The History of Garsdale

Centuries of farming, faith and resilience

Garsdale has been shaped by centuries of farming, faith and resilience. The dale sits on the western flanks of the Pennines, carved by the Clough River as it makes its way down to meet the River Rawthey near Sedbergh. Though it feels timeless, the dale has seen remarkable change.

Early History

The manor of Garsdale was once held by St Agatha's Abbey at Easby, near Richmond, and leased to the powerful Scrope family of Castle Bolton. After Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries, the land passed through various hands until it was sold to five local yeomen in the early 1600s. By 1740, Braithwaite Otway of Ingmire Hall had consolidated the holdings and freed the tenants from their feudal obligations, allowing them to own and work their land independently.

For centuries, Garsdale was part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, within the ancient parish of Sedbergh. It became its own civil parish in 1866, and in 1974 the boundary changes brought it into the new county of Cumbria, though it remains firmly within the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

Farming and Industry

Hill farming has always been at the heart of life here. The annual rainfall can reach a hundred inches, which rules out most arable crops, so the farms rear livestock, primarily Swaledale sheep. Pedigree Swaledale rams from the dale occasionally fetch impressive prices at Hawes auction mart.

In earlier centuries, hand-knitting was a significant cottage industry throughout the dale, with families knitting stockings and other garments to supplement their farming income. During the mid-1800s, coal was mined on Baugh Fell and stone was quarried from the hillsides, including sandstone, limestone and a local stone marketed as marble.

Viking Roots

Many of the house and place names in Garsdale are Norse in origin, a legacy of Viking settlement in the dale. Names ending in -syke (stream), -thwaite (clearing), and -garth (enclosure) reflect this heritage and give a sense of just how long people have been living and working here.

Garsdale Hall, which sits near the centre of the dale close to St John's Church, was formerly a coaching inn called the George and Dragon. It is recorded as such in the 1851 census. William Wordsworth stayed here in 1799, writing to Coleridge about resting at "a tempting inn, close by a lowly house of prayer." It is now used as a farm store.

A Changing Population

The dale's population peaked at over 900 during the 1870s, when hundreds of navvies arrived to build the Settle-Carlisle railway. Once the line was complete, numbers fell steadily. By the 2001 census, just 202 people lived here. Today the dale has around 18 working farms, most of which have absorbed several of the original smallholdings. Despite the small population, Garsdale retains a strong sense of community, with the village hall serving as the main gathering place for events throughout the year.

The Great Flood of 1889

On 8 August 1889, exceptionally heavy rain fell for over three hours. The hillside on Baugh Fell in Grisedale burst open, releasing huge quantities of water down through the dale. Eight stone bridges and seven wooden ones were completely washed away, two sections of the main road disappeared, and the school was flooded to a depth of over four feet, though all the children were carried to safety.

The Winn family of Ing Heads rebuilt their own bridge first, then worked their way down the dale repairing others, eventually establishing a building partnership in Sedbergh that grew from this act of neighbourly determination.

The School that Became a Village Hall

Thomas Dawson endowed a school in Garsdale in 1634, which served the dale's children for over three centuries. When Garsdale Primary School closed in 1985, the building was converted into the village hall, which now hosts quiz nights, beetle drives, bonfire celebrations and other community events. It costs around two thousand pounds a year to keep running, and the community holds regular fundraising events to cover the bills.

Literary Connections

Garsdale has attracted writers for centuries. In 1799, William Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy walked through the dale and stayed at Garsdale Hall, then a coaching inn.

In 1887, the Reverend James Dodd Jackson published Twixt Moor and Mead, a collection of stories about Garsdale life based on tales told by his grandparents at Slack Cottage. The places and characters are thinly disguised and deliberately identifiable: "Rowansdale" is Garsdale and "Mossgill" is Low House.

John Christopher's 1956 novel The Death of Grass, a post-apocalyptic story in which survivors travel through northern England, includes a vivid passage describing the journey down Garsdale from Wensleydale, past Mossdale Head to Sedbergh. It was made into the film No Blade of Grass in 1970 and adapted for BBC Radio 4 in 2009.

There is also a connection to musical theatre. William Garnett, whose father wrote Aspects of Love, the source material for Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical of the same name, had ties to the dale.

Dry Stone Walls

Garsdale has a fine collection of dry stone walls, all visible from the public road. Locally, each wall has a distinctive style that identifies the waller who built it. The walls are as much a part of the dale's character as the farmhouses and barns, and are well worth looking at closely as you walk or drive through.