Regionalism in rural settlement in the Pennines of north-west Yorkshire

Abstract

In the Pennines of North-West Yorkshire the mainphysical divisions include the major valleys of Wensleydale, Swaledale, Nidderdale, Wharfedale and Ribblesdale, with the Vale of York to the east and the Graven Lowland to the south. Ever since Anglo-Saxon times these regions have been much more intensively farmed and have always supported denser populations and bigger villages. Most outstanding in these respects, apart from the lowlands bordering the Pennines, have always been the wider valleys of Wensleydale (below Hawes), Lower Nidderdale (below Pateley Bridge), Middle Wharfedale (around Grassington) and Lower Wharfedale (below Bolton Abbey).This regionalism in relation to the physical aspects is. seen also in settlement morphology and the extent to which dwellings are nucleated or dispersed. Street villages and those with the square plan are today limited to the lowlands and Major: Valleys, as also are village greens. The Graven Lowland, a great trans-Pennine route, is distinguished by a linear pattern of population distribution and village growth. The Pennine border on the east, where there are few major relief contrasts, is best taken as the edge of the humraocky drift which characterises the Vale of York. This boundary, which to some extent affects soils, finds its reflection very broadly in farming and settlement. The land to the east, often with bigger villages, has more arable cultivation and has had ever since Domesday Survey times. There are further differences here, as in architecture and building materials. The geological or lithological divisions of the Pennines (Craven Highlands, Yoredales Pennines, Millstone Grit Dipslope) are most clearly reflected in settlement in the Prehistoric Period when there was a tendency for the Graven Highlands, with well-drained limestone tracts and open grasslands, to attract the peoples and cultures.