Here you can browse and search our catalogue of historical collections in the Yorkshire Dales. The collections are discrete archives assembled and maintained by local groups, but searching for a subject, place or format will provide you with results from all collections in the catalogue. Additional collections and the material that they contain will be added to the catalogue as they become available.
You can find links to other archives of historical material relevant to the Yorkshire Dales outwith this website via the “archives” tab on the main menu.
Articles prepared by contributors on specific topics and themes are outwith the catalogue and can be accessed via the “Your Contributions ” tag on the main menu.
The Alison Armstrong archive is complete, except for a number of photographs in ‘archive box 4’.
Alison Armstrong is a building historian. In this collection you will find photographs and reports on various buildings within the Dales (and further afield). The records include drawings, informal and formal building reports, tree-ring dating reports and a collection of ...
Collection of material assembled by the owner of Austwick Hall comprising maps, documents, deeds and photographs relating to the history of the Hall, Austwick township and the refurbishment of Clapham church
A collection of historical information about Austwick made over many years by many people has been sorted and is presented here. A systematic search for documents has not been made and sources are not all known. However, the collection can be added to as progress is made in future.
Following an event in the Parish Hall ...
The Bordley, Cracoe, Hetton and Rylstone Local History Group (BCHRLHG) was formed in 1992, and first met at Hetton Methodist Church. There were never any formal documents setting out the objectives of the Group, but retrospectively the aims can be summarised as holding meetings on historical topics, primarily focused on the Rylstone parish area, but ...
Introduction to The Brayshaw Collection held at Giggleswick School.
Thomas Brayshaw (1854 – 1931) was a solicitor living in Stackhouse nr Giggleswick who was a local historian. For more than 40 years he was the recognized authority in matters of local historical interest. He was closely associated with Giggleswick School from attending as a pupil to ...
Photo copyright ‘The Bill Mitchell Archive’: https://www.wrmitchellarchive.org.uk/wrmitchell
W.R. ‘Bill’ Mitchell was editor of The Dalesman magazine for over thirty years and has written more than 200 books on local history, such as the Settle–Carlisle Railway, and biographies of well-known Dales personalities including James Herriot, Alfred Wainwright, Hannah Hauxwell and Kit Calvert.
This archive contains a set of walks and ...
This collection comprises material from various sources such as small personal collections and individual items that their owners wish to make publicly available. Any copyright restrictions are explained in the individual catalogue record.
Historical records concerning Giggleswick township and parish are to be found in various collections since the Ancient parish of Giggleswick contained the five townships of Giggleswick, Langcliffe, Rathmell, Settle and Stainforth until the 1850s. This collection GHC concerns records and information specific to Giggleswick.
Photo: The Flying Scotsman at Hellifield Station in 2019 – copyright John Cuthbert
Hellifield is a village and civil parish in the Craven district of North Yorkshire, England (grid reference SD855565). Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the village was once an important railway junction on the Settle-Carlisle Railway between the Midland Railway and the ...
Local photographer, Hilary Fenten, has captured a range of characters from the area who
work the land and provide local services throughout the Ingleborough Dales landscape. This
collection has been assembled to represent and record some of the areas diverse residents
by capturing a snapshot in time of the landscape’s social history.
Hilary Fenten has been living for over ...
Following a one-year evening class on the history of Horton-in-Ribblesdale provided by the Workers Education Association, participants decided that they wanted to continue the research and so the Horton Local History Group was formed in 1984, and over the past 39 years assembled an extensive collection of historical material – mostly photographs and copies of ...
Collection of material of historical interest abstracted from the records of Horton in Ribblesdale Parish Council. The main archive of material belonging to the council is held in the community room at Horton station and access may be obtained by application to the parish clerk via the council website
An extensive collection of documents, reports, registers and photographs relating to the former primary school in Brackenbottom Lane Horton in Ribblesdale. The school was founded in the early 16th Century as a free grammar school and converted to a grant maintained C of E elementary school in 1878. The school was closed by the County ...
Ingleborough Archaeology Group (IAG) is based in Ingleton in the Yorkshire Dales of England. It has as its core area of operations the Ingleborough massif and the surrounding valleys of Kingsdale, Chapel le Dale and Ribblesdale. The Group was founded in 1996 under the direction of Alan King, one of the most active archaeologists in ...
This is a small sample of a large collection of 35mm colour slides. They are mainly landscape images of the North Pennines, in particular the Ingleborough area. The slides were created by Jack Myers between 1963 and 2002. He was a lecturer in Mining Geophysics at the University of Leeds.
This collection comprises descriptive chapters and appendices concerning all aspects of the history of Langcliffe with transcriptions of the relevant documents. There are separate items about the parish, mills, the Hoffmann kiln, barns and school. A collection of old photographs can be viewed.
