Stackhouse

The group walked from Langcliffe Village car park along Pike Lane, then left through a gate into the field previously used as allotments, to Horton Road. The various field names from the Tithe map of 1844 were noted. Then it was over the railway bridge where we paused to read out the inscription on the tombstone in Settle Church to John Owen who was killed in 1873 during the railway construction. We continued down to Locks cottages to cross over the river to Stackhouse, watching without success for jumping salmon, but seeing a heron standing on the weir. In Stackhouse we looked at the various houses of ancient origins - Stackhouse which Thomas Brayshaw the historian inherited in 1864; Carrholme where the Carrs of Stackhouse and Langcliffe originated, and where James Carr (died 1518) chantry priest at Giggleswick and probable founder of the school might have lived; Abbeylands built by Richard Carr in the 1820s; the 17thC Brown tenement and the Old Hall built by Thomas Clapham in 1695. We took the footpath out of Stackhouse past the Old Hall then north across fields towards Little Stainforth with good views across to Langcliffe and Winskill and the quarry and medieval fields there. The next point of interest was the cattle creep or passage under Stainforth Lane, which allows animals access to water at the river, and the boundary stone between Giggleswick and Stainforth. A gentle stroll south on the lane to Stackhouse followed. Back across the river we returned to Langcliffe via the mill dam and the mill built by Claytons in 1783 with Arkright cotton spinning machinery. The mill closed in 1855 with consequent loss of inhabitants from Langcliffe who sought work in Accrington and elsewhere (see the article by Pat Smith in the 2002 Journal). The mill was reopened in 1861 by Lorenzo and Hector Christie with workers brought in from Devon, Cornwall and Norfolk. Children from Langcliffe worked half-time at the mill (the other half at school) until the age of 14, then full-time. We arrived back at the car park without having got wet or cold.