Terrible knitters

fionaell
Jun 7, 2019
2 min read

So today was our last day in Yorkshire. Tomorrow we are on the road north, heading as far as Loch Lomond for the night before repairing to Elgol for some real isolation (and togetherness, the crofter's cottage has two rooms and a bathroom).

Unfortunately, it is raining. We knew it would because the very straight-faced, monotone weatherman on Channel Four said it would. Every night he reports a newly forming low, with confused, unsettled and unpredictably grotty weather, mostly sitting right on top of Yorkshire. Then he wishes us a good evening. You can tell he doesn't mean it.

Because of the rain we went through to Hawes, to the Dales Museum, and came back via two stations on the Settle-Carlisle line, Garsdale and Dent.

The Hawes museum gave a good account of Dales life in the past, beginning with the tradespeople there would have been in each village. This tinsmith's workshop was uplifted from its site and brought into the museum.

As was this pharmacy...

Here is a terrible knitter. They were called terrible, because they were terribly good. Apparently everyone, all ages and genders, knitted constantly in order to make a bit of extra money because farming didn't pay enough by itself. They would knit anytime they didn't need their hands - like going to get the cows in. There are knitting songs that you sing to knit in rhythm, and 'sittings' where you get together to knit. They knitted in the light of the peat fires, and each evening in the dark would assemble at a neighbours house and knit like crazy while singing and chatting.

These are knitting sticks. You use them to put the ends of your needles in and wear them on your waistband. I still can't quite visualise how it works, but apparently their knitting technique is a little different to the standard one. Anyway, carved knitting sticks were often a gift from an admirer and contained messages in the carving.

This is a typical Dentdale pattern: the different dales had different specialities.

Apparently they made a lot of stockings...

The station buildings of the Settle-Carlisle railway are special - built in 1870 and made to be a consistent 'front' for the Midland Railway, they are in a style called 'Midland Gothic' https://www.settle-carlisle.co.uk/heritage/design-guide/guide/station-buildings/.

Garsdale still has a signal box and some semaphore signals.

Dent's station is larger, and has been made into a B'n'B. It's the highest mainline station in England - and it's several miles from Dent proper, so if you got dropped off in the night you might be disappointed.