Keld, North Yorkshire

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Keld
Keld shown within North Yorkshire
OS grid reference	NY891010
District	Richmondshire
Shire county	North Yorkshire
Region	Yorkshire and the Humber
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	DARLINGTON
Postcode district	DL11
Police	North Yorkshire
Fire	North Yorkshire
Ambulance	Yorkshire
European Parliament	Yorkshire and the Humber
List of places: UK • England • Yorkshire

Coordinates: 54°24′18″N 2°10′06″W / 54.40492, -2.16819

Keld seen from the Pennine Way as it leaves Swaledale.

Keld is a hamlet in the English county of North Yorkshire. The name derives from the Viking word Kelda meaning a spring, and the village was once called Appletre Kelde - the spring near the apple trees.^[1]

Keld is the crossing point of the Coast to Coast Walk and the Pennine Way long distance footpaths at the head of Swaledale. Unfortunately it contains neither a shop nor a public house. There was a Youth Hostel but this closed in October 2006; the building has since reopened as a hotel, restaurant and micro-brewery. There is a series of four waterfalls close to Keld at a limestone gorge on the River Swale. These are Kisdon Force, East Gill Force, Catrake Force and Wain Wath Force.

[edit] Crackpot Hall

The ruins of Crackpot Hall lie about a mile east of Keld on the northern slope of the dale at grid reference NY906008. There may have been a building on this site since the 1500s^[2] when a hunting lodge was maintained for Thomas, the first Baron Wharton, who visited the Dale occasionally to shoot the red deer. Survey work by the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority has shown that the building has changed many times over the years. At one time it even had a heather or "ling" thatched roof.

Crackpot Hall and view of Swaledale

The current ruin is of a farmhouse dating from the mid 1700s. It was an impressive two story building with a slate roof and matching "shippons" or cow sheds at each end for animals. The building may also have been used as mine offices, as intensive lead mining was carried out in the area, and there were violent disputes over mine boundaries in the 18th century.

In the 1930s Ella Pontefract and Marie Hartley wrote of a wild 4-year-old child living here by the name of Alice.^[3]

The current building was abandoned in the 1950s because of subsidence. Crackpot Hall has been saved from further decay by Gunnerside Estate with the aid of grants from the Millennium Commission and European Union through the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust.

The name Crackpot is said to be Viking for "a deep hole or chasm that is a haunt of crows".

[edit] References

^ David Simpson. Richmond and Swaledale. The Yorkshire History Pages. Retrieved on 2007-04-09.
^ Crackpot Hall. Stone plaque placed next to the ruins of Crackpot Hall. Retrieved on 2007-04-09.
^ Gordon Hatton (2007). Crackpot Hall and Swaledale. Geograph. Retrieved on 2007-04-09.