The Ghaistrills Strid – Grassington

  The Ghaistrills Strid is a section of the river Wharfe, 3/4 of a mile to the north west of Grassington in the Yorkshire Dales.

  The Ghaistrills were mentioned in a previous post about the Ghost of Tom Lee, who was hanged in 1768 for the murder of Dr Petty – the local doctor in Grassington. Tom Lees body was hung in chains by the road side in Grass wood to the west of Grassington, and later his gibbet irons (and perhaps the remains of his skeleton) were thrown into a deep part of the river at the Ghaistrills.

Not another Rocking Stone? – Hebden Gill

  The village of Hebden is located 1.5 miles to the east of Grassington, in the Yorkshire Dales.

  To the north of the village, Hebden Beck flows along a scenic valley which winds its way down from the hills and higher moorland areas. Part way along the valley, the OS map marks a Rocking Stone perched high up on top of a crag on the east side of the beck. A visit in April 2023 found the large block of stone overhanging the crag, but it was not possible to make it rock.

  In the late 1800’s, Bailey John Harker mentioned the Hebden Rocking Stone in his guide to the area, but even in his day it seems that the stone was not easy to move. Describing the location, he noted that …

“Here everything is in confusion, the rocks being scattered in wildest fashion everywhere in the valley, while away up to the right on the top of the scar, is seen a monstre block, which appears as if the hand of a child might send it crashing into the depths below. This is the Rocking Stone. Its weight is calculated to be 70 tons; but at present it is not so easily moved as formerly. The curious like to climb up to it and examine it; but there are no markings upon it to indicate that it has ever had any Druidical connection.” (Harker, 1890)

The Ghost of Tom Lee – Grassington

  250 years ago a brutal murder took place on a quiet lane near the village of Grassington in the Yorkshire Dales. Many years may have passed since the killing took place, but the crime still linger in the folklore of the area.

  The murderer’s name was Tom Lee, – a lead miner and inn keeper of the Blue Anchor in Grassington. In 1768 Lee was put on trial and hanged for the murder of Richard Petty, the local doctor. One version of the story leading up to the murder relates how Tom Lee was shot while trying to commit a robbery. His injuries were so serious that he had no choice but to call the doctor, who soon realised what Lee had been up to. Lee feared that doctor Petty would turn him in, and so to keep him quiet he decided to kill him. The other version of the story has both men attending a cock fight in Kettlewell, where the doctor won a large sum of money betting on the fights. The two men rode back to Grassington, stopping at the inns along the way, until, as they approached Grassington, Tom Lee killed the doctor and took his money. There is probably some truth in both versions.

Songlines – The Seven Sisters Dreaming – Paris

  Songlines is an exhibition of Australian tribal art depicting the Dreamtime story of kungkarangkalpa – the Seven Sisters. This creation Dreaming forms a Songline stretching 4000km across the whole Australian continent, and as a consequence, several tribal groups share the Dreaming, and are custodians of its sacred sites on their land.

  The Seven Sisters are ancestral beings who came down from the sky. When men saw the women they wanted them to be their wives, but this was against clan law, so the women drove them away with their digging sticks. A powerful shape shifting spirit man also wanted one of the sisters for his wife, and so the women decided to flee across the country. The spirit man followed them, and in their attempts to evade him, the Sisters created various features in the landscape, such as sand hills, rock outcrops, water holes, and caves etc. Eventually the Sisters escaped by transforming themselves into fire, and ascending back up into the sky where they became the Pleiades star group.

The Grassington Fairy Hole Cave – rediscovered

  The few modern references to Fairy Hole Cave list it as an alternative name for the Cove Hole Cave, located in the limestone scar, half a mile to the north of Grassington, in the Yorkshire Dales.

  Older references however, indicate that the Fairy Hole was actually a separate cave, with Bailey John Harker writing in the mid 1800’s, noting that ….
“Close by Cove Hole there is a place called the Fairy Hole, the name of which tells us the faith that Grassingtonians once had in these creatures of the fancy. (Harker 1869).

  Harker was born in Grassington, so his local knowledge should be reliable. A few years later, Harry Speight visited the Fairy Hole, and provides some extra details ….
“On the right of the lane and a field-length distant, is the ancient Fairy Hole, a low opening in the limestone which can only properly be entered by such tiny sprites as the fairies. Ordinary mortals must descend to an access on all fours. Some yards away is the Cove Hole, a long wedge-shaped cave, twelve feet high and forty feet through to the far side.” (Speight 1900).