Giggleswick, a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in Northern England.The Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority areas of City of York, York and North Yorkshire (district), North Yorkshire are in Yorkshire and t ...

, England, lies on the B6480 road, less than north-west of the town of Settle and divided from it by the

River Ribble The River Ribble runs through North Yorkshire and Lancashire in Northern England. It starts close to the Ribblehead Viaduct in North Yorkshire, and is one of the few that start in the Yorkshire Dales and flow westwards towards the Irish Sea (t ...

. It is the site of Giggleswick School. Until 1974 it was part of the

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire was one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the riding was an administrative county named County of York, West Riding. The Lord Lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire, lieu ...

. From 1974 to 2023 it was part of the district of Craven, it is now administered by the unitary

North Yorkshire Council North Yorkshire Council, known between 1974 and 2023 as North Yorkshire County Council, is the local authority for the non-metropolitan county of North Yorkshire, England. Since 2023 the council has been a unitary authority, being a county coun ...

Toponymy

''A Dictionary of British Place Names'' (2011) contains the entry:
:Giggleswick N. Yorks. Ghigeleswic 1086 (DB). "Dwelling or (dairy) farm of a man called ''Gikel'' or ''Gichel''. OE or ME pers. name (probably a short form of the biblical name Judichael) + wīc.

Railway station

The village is served by

Giggleswick railway station Giggleswick is a railway station on the Bentham Line, which runs between and via . The station, situated north-west of Leeds, serves the market town of Settle and the village of Giggleswick in North Yorkshire. It is owned by Network Rail and ...

, which provides services to

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

and to

Lancaster Lancaster may refer to: Lands and titles *The County Palatine of Lancaster, a synonym for Lancashire *Duchy of Lancaster, one of only two British royal duchies *Duke of Lancaster *Earl of Lancaster *House of Lancaster, a British royal dynasty ...

and

Morecambe Morecambe ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the City of Lancaster district of Lancashire, England, on Morecambe Bay, part of the Irish Sea. In 2011 the parish had a population of 34,768. Name The first use of the name was by John Whit ...

. There are five trains a day in each direction, operated by

Northern Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating ...

. Close to the station and opposite the ''Craven Arms Hotel'' (formerly the ''Old Station Inn'') is the Plague Stone. This has a shallow trough, which in times of plague was filled with vinegar to sterilize the coins that were left by townspeople as payment for food brought from surrounding farms. The stone was moved a short distance from its original site when the Settle bypass was built.

Church of St Alkelda

The

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...

is dedicated to St

Alkelda Saint Alkelda (, "healing spring"; died on 28 March c. 800), also spelt Alcelda or Alchhild, was ostensibly an Anglo-Saxon princess of whom almost nothing is known and whose existence has been questioned. Alternative origins Legend has it tha ...

, an obscure Anglo-Saxon saint associated with the North Yorkshire town of

Middleham Middleham ( ; meaning "middle ''ham''", i.e. "middle village") is a market town and civil parish in the district and county of North Yorkshire, England. It lies in Wensleydale in the Yorkshire Dales, on the south side of the valley, upstream fr ...

. The building dates mostly from the 15th century, but carved stones discovered during the restoration of 1890–1892 showed that a building existed on the site before the

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 9th and 10th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norma ...

Conquest. It has been classed by

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...

as a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

. The restoration, carried out by the

architects

Paley, Austin and Paley Sharpe, Paley and Austin are the surnames of architects who practised in Lancaster, England, Lancaster, Lancashire, England, between 1835 and 1946, working either alone or in partnership. The full names of the principals in their practice, whi ...

, included replacing the roof, removing the gallery, rebuilding the

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government of a parish in England, Wales and some English colony, English colonies. At their height, the vestries were the only form of local government in many places and spen ...

, and reseating, replastering and reflooring the church.

Notable people

Richard Whiteley John Richard Whiteley (28 December 1943 – 26 June 2005) was an English presenter and journalist, best known for his twenty-three years as host of the game show '' Countdown''. ''Countdown'' was the launch programme for Channel 4 at 4:45 ...

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

's ''

Countdown A countdown is a sequence of backward counting to indicate the time remaining before an event is scheduled to occur. NASA commonly employs the terms "L-minus" and "T-minus" during the preparation for and anticipation of a rocket launch, and eve ...

'' was a pupil at Giggleswick School. In his will he left the school £500,000, which was used to build a new theatre named after him. *

Russell Harty Frederic Russell Harty (5 September 1934 – 8 June 1988) was an English television presenter of arts programmes and chat show host. Early life Harty was born in Blackburn, Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremon ...

was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

teacher at the same time as Whiteley was a pupil. * The operatic soprano

Sarah Fox Sarah Fox (born 19 September 1973) is an English operatic soprano who has performed at several of the world's leading opera houses, notably the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. Fox was born in Giggleswick, Settle, West Riding of Yorkshire. She ...

was born in the village and attended Giggleswick School. * The ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera media franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and Cultural impact of Star Wars, quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop cu ...

'' actor

Anthony Daniels Anthony Daniels ( ; born 21 February 1946) is an English actor and mime artist, best known for playing in 11 ''Star Wars'' films. He is the only actor to have either appeared in or been involved with all theatrical films in the series, and h ...

also attended Giggleswick School. * The film and stage actor

Clarence Blakiston Clarence Blakiston (23 April 1864 – 21 March 1943) was a British film and stage actor, comedian and singer who during his career across five decades played the title role in the Sherlock Holmes parody ''Sheerluck Jones, or Why D’Gillette Him ...

(1864–1943) was born in Giggleswick, as was

Henry Maudsley Henry Maudsley (5 February 183523 January 1918) was a pioneering English psychiatrist, commemorated in the Maudsley Hospital in London and in the annual Maudsley Lecture of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. Life and career Maudsley was b ...

, the pioneering British psychiatrist, at a farm outside Giggleswick in 1835. * The Victorian-era actor Sir John Hare was born in the town in 1844. * Professor Sir

Nevill Francis Mott Sir Nevill Francis Mott (30 September 1905 – 8 August 1996) was a British physicist who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1977 for his work on the electronic structure of magnetic and disordered systems, especially amorphous semiconductor ...

, who won the

Nobel Prize in Physics The Nobel Prize in Physics () is an annual award given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for those who have made the most outstanding contributions to mankind in the field of physics. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the ...

in 1977, was born in Leeds and brought up in Giggleswick. * Television chef

Susan Brookes Susan Brookes (née Walton; born 28 November 1943) is an English television chef, broadcaster and writer. During the 1980s and 1990s, she regularly appeared on the ITV daytime magazine show ''This Morning'', cooking recipes for viewers as the ...

is a former resident of the village, having resided there in the 1980s.

Tourist attractions

Giggleswick is notable amongst rock climbers for a limestone crag, retro-bolted with many sports routes during 2005 and 2006. The crag is opposite Settle Golf Club on the B6480, north of Giggleswick. Cave Ha, hollowed out of the massive cliff of Great Scar limestone, is a large rock shelter. Together with Sewell's Cave, it has produced a large amount of archaeological material, including bones which are 5,600 years old.

In the media

An episode of the radio comedy ''

The Shuttleworths ''The Shuttleworths'' is a British radio comedy that aired as five series between 1993 and 2010, with a sixth in 2022, and numerous specials on BBC Radio 4. It features singer/songwriter from Sheffield, John Shuttleworth, his family, and his ...

'' was set in Giggleswick. Comedy writers

Ray Galton Raymond Percy Galton (17 July 1930 – 5 October 2018) was an English radio and television scriptwriter. He was best known as part of the Galton and Simpson comedy writing partnership with Alan Simpson. Together they devised and wrote 1950s an ...

and Alan Simpson used the town as their emblem of a travelling actor's date with obscurity in ''

Hancock's Half Hour ''Hancock's Half Hour'' was a BBC radio comedy, and later television comedy series, broadcast from 1954 to 1961 and written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson. The radio series starred Tony Hancock, with Sidney James, Bill Kerr and,at various ...

'', "The Train Journey" episode, broadcast on 23 October 1959.

Les Dawson Leslie Dawson (2 February 1931 – 10 June 1993) was an English comedian, actor, writer, presenter, and pianist. He was known for his deadpan style, curmudgeonly persona, musical routines, and jokes about his mother-in-law and wife. Early li ...

did the same in 1975, in '' Dawson's Weekly''. In 1989, the TV series '' Capstick's Law'', focusing on a family law firm in the 1950s, used Russell Harty's old cottage as a venue. The TV series '' 24seven'' was filmed at Giggleswick School.

1927 eclipse

Among few observers of a 24-second solar eclipse in 1927 were members of the

Astronomer Royal Astronomer Royal is a senior post in the Royal Households of the United Kingdom. There are two officers, the senior being the astronomer royal dating from 22 June 1675; the junior is the astronomer royal for Scotland dating from 1834. The Astro ...

's expedition to Giggleswick.

References

External links

* *
Yorksview – GiggleswickGiggleswick Primary School's WebsiteGiggleswick School WebsiteWalk book on history of GiggleswickVideo of the station added
{{authority control Villages in North Yorkshire Civil parishes in North Yorkshire Ribblesdale