Robert Slater was born in Long Preston and spent all his life in the village. He maintained an active interest in every aspect of village life and, over the years, collected vast amounts of information relating to a wide variety of topics. After his death in 2015 his family wanted his work to remain in ...
This collection of documents not previously available for research provides an almost unique record of the administration of a small rural community from the 18th Century onwards. It contains poor accounts including those of the poor house for the parishes and townships of Settle, Austwick, Horton in Ribblesdale and Giggleswick as well as detailed land ...
Manchester Anglers’ Association was founded in 1878 as a fishing and literary society. For the first few years members sought fishing where they could and gathered together in Manchester monthly to recount their experiences.
An early decision was taken to try to find suitable trout fishing that the club could lease and a number of locations ...
There are two groups of records here:
documents discovered in the attic at Malham Tarn House in 2017 and made available to Malhamdale Local History Group for recording and digitising, and
photographs of nearly all the buildings in Malhamdale, taken for the Millennium (under construction).
Manorial Court Records are available in The National Archives, regional Record Offices, Chatsworth House, North Craven Heritage Trust and the Yorkshire Archaeological and Historical Society. A number of items, but not all, have already been translated and transcribed but the work continues. The extant records cover various time periods but are not always in continuous ...
Nancy Edmundson (nee Dawson) lived at Blea Moor Cottages in the 1950s. In 1952, when Nancy was 14 years old, there was a serious accident on the Settle to Carlisle line nearby. The collection includes an interview with Nancy, now in her 80s, photos of Nancy’s family and Blea Moor Cottages, photos and reports of ...
This collection has arisen from a variety of sources, but most are held as memoranda at the West Yorkshire Archive Service, Wakefield, West Yorkshire History Centre. Regional Record Offices, Skipton Library and The National Archives have provided many documents. Others are from original deeds in private hands. Transcriptions have been made by various people, for ...
This extensive collection of historical material relating to North Craven was assembled over many years by Philip and Rita Hudson and the now defunct North Craven Historical Research Group. The material presently on the website is a mere fraction of the total collection which is held on computer by Dales Community Archives. More of this ...
NORTH CRAVEN WILLS AND INVENTORIES
The transcription of wills and inventories from copies held at a variety of regional
Record Offices, The National Archives and the Borthwick Institute for Archives at
York University has been undertaken by volunteers. A date of 1750 was initially set to
limit the extent of the work to wills proved at York.
The set to ...
A collection of over 80 deeds, indentures, wills and miscellaneous documents mostly on vellum relating to Newland House Farm, Horton in Ribblesdale and dated between 1665 and 1981.
These documents, housed in a large tin deed box, were purchased in 2016 from the estate of Phil Hudson (Hudson History) of Settle by Ian and Sheila Fleming ...
This collection of images and documents is being progressively assembled by the Quarry Tales team as part of the Stories in Stone programme of projects. It comprises material made available to the team from personal collections, mainly assembled by those working or who worked in the local stone quarrying and processing industry. The collection is ...
A miscellaneous collection of local historical material has been scanned but most importantly the several very large Rathmell School log books dating from 1867 have been scanned. In addition a collection of documents concerning New Hall has recently been found: they have been catalogued, transcribed, or abstracted. A history of New Hall has been written ...
A collection of miscellaneous documents, including the story of registering the village green as a Common, assembled by the people of Selside over the years.
This project documents the lives of those buried since 1839 in the Graveyard at Holy Ascension Church, Settle. The project has been carried out by a team of volunteers led by Sarah Lister. As research evolves items are continuously being updated.
Collection made by the Stainforth History Group of a wide range of items of historical interest. A questionnaire organised by the Parish council of villagers for the Millennium requested a village history.
The North Yorkshire County Council Library in Skipton has a wide-ranging collection of historical material deposited by the late Dr Arthur Raistrick (The Raistrick Collection) and a separate collection of other local material (The Skipton Library Collection). Two catalogues are available: further enquiries have to be made to the Library. Copies of documents can be ...
Collection of material assembled by Edwin Butt clerk to the former Settle RDC and made available to North Craven Historical Research Group by Charles Andrew Butt in the mid 2000s. Documents of local historical interest have been digitised by NCHRG and the Capturing the Past team and will be progressively included on this website. All ...
Settle Town Council possess two books concerning the subscription of shares for building the Town Hall in 1832 (now in the keeping of North Yorkshire County Record Office) and also photographs of some of the market charter documents held in The National Archives. (copyright TNA). Images of the books and a short article on the ...
Upper Wharfedale is a large rural area with little access to the Arts & Literature facilities enjoyed by urban communities. The Upper Wharfedale Arts and Literature Society, UWALS, aims to improve access to art and literature within the Upper Wharfedale area by the provision and support of lectures, performances, talks, workshops and other associated activities.
You ...
A collection of material relating to the history and activities of Friends of the Dales, a registered charity, originally founded in 1981 as the Yorkshire Dales Society.
