Austwick is a small village situated mostly in the Yorkshire Dales National Park but with some parts in a designated 'Area of Natural Beauty'.

It has very close connections with Eldroth, Feizor, Keasden, Lawkland, and Wharfe but also with the close neighbouring village of Clapham by sharing the Church of England Vicar who covers the four Parishes of Austwick, Clapham Eldroth, and Keasden.

Fortunately, it is relatively unspoilt and, although there are dwelling houses from different centuries right up to the present century, many still remain from earlier times with several dating from the 16th century.

Austwick has many interesting resident and visiting birds. The natural covering, trees, the old type of stone housing, and dry stone walls, give a wide choice of nesting habitats

Equally, it has an extremely rich variety of wild flowers, butterflies, moths, and insects a virtual paradise for those having an interest in nature.

The area is also one of great geological interest.

This photograph shows one of the many so called 'erratic' boulders to be found on Norber, overlooking the village of Austwick.

Overlooking Austwick, stands Oxenber Hill, capped with a magnificent limestone pavement.

Austwick is a close community with residents cooperating together to keep  the village in a healthy state and to provide communal facilities. That it is also forward thinking is clear for when it was not possible to obtain a fast and economical connection to the Internet , it was one of the very first rural villages to set up its very own connection using a radio link. Fully researched by a resident, and constructed and put into action, using community volunteers that system is still in operation over an area of more than 50 square miles providing a radio link to the Internet via antennae to over 100 households, Austwick Primary School, and to several quite isolated sites where normal connection would be impossible.

The history of Austwick began millions of years ago when the rocks forming its basis, slates, limestones and sandstones ,were first laid down in prehistoric seas.  In addition to the obvious influence on the construction of houses, farm buildings and field walls, there was the effect on agriculture both in soil formation and in the use of limestone for soil improvement.

Much later came the great Ice Ages which cut the valley, built the low rounded hills (which usually have names ending in ‘ber’), decided the drainage patterns and strongly influenced the climate and vegetation, both wild and cultivated, as well as leaving us with the perched blocks (erratics) on the hill called Norber.

Prehistory

People have lived, died and been buried in and around Austwick for over 4000 years. Near the footpath leading from Austwick to Clapham there is an extensive settlement and metal detecting has uncovered a wide range of finds dating from the Bronze Age to modern days. Above Crummock there are the remains of an Iron Age settlement and not far away was found a large copper cooking vessel.  There was a prehistoric cave burial in Feizor Nick and a ‘bog burial’ in Austwick Bog (or Moss).

Like most places with a long history, Austwick has experienced a variety of fortunes and fulfilled several functions.   Austwick has passed through many phases, both in importance and in ways of earning its living.  There have been times of prosperity and times of dearth; times of joy and times of tragedy; times of rising population and times of semi-desertion such as the period after the Civil War when Austwick was described as “…wherein there are many blind, lame and aged persons; the inhabitants are impoverished by plundering, billeting and assessments.”

The Manor

Austwick was one of a group of four manors forming the parish of Clapham:-  Austwick, Clapham, Newby and Lawkland, each with its own lord.

In Doomsday Book, Austwick was at the head of a group of 12 manors, spread along the route north (now roughly the line of the A65) and was obviously of importance.  The manorial history with its various lords is very interesting in itself.  The Anglian lord at the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066 was Thorvin. (Incidentally, a field not far from Field House on the A65 bears the name ‘Thorvin Croft’- a connection or just a coincidence?) The Manor Court Books provide a great amount of information about the manor and its functions, mostly concerning the agricultural workings of the area.  Since 1782 the Farrer family has held the Lordship of the Manor of Austwick, the present Lord being Dr John Farrer of Clapham.

Agriculture

Throughout its life, Austwick has been concerned with agriculture, sometimes as its main occupation and sometimes in a subservient role such as in the times when the manufacture of textiles provided the main means of earning a living. Although, at present farming is entirely pastoral with a variety of breeds of cattle, the terracing on the hillsides points to earlier arable fields and this is borne out in the written record.  In 1297, although most people with land had animals, cattle, sheep and goats, nearly half grew oats.  The growing of corn was essential for bread and beer until communications improved enough for it to be imported from elsewhere in the country. As late as 1851, it is mentioned that Austwick had 151 acres of arable out of a total acreage of 8000.

Industry

The earliest known mention of quarrying is in a document of circa 1200 and refers to a slate quarry.

Another industry that continued from at least the Middle Ages until the second half of the nineteenth century was the weaving of textiles: first wool, then linen and finally cotton. There are still reminders of this inexistence, the remains of a 'spinning gallery' is still to be found in a private house in the centre of Austwick.

The village is located on the west side of the Pennines in the valley of Austwick Beck, which is a headwater tributary of the Wenning and Lune rivers. The valley of Austwick Beck has steep sides and is surrounded by extensive uplands.

The underlying rocks are of Paleozoic age.  The oldest rocks are sandstones, gritstones and slates of Ordovician and Silurian age.  These formations form the rock surface in the valley.  They are well exposed in Crummack Dale to the north of the village where they are strongly folded along east-west axes.  The rocks are relatively impervious and restrict the flow of groundwater.

Massive limestone rock formations of Lower Carboniferous age rest above the older Ordovician and Silurian formations.  The contact between them is unconformable whereby the Carboniferous limestone strata are more or less horizontal relative to the strongly folded older formations the surface of which had been eroded to form an ancient rolling landscape.  The limestone formations appear as scarp slopes along the valley sides and karstic pavements in the uplands.  They are well drained via joints and bedding planes, which enlarge as infiltrating precipitation slowly dissolves the limestones ultimately resulting in the formation of the caves and potholes in the surrounding area.  The infiltrating precipitation collects as groundwater in the limestone formation and flows through the joints and bedding planes.  The discharge of this groundwater emerges as springs locally at the contact of the limestone with the underlying relatively impervious Ordovician and Silurian rocks.  One such spring at Norber was the source of water supply to the village until recently.

Limestones, sandstones, and shales of the Yoredale Series and then the Millstone Grit rest above the Lower Carboniferous “Great Scar Limestones.” These rock strata are exposed on the upper slopes and summit of Ingleborough to the north and Penyghent to the northeast.

Figure 1: The village of Austwick looking west across the valley of Austwick Beck from a well jointed limestone pavement near the summit of Oxenber. The Craven Faults extend from the upper right to the centre left separating the uplands in the foreground and midground from the lowlands in the distance.  The north Craven Fault diverges from the South Craven Fault in the vicinity of Austwick and extends to the right along the valley below the limestone pavement.

Figure 2: Norber looking north.  The Silurian-Carboniferous contact is at the foot of the limestone scarp.  Springs, which emerge from this contact, are the