Queens Rock Swimming Place

A Memory of Settle.

This early picture of Settle shows the River Ribble as it bypasses the South/West of the actual town, the Bridge in the middle left carries the A65 trunk road which then ran through the very center of Settle, and was the main route between Leeds , Skipton, Settle and on to Lancaster and Kendal, the area to the bottom left are farmers Fields , you can pick out the footpath which still exists today, the Ribble at that flat point is shallow enough to walk though but fills up rapidly when rain falls at Ribblehead and can be very deep and extremely fast flowing, About 1920 ish Settle High School For Girls was built with those fields being eventually being made into Hockey Fields for the School, about 1958/9 the Girls High School started to take Boys..( I was one of those horrid Boys), and eventually I believe the School became Settle Academy or College .

In the bottom Right can be seen the most fantastic swimming place ever to be found in Settle , there was huge Limestone Boulder around 10 feet high which us daring boys would climb up and either jump or dive off into the pool below which at its deepest was then around eight feet, and extremely cold water, crystal clear and full of trout.

In the middle near distance can be seen the almost new (pristine and clean) Railway Viaduct which still in 2015 holds the Leeds to Carlisle railway line, below which is the Marshfield area where many houses and a Council yard were eventually built, Marshfield is also the home of the Settle Cricket Club which bounded the mighty railway line embankment.

To the middle Right is the escarpment called Castleberg Hill which towers above Settle Market place, and was a favourite place for us half witted boys to climb up and then shout down to our pals in town.

Dominating the entire picture are the mighty Attamire hills with the top left showing the valley that led to the Victoria Cave, that was only fully explored about 1908 I seem to remember by Tot Lord a Settle resident and well know in his day, Skipton Museum holds many pre-historic relics from that exploration.

Peter Blackburn, formerly of the Craven Arms Hotel Giggleswick 1957/64 peter@wellheld.com