Heard of the lost or forgotten villages across the Dales? Seeing relics of buildings in the landscape or reading about legends of lost settlements is a sure-fire way to spark the curiosity:
Scar in Upper Nidderdale: Perhaps the best known of them all, the aptly named Scar village, still leaves its mark in the landscape as you approach the reservoir in Upper Nidderdale. The village was always going to be temporary as it housed the workers, and their families, employed to build the reservoir back in the 1920s. At its peak, the village had over 1250 residents and with a cinema, infirmary, gym and grocery store as well as hot water and inside toilets in the homes, it was far more advanced than most of the permanent settlements in Nidderdale!
Lodge, also in Upper Nidderdale: Walk beyond and round the far side of Scar House Reservoir towards the forboding Dead Man’s Hill and you’ll come across a jumble of stones, building foundations and sycamore trees where the Medieval hamlet of Lodge once stood. The hamlet, made up of a group of farm buildings, was created by the Cistercian abbey of Byland, and run by lay brothers to provide produce, and an income, for the monks. Legend has it that Dead Man’s hill refers to the murder of three drovers by a woman and her daughter who kept the inn in Lodge. The bodies were buried on the hill. If you venture onto the moors about Bouthwaite you’ll come across two weathered stones called Jenny Twig and her daughter Tib, named after the murdering pair.
West End, Thruscross: The sunken village of West End has become known as Yorkshire’s version of ‘Atlantis’ thanks to the building remains re-emerging when Thruscross reservoir’s water levels are lowered. The small hamlet of about six houses were homes to families working in the local flax mill. By the time the reservoir was built in the 1960s it was already a ghost village after synthetic materials had displaced flax.
Semer, Raydale: Semer Water might have been created by natural forces but it hasn’t stopped its association with legends of lost settlements . Perhaps the best known is the one where a beggar is said to have wandered into the town in search of food and drink only to be shunned by residents. He put a curse on the town which led to the water of the lake rising up and flooding all the buildings.
Photo & words thanks to Amanda Brown