A visit to Ingleton

Do you have a favourite spot in or near Ingleton? As temperatures start to rise, you might think about taking the plunge and going for a swim. There's no shortage of excellent swimming spots in the Yorkshire Dales. Soon it will be time to enjoy the delights of Ingleton Lido. It was first built in 1933 and is now staffed, cleaned, and maintained by a team of volunteers.

Numerous lidos were built in England in the 1930s, perhaps inspired by the trend towards glamorous cruise-liners and foreign travel. The original pool took about a year to dig out by volunteers, ably assisted by striking miners from a local colliery. It was filled by a gravity fed pipe from the nearby river, taking 25 hours to fill.

Ingleton Lido was updated and practically re-built in the 1970s, and is now heated and open around three months a year between May to early September. It's thanks to some very committed volunteers who fundraise and lifeguard that the pool has continued to operate for almost a century. The pool is in the centre of the village in a riverside park setting.

There are plenty of other reasons to visit Ingleton such as following the beautiful Ingleton Waterfalls Trail, seeing the skill that goes into making the wide range of products at Ingleton Pottery, shopping for outdoor clothing or enjoying the shops, cafes and pubs.

​If you saw the excellent film, "Lad: A Yorkshire Story", you may recognise one of the owners of another relatively new business on the edge of Ingleton. Bretton Lord (who had the lead role in the film) runs the slightly bonkers (in a good way) Lords Antiques & Salvage.

While you're in the area, you might like to ponder on the Sherlock Holmes' connections. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's mother, Mary Doyle lived at Masongill Cottage near Ingleton for about 30 years. When Conan Doyle visited her it's likely he'd have travelled by train to Ingleton and then onwards through Holme Head to Masongill.

One of Conan Doyle's early stories was called Uncle Jeremy's Household, and published in the same year he married. The main character was from Baker Street in London and in the story he comes to Ingleton by train to meet his friend, a chemist. There's a stained glass window in the tower of St. Mary's Church, Ingleton which is dedicated to a man called Randal Hopley Sherlock who was killed by lightning at the railway station. His brother was once the local vicar, taking services in Ingleton and possibly Masongill. Was this the inspiration for Conan Doyle's famous character's name?

Conan Doyle married his first wife, Louisa at St. Oswold's in Thornton in Lonsdale between Ingleton and Masongill, where the Reverend Sherlock also sometimes took services.