Swaledale Museum is a local museum in the village of Reeth, near Richmond in North Yorkshire, England. It covers rural history including life and work in the local area of Swaledale and Arkengarthdale within the Yorkshire Dales National Park. [1]
Swaledale Museum is a local museum in the village of Reeth, near Richmond in North Yorkshire, England. It covers rural history including life and work in the local area of Swaledale and Arkengarthdale within the Yorkshire Dales National Park. [1]
The museum is in the former Methodist school room near The Green in Reeth. The school was built in 1836 on the site of two cottages that dated from the late 17th or early 18th century. After the Quaker school was built in Reeth in 1862, the building became a Sunday School. During the Second World War, the building was used to billet troops who attended the Battle Training Camp at Catterick. After the Second World War, the building was used as a recreation hall. [2]
In 1974, the building was bought from the Methodist Church and opened as a privately owned museum, the Swaledale Folk Museum. In 2004 there was a change of ownership, but the museum remains independently run [3] with a team of volunteers. [4]
There is a Friends of Swaledale Museum volunteer group, which helps in the running of the museum and its associated activities and groups. [5]
Among the exhibits at the museum are some photographs of the former lead mine at Arn Gill, and the original engraved keystone from its entrance arch. [6]
Reeth is a village 11 miles (18 km) west of Richmond in North Yorkshire, England, in the civil parish of Reeth, Fremington and Healaugh. Historically part of the North Riding of Yorkshire, it is the principal settlement of upper Swaledale.
Gunnerside is a village in the Richmondshire district of North Yorkshire, England. It is situated on the B6270 road, 2 miles (3 km) east of Muker and 6 miles (10 km) west of Grinton. The village lies between the River Swale and its tributary, Gunnerside Beck, in the Swaledale part of the Yorkshire Dales National Park.
Arkengarthdale is a dale, or valley, on the east side of the Pennines in North Yorkshire, England. Running roughly north-west to south-east, it is the valley of the Arkle Beck, and is the northernmost of the Yorkshire Dales. It is a subsidiary dale to Swaledale, which it joins at Reeth. The history of the dale, its people, and farming, lead mining, and local crafts is displayed and documented in the Swaledale Museum in Reeth.
Keld is a village in the English county of North Yorkshire. It is in Swaledale, and the Yorkshire Dales National Park. The name derives from the Viking word Kelda meaning a spring and the village was once called Appletre Kelde – the spring near the apple trees.
Fremington Edge is a 3-mile (5 km) long wall of crags and scree slopes that is situated to the north of the village of Reeth in Swaledale in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, England. Fremington Edge forms the south-eastern edge of Arkengarthdale, extending to the point where the dale meets Swaledale. Throughout its full length the Edge stays above the height of 1,300 feet (400 m) and reaches a highest point of 1,552 feet (473 m) at the northern end of the escarpment.
Grinton is a small village and civil parish in the Yorkshire Dales, in the Richmondshire district of North Yorkshire, England. Close to Reeth and Fremington, it lies 9 miles (15 km) west of Richmond on the B6270 road.
Calver Hill is a fell in the Yorkshire Dales National Park in North Yorkshire, England. It is composed of limestone and is situated at grid reference NZ012003, near where the valleys of Swaledale and Arkengarthdale meet, the village of Reeth is located on its lower south-eastern slopes, it reaches an altitude of 487 metres (1,598 ft) and is a distinguished feature in mid Swaledale. Calver Hill is an area of grouse shooting and the fell is dotted with grouse butts. Most of the drainage from the fell goes north and easterly to join the Arkle Beck in lower Arkengarthdale which eventually joins the River Swale just south of Reeth.
Langthwaite is one of the few villages in Arkengarthdale, North Yorkshire, England. It is 3.5 miles (5.6 km) north of Reeth and sits 870 feet (270 m) above sea level. It is the main settlement in the dale and is one of the most northerly settlements in the whole of Yorkshire Dales National Park. Langthwaite is one of two places in the dale that have houses clustered together closely in a traditional village set up; the rest of the settlements in the dale are populated by scattered buildings.
Arkle Town is a hamlet in Arkengarthdale in the Richmondshire district of North Yorkshire, England. It is situated 0.4 miles (0.64 km) to the south of Langthwaite and 2.7 miles (4.3 km) north-west of Reeth.
Booze is a hamlet in Arkengarthdale, in the Richmondshire district of North Yorkshire, England. It is about 1 mile (1.6 km) east of Langthwaite. There are 11 households in the hamlet. There is a riding school nearby.
The Swaledale Festival takes place over two weeks in May and June each year, in churches, chapels, castles, ‘Literary Institutes’, pubs, fields and village halls scattered around Swaledale, Arkengarthdale and Wensleydale. The largest venues seat about 400 people; the smallest venues as few as 40. The main focus of the Festival is on small-scale classical chamber music. Choral music, folk music, brass bands and jazz also feature, as do talks, films, exhibitions, poetry readings, workshops and guided walks. The 2014 Festival featured Royal Northern Sinfonia, Natalie Clein, Nicholas Daniel, Don Paterson, Emma Johnson, Martin Taylor, Martin Simpson and the Navarra Quartet, among others.
Arkle Beck is the stream running through the valley of Arkengarthdale in the Yorkshire Dales, England. It is a tributary of the River Swale, which it joins just past Reeth at Grinton Bridge. The beck itself has several tributaries which include:
Ellerton Priory was a priory of Cistercian nuns in Swaledale in North Yorkshire, England. Its ruins lie in the civil parish of Ellerton Abbey.
Richmondshire District Council was the administration body covering Richmondshire, a large area of the northern Yorkshire Dales including Swaledale and Arkengarthdale, Wensleydale and Coverdale, with Scots' Dyke and Scotch Corner at its centre.
The Church of St Andrew, Grinton, is the parish church for the village of Grinton in North Yorkshire, England. The grade I listed structure has also been called The Cathedral of the Dales, and as the only parish church in Upper Swaledale, it was at the end of the Swaledale Corpse Way, where those who had died in the upper valley, were brought for burial. Grinton never developed past village status, but its noted crossing point of the River Swale afforded it more importance than other settlements.
The Church of St Mary the Virgin is an Anglican church in the Upper Swaledale village of Muker, in North Yorkshire, England. It is one of four churches in the ecclesiastical Parish of Swaledale with Arkengarthdale. The church was constructed in 1580, but previous to this, a chapel-of-ease had stood on the site which came under the Church of St Andrew in Grinton. Until the consecration of St Mary's, baptisms, weddings and funerals, had to be conducted at the church in Grinton. The Church of St Mary the Virgin, is noted for being a rare example of a house of worship being built during the Elizabethan era.
In July 2019, parts of the Yorkshire Dales, in North Yorkshire, England, were subjected to above average rainfall for the time of year. The flash-flooding that followed affected many communities destroying bridges, sweeping roads away, causing landslips on railway lines and resulting in at least one public event being cancelled. The flooding even inundated the fire station in the town of Leyburn, in Wensleydale, whilst the crew were out helping those in need. The recovery took many weeks and months, with immediate help by the rescue services being bolstered by British Army personnel who assisted with the clean up.
Arn Gill is a ravine or gully containing a beck of the same name, near the village of Muker in Swaledale, North Yorkshire, England. The ravine and beck run steeply downhill from the stream's source in Arn Gill Head, and the beck disgorges into the River Swale below.
