Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Then comes another remarkable set of structures: the Bingley Five Rise Locks. These are
the country's highest and steepest staircase, lifting the canal 18m. At the top the Five Rise
Lock Cafe & Store replaces early stables. Ash trees attract grey wagtails and chaffinches.
Houses alongside the B6265, which follows the canal, hide East Riddlesden Hall. This
17th century Jacobean merchant's manor house is in a small walled garden with beeches and
a 17th century 37m oak-framed medieval tithe barn, one of the finest barns in the north of
England, near a monastic fishpond that supplied Bolton Abbey. Built in the Civil War by pas-
sionate Royalists, the house has a host of ghosts, Yorkshire oak furniture and panelling, won-
derful plasterwork, embroidery and pewter. The last three Murgatroyds, the owners, ended up
in York Debtors' Prison in Charles II's reign.
Keighley is a manufacturing town. The Cliffe Castle Museum is in a Victorian mansion
that was owned by worsted manufacturer Henry Butterfield. It features information on the
the history of Airedale, natural history and geology, craftsmen's workshops, reception rooms
with French furniture and art treasures and extensive gardens with a conservatory and aviary.
Keighley was another Old English man's glade, this time Cyhha. It was home of poet Gordon
Bottomley and had a circulating library from which the Brontë sisters were encouraged to
borrow books.
Parson's Bridge, beyond the White Lion in Kildwick, connects two parts of the cemetery of
St Andrew's, also called the Lang Kirk because of its 46m length. The church has a weather-
vane, sundial, carved choir pews and a 14th century effigy of Sir Robert de Stiverton, the lord
of the manor. It also has wrought-iron lions on the gate, which, amusingly, are reputed to get
down after dark to go to the canal for a drink, nothing at all to do with those who have been to
the White Lion for a drink themselves. Over the river is a Grade I packhorse bridge of 1306,
one of the best in Yorkshire, 42m long with a 200m causeway to the south, of ribbed arches
of hewn stone. It is still in use although it has been widened on the downstream side. The
canal has a narrow, skewed aqueduct over the approach road. The A629 arrives alongside to
give the roar of traffic for a while. At first the traffic here was transhipment wagons as this
was initially near the terminus.
Skipton is a stone town, approached through a stone-building canyon. Skipton - Scip-tun,
Sceptone or Sheeptown - is the gateway to the Yorkshire Moors. It is one of Yorkshire's
oldest market towns, with a market most days in the Georgian high street. The town's pride
is Skipton Castle, dating from 1090, one of the best-preserved and most complete English
medieval castles, still roofed. It has a Conduit Court, a 15m long banqueting hall decorated
with seashells and a dungeon. It was built by the Normans to defend against the Scots, was
overcome in the 12th century, was rebuilt in 1311 by the 1st Lord Clifford and withstood a
three-year Civil War siege. Butcher Clifford led the Lancastrians in the Wars of the Roses
and his son, the Shepherd Lord, led the men of Craven at Flodden in 1513. Other features of
Skipton Castle include a large kitchen, six 14th century round towers, a 17th century yew and
