck that flows through it and the old mill, which featured on the BBC TV programme Restoration.

History

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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.[2] The beck is noted for its steep descent through Gayle into Hawes and for the Aysgill waterfall 1-mile (1.6 km) upstream of the hamlet.[3] The population later contracted. In modern times the population is recorded within the Parish of Hawes for census purposes.[4] Historically, the hamlet was in the Parish of Aysgarth, in the wapentake of Hang West.[5] 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.[6] Gayle is now part of the Parish of Hawes in the district of Richmondshire.[7]

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.[3][8] A ford still runs through the beck to the west of the grade II listed Gayle Bridge.[9] 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.[10][11]

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...".[12] The core area of the older pre-20th century village was made a conservation area in 2001,[13] with most of the other housing being situated on the road north into Hawes.[14]

Gayle had a Methodist Church, constructed around 1755.[15] 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.[5] The chapel was adapted into Gayle Village Institute and is now grade II listed.[16]

Industry

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Gayle Mill, constructed in the 1780s,[17] is now a grade II* listed building,[18] a scheduled monument and came third in the BBC's 2004 Restoration contest.[19] 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.[20][21] The mill has been restored and is now open to the public.[22] A leat channels water from Gayle Beck into the mill over a distance of 330 feet (100 m). As the leat is boarded with timber, it is known as a pentrough.[23] 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.[24]

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.[25] 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.[26]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ GCAA 2011, p. 11.
  2. ^ Gill, M. C. (2008). "The Great Dales Coalfield". Memoirs (86). Keighley: Northern Mines Research Society: 68–108. ISSN 0308-2199.
  3. ^ a b 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.
  4. ^ UK Census (2011). "Local Area Report – Hawes Parish (E04007489)". Nomis. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  5. ^ a b "Genuki: In 1822 the following places were in the Parish of Aysgarth: Yorkshire (North Riding)". www.genuki.org.uk. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  6. ^ Spensley, Ian Metcalfe (2014). Mines and Miners of Wensleydale. UK Book Publishing. p. 136. OCLC 897500715.
  7. ^ "Gayle, Richmondshire - area information, map, walks and more". getoutside.ordnancesurvey.co.uk. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  8. ^ Margary, Ivan D (1957). Roman roads in Britain. London: Phoenix House. p. 115. OCLC 399451.
  9. ^ Historic England. "Gayle Bridge (Grade II) (1166665)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  10. ^ "North Westmorland: Main roads | British History Online". www.british-history.ac.uk. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  11. ^ "Sheet 065 | British History Online". www.british-history.ac.uk. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  12. ^ Pevsner, Nikolaus (1966). Yorkshire; the North Riding. Harmondsworth: Penguin. p. 184. OCLC 1053637975.
  13. ^ GCAA 2011, p. 1.
  14. ^ GCAA 2011, p. 12.
  15. ^ "Sandemanian Chapel (Village Institute), Gayle". www.outofoblivion.org.uk. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  16. ^ Historic England. "Village Institute (Grade II) (1316894)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  17. ^ "Gayle Mill". www.outofoblivion.org.uk. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  18. ^ Historic England. "Gayle Mill (Grade II*) (1132000)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  19. ^ 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. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  20. ^ Fenwick, Nicola (30 October 2008). "Dales mill generates power again". Darlington and Stockton Times. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  21. ^ "Progress made in mill restoration". BBC News. 26 February 2005. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  22. ^ Mitchinson, James, ed. (22 March 2021). "New era beckons for mill beside tumbling beck". The Yorkshire Post. p. 20. ISSN 0963-1496.
  23. ^ Historic England. "Gayle Mill Pentrough (Grade II) (1301235)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  24. ^ GCAA 2011, p. 15.
  25. ^ "Coal and peat". www.outofoblivion.org.uk. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  26. ^ Everett, Shirley (2017). "Strategic Stone Study A Building Stone Atlas of North Yorkshire, West" (PDF). bgs.ac.uk. p. 6. Retrieved 22 March 2021.

Sources

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  • Gayle Conservation Area Appraisal (PDF). yorkshiredales.org.uk (Report). Bainbridge: Yorkshire Dales National Park. 2011. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  • North Yorkshire Federations of Women's Institutes. The North Yorkshire Village Book. Countryside Books, Newbury, 1991. ISBN 1-85306-137-9.
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