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Giggleswick, Yorkshire, England. Geographical and Historical information from 1835.

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GIGGLESWICK:
Geographical and Historical information from the year 1835.

"GIGGLESWICK, (formerly a market-town) a parish in the western division of the wapentake of STAINCLIFFE-and-EWCROSS, West riding of the county of YORK, comprising the townships of Giggleswick, Rathmill, Settle, and Stainforth, and containing 2817 inhabitants, of which number, 746 are in the township of Giggleswick, half of a mile N.W. from Settle. The living is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry and diocese of York, rated in the king's books at £21. 3. 4., endowed with £200 private benefaction, and £200 royal bounty. J. Coulthurst and J. Hartley, Esqrs. were patrons in 1782. The church, dedicated to St. Alkald, is principally in the later English style. Here is a free grammar school, founded by Edward VI. in the 7th year of his reign, in which Archdeacon Paley was educated: the income is estimated at £ 1140 per annum. The founder ordained that it should consist of a master and an usher; and that eight inhabitants should be a body corporate, and have power to act as governors; that it should be free for the classical instruction of all boys, without any restriction or qualification as to residence. Between sixty and seventy boys are educated, and there is one exhibition to the University. Agnes Hargraves also bequeathed a close of land for the instruction of children. At the foot of a ledge of rocks, in this parish, called the Scar, rises a spring, noted for ebbing and flowing, though distant nearly thirty miles from the sea: the water has been known to rise and fall nineteen inches in five minutes."


"RATHMILL, a township in the parish of GIGGLESWICK, western division of the wapentake of STAINCLIFFE-and EWCROSS, West riding of the county of YORK, 4 miles S.S.W. from Settle, containing 328 inhabitants. George Clarke, in 1716, devised;;the pror fits of an estate in support of a school, and, Ijia, 1725, Stephen Carr bequeathed £80 in augmentation of the master's salary; the annual income is about £23, for which all children who apply are taught to read, but pay for further instruction."


"SETTLE, a market-town in the parish of GIGGLESWICK, western division of the wapentake of STAINCLIFFE-and-EWCROSS, West riding of the county of YORK, 59 miles N.W. from York, and 234 N.N.W. from London, containing 1508 inhabitants. The name of this town is derived from the Saxon word Sell, a seat: its situation is singular and picturesque, at the base of an almost perpendicular limestone rock, which rises to the height of two hundred feet; it is neat and well built, the houses being chiefly of stone; the streets are partially paved, and the inhabitants are well supplied with water from numerous springs and wells. There is a subscription library and news-room. The surrounding vale consists of rich pastures, and is enclosed on each side by a long range of craggy mountains, including the lofty elevations of Pendle hill on the south, of Pennigant on the north, and Ingleborough on the north-west. Considerable business is done in the cotton trade, and there are several roperies and a paper manufactory. The market is on Tuesday; fairs are held on April 26th, Whit-Tuesday, August 18th and the two following days, and Tuesday after October 27th; in addition to which there are fairs every alternate Tuesday from Easter to Whitsuntide, for lean cattle, and every second Monday in the year for fat cattle. A constable is appointed annually at a court baron of the lord of the manor, which is always held once, and sometimes twice, a year. There are places of worship for Independents and Wesleyan Methodists. A National school is supported by voluntary contributions."


"STAINFORTH, a township in the parish of GIGGLESWICK, western division of the wapentake of STAINCLIFFE-and-EWCROSS, West riding of the county of YORK, 2 miles N. from Settle, containing 235 inhabitants."

[Transcribed by Mel Lockie © from
Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England 1835]