A hidden gem, watery grave & sundials

Kirkby Malham lies on the River Aire, a short distance from Malham. It's so small that most people simply pass through on their way to better known beauty spots, and yet despite its size, Kirkby Malham has a cornucopia of  interesting connections and curiosities. 

Bill Bryson, the American author of the best-selling Notes from A Small Island lived in Kirkby Malham for several years. Many years earlier another literary great, Charles Kingsley, stayed in the hamlet, and immortalised the church bells in The Water Babies, written in 1863: 'Under the crag where the ouzel sings, And the ivied wall where the church bell rings'.

The church of St Michael the Archangel is sometimes called 'the Cathedral of the Dales'. Its foundation goes back to the 9th century, with the church being rebuilt in the 15th century.

It's a fascinating church to look around, said to have been visited twice by Cromwell to attend weddings. There is evidence of the church's connections to the monks at Fountains Abbey, as much of the land around Malham was once owned by the cistercian monks.

​Just inside the church gates are the old village stocks. I've often seen double stocks but don't think I've ever seen a triple set like these - they're incredibly close together so miscreants were either all very skinny or children? 

Also in the graveyard is an another curiosity, known as the 'Watery Grave'. Colonel John Harrison had a career in his army so he was often separated by water from his wife Helen. She had asked ‘as water parted us in life, so it shall in death'. Helen's grave was built over a small stream running through the graveyard, with the intention that her husband would be buried on the other side of the stream. But when the Colonel died, try as he might, the gravedigger couldn't manage to dig beyond the impenetrable rock to create a separate grave, so he had to be buried with his wife. 

Nearby is what locals refer to as the 'Vic' pub or Victoria Inn, once known as the Victoria Hotel, commemorating the marriage of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. The former owner, Mr Serjeantson liked sun dials and arranged for one to be erected above the door of the Inn, created 'according to the directions given in the "Encyclopædia Britannica," set up with the help of a candle, a piece of string, and the North Star.'  As you wander around Kirkby Malham, you'll see other sun dials as well as a number of 17th century date stones.

The large and handsome mill building on the Aire gives an indication of Kirkby Malham's former importance. Known as both Scalegill Mill and Hanlith Mill, it was originally used to grind corn, and then either re-built or adapted to take advantage of the cotton boom in the 1790s. By 1821 it had been taken on by Dewhirsts. I remember learning to sew using Dewhirst Sylko cotton (although that wasn't until the 20th century...). In later years as demand for cotton reduced, the mill was used as a sawmill and eventually to provide electricity for nearby Hanlith Hall. After that it was taken over for poultry farming until being converted to housing in 1975.