Kilnsey, Yorkshire, England. Further historical information.

KILNSEY

KILNSEY, in the township of Conistone with Kilnsey, and parish of Burnsall, east-division of Staincliffe, liberty of Cliffords-Fee; 3 miles S. of Kettlewell, 12 from Skipton and Settle. Pop. included in Conistone.

This place is remarkable for a lofty range of limestone rock; the highest point of that denominated "Kilnsey Crag," will be about 165 feet, and its length 270 yards, or, more. The whole of this astonishing mass of limestone stretches nearly half a mile along the valley, and, as a feature in landscape, has greatly the advantage of Gordale Scar.

To this village, the Abbots of Fountains drove their immense flocks of sheep from the surrounding hills, for their annual sheep shearing. Here, too, they also kept Courts for all their Manors in Craven, excepting Litton and Long Strother, which last were holden at Litton. The walls of their Court House were remaining at Kilnsey, 41 Elizabeth. --Whitaker's Craven.

Two ancient Arches, rather pointed, adjoining to a house called "The Hall" (dated W.W. 1644) behind the Inn at Kilnsey, still point to some of those remains. The keystone of the larger arch has the remains of a dog or sheep upon it. From the name of Chapel House, "it seems probable," says Dr. Whitaker, "that the Monks either had a small Cell or a Grange, with a chapel annexed, in a picturesque and interesting situation, where an excellent house was built by the late John Tennant, Esq., whose ancestor Jeffry Tennant, of Bordley, purchased the estate of the Gresham family, the grantees of Fountains, in the 14th of Elizabeth."