Rathmell

Coordinates: 54°02′05″N 2°18′01″W / 54.0346°N 2.3004°W / 54.0346; -2.3004
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Rathmell
Rathmell Reading Room
Rathmell is located in North Yorkshire
Rathmell
Rathmell
Location within North Yorkshire
OS grid referenceSD804598
Civil parish
  • Rathmell
Unitary authority
Ceremonial county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townSettle
Postcode districtBD24
PoliceNorth Yorkshire
FireNorth Yorkshire
AmbulanceYorkshire
List of places
UK
England
Yorkshire
54°02′05″N 2°18′01″W / 54.0346°N 2.3004°W / 54.0346; -2.3004

Rathmell is a village and civil parish in the Craven district of North Yorkshire, England. The population of the civil parish in the 2011 census was 305.[1] It is close to the River Ribble and about three miles south of Settle. Other towns and villages nearby include Wigglesworth, Tosside, Giggleswick and Long Preston.

Origins[edit]

Signpost near the village showing directions to local communities and recording the pre-1974 location within Yorkshire West Riding

The name Rathmell comes from Old Norse rauðr 'red' + melr 'sandbank'.[2] Indeed, the area has a long history of Norse settlement.[3] Rathmell was formerly a township in the parish of Gigggleswick,[4] in 1866 Rathmell became a civil parish in its own right. On 1 April 1938 432 acres was transferred from Gisburn Forest.[5]

Dissenting academy[edit]

Rathmell is the birthplace of Richard Frankland (1630–1698),[6] the nonconformist divine. He was ordained by presbyters under the Cromwellian regime, but was ejected from his ministry at the Restoration. He retired home to Rathmell, where he founded a dissenting academy, which migrated to Manchester after his death. This academy was the germ of the institution now known as Harris Manchester College, Oxford. The location of the original Academy at Rathmell is marked by a memorial plaque on the end of a small terrace of cottages which still bears the name "College Fold".

Notable people[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ UK Census (2011). "Local Area Report – Rathmell Parish (1170216777)". Nomis. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 11 April 2018.
  2. ^ "Rathmell Key to English Place-names". The University of Nottingham. Retrieved 8 December 2021.
  3. ^ Muir, Richard (1997). The Yorkshire Countryside. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. p. 115. ISBN 1474471153.
  4. ^ "History of Rathmell, in Craven and West Riding". A Vision of Britain through Time. Retrieved 8 December 2020.
  5. ^ "Relationships and changes Rathmell CP/Tn through time". A Vision of Britain through Time. Retrieved 8 December 2021.
  6. ^ Stuart Handley, Richard Frankland (1630–1698), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004.
  7. ^ "Kaye, Ven. Martin". Who's Who. A & C Black. 2007. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U156266. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

Bibliography[edit]

  • Edward Allen Bell, The History of Giggleswick School 1499–1912, Leeds: Richard Jackson, 1912.
  • Harold Blaxland Atkinson, The Giggleswick School Register 1499–1921, Newcastle upon Tyne: Northumberland Press, 1922.

External links[edit]

Media related to Rathmell at Wikimedia Commons