Galgate is a village in the

City of Lancaster The City of Lancaster, or simply ''Lancaster'' (), is a non-metropolitan district, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in Lancashire, England. It is named after its largest settlement, Lancaster, Lanca ...

, just south of

Lancaster University Lancaster University (officially The University of Lancaster) is a collegiate public university, public research university in Lancaster, Lancashire, England. The university was established in 1964 by royal charter, as one of several new univer ...

, and about south of

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 ...

itself in the English

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

Etymology

The name ''Galgate'' is from ''Galwaithegate'', a road that continues north through

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north, Northumberland and County Durham to the east, North Yorkshire to the south-east, Lancash ...

, meaning ''the road to

Galloway Galloway ( ; ; ) is a region in southwestern Scotland comprising the counties of Scotland, historic counties of Wigtownshire and Kirkcudbrightshire. It is administered as part of the council areas of Scotland, council area of Dumfries and Gallow ...

''.

Geography

The

River Conder The River Conder is a river in the English county of Lancashire. The source of the River Conder is a spring at Conder Head on Black Fell near Littledale, from where the stream briefly runs north, then west through Cragg Wood. The river then sk ...

runs through the village.

Transport

The A6 Preston to

road runs north–south through the centre of the village, and junction 33 of the M6 is nearby. A major

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

from Preston to Lancaster passes on a viaduct over the village. The village once had its own station ( Galgate railway station) but it closed in 1939 and now the nearest station is . The

Lancaster Canal The Lancaster Canal is a canal in North West England, originally planned to run from Westhoughton in Lancashire to Kendal in south Cumbria (Historic counties of England, historically in Westmorland). The section around the crossing of the River ...

also runs through the village and has a

marina A marina (from Spanish , Portuguese and Italian : "related to the sea") is a dock or basin with moorings and supplies for yachts and small boats. A marina differs from a port in that a marina does not handle large passenger ships or cargo ...

for

narrowboat A narrowboat is a particular type of Barge, canal boat, built to fit the narrow History of the British canal system, locks of the United Kingdom. The UK's canal system provided a nationwide transport network during the Industrial Revolution, b ...

Industry

Galgate once had a thriving silk industry and many of the installations still stand. One story told is that because the

rhubarb Rhubarb is the fleshy, edible stalks ( petioles) of species and hybrids (culinary rhubarb) of ''Rheum'' in the family Polygonaceae, which are cooked and used for food. The plant is a herbaceous perennial that grows from short, thick rhizomes. ...

grown locally was used for dyeing the silk, Galgate's community newsletter is named 'Rhubarb City News'. Rhubarb is a prolific plant in Galgate, but this idea that it was used to dye silk seems to have no evidence to support it. Galgate had a water powered corn mill, which was replaced by the 1792 stone three-storey wooden beamed mill of Thompson, Noble and Armstrong. It had a projecting stair tower and mill pond, with cast iron pillars inserted later. This mill is said to be the first mechanical silk mill constructed in England. The second three-storey mill was built in the early 1800s, made of stone with internal cast-iron pillars and a seven aisled roof. The third mill from 1851 is a five-storey brick built mill with corner

pilasters In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...

and an internal beam engine house. Galgate Silk Mill - geograph

Community

Due to its proximity to the

campus, some students choose to rent houses in the village. There are at least two buses an hour towards Lancaster and

Garstang Garstang is an ancient market town and civil parish within the Wyre borough of Lancashire, England. It is north of the city of Preston and the same distance south of Lancaster. In 2011, the parish had a total resident population of 4,26 ...

. Residents in Galgate worked to raise money to build a new village hall, between the football pitch and the cricket ground, on the recreation field behind the Plough Inn. This opened in August 2012. Two churches serve the Galgate community. St. John's Church serves as the Anglican parish place of worship for Galgate and the wider Ellel parish. The village also has its own Methodist Church located on Chapel Lane. The bi-monthly village newsletter, the ''Rhubarb City News'', is put together by a team of volunteers and delivered to almost 1000 households in Galgate. Research for an investment company in 2011 claimed that Galgate was the third best place in England and Wales to bring up children.

People

In July 2002 ten-year-old Jade Slack, who was visiting a friend in the village, died of a drug overdose. She took five

ecstasy Ecstasy most often refers to: * Ecstasy (emotion), a trance or trance-like state in which a person transcends normal consciousness * Religious ecstasy, a state of consciousness, visions or absolute euphoria * Ecstasy (philosophy), to be or stand o ...

tablets, believing them to be sweets. Former Radio 4 Gardener's Question Time panellist Fred Downham was a long-term resident of the village.

Alan Milburn Alan Milburn (born 27 January 1958) is a British politician who was Member of Parliament (MP) for Darlington from 1992 to 2010. A member of the Labour Party, he served for five years in the Cabinet, first as Chief Secretary to the Treasury f ...

, a former Labour minister, lived in the village whilst studying at Lancaster University.

References

External links

YouTube drone Video of the Galgate Silk Mill complex
{{authority control Villages in Lancashire Geography of the City of Lancaster