Giggleswick

Giggleswick

Coordinates: 54°04′26″N 2°17′23″W / 54.0738°N 2.2896°W / 54.0738; -2.2896

Giggleswick
Giggleswick Village in snow.jpg
Giggleswick in snow
Giggleswick is located in North Yorkshire
Giggleswick

 Giggleswick shown within North Yorkshire
Population 1,410 
OS grid reference SD809647
District Craven
Shire county North Yorkshire
Region Yorkshire and the Humber
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town SETTLE
Postcode district BD24
Dialling code 01729
Police North Yorkshire
Fire North Yorkshire
Ambulance Yorkshire
EU Parliament Yorkshire and the Humber
UK Parliament Skipton and Ripon
List of places: UK • England • Yorkshire
The church of St Alkelda

Giggleswick is a village and civil parish in the Craven district of North Yorkshire, England near the town of Settle. It is the site of Giggleswick School.

Contents

Origin of name

A Dictionary of British Place Names 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.

Giggleswick railway station

Main article: Giggleswick railway station

The town is served by Giggleswick railway station which provides services to Leeds in one direction and Lancaster and Morecambe in the other. The station is served by only five trains per day in each direction and is operated by Northern Rail.

Church of St Alkelda

The parish church is named after St Alkelda. The present building dates mostly from the 15th century, but carved stones discovered during the restoration of 1890-2 indicated that a building existed on the site before the Norman Conquest. It is a Grade I listed building.

Famous people

The late Richard Whiteley of Channel 4's Countdown was a pupil at Giggleswick School. Russell Harty was an English teacher at the school at the same time. The internationally renowned operatic soprano, Sarah Fox, was born in the village and attended Giggleswick School.

Tourist attractions

Giggleswick is famous locally amongst rock climbers for an excellent limestone crag, retro-bolted with many sports routes during 2005 & 2006. The crag may be found opposite the golf course (Settle Golf Club) on the B6480, North of Giggleswick.

Giggleswick in media

An episode of the radio comedy The Shuttleworths was set in Giggleswick. Comedy writers Ray Galton and Alan Simpson used Giggleswick as their emblem of a travelling actor's date with obscurity in Hancock's Half Hour, The Train Journey episode, broadcast 23/10/'59. Les Dawson did the same, sixteen years later, in 1975, in Dawson's Weekly; both are available on DVD.

1927 eclipse

Among the few observers of a 24-second solar eclipse in 1927 were those in the Astronomer Royal's expedition to Giggleswick.

External links


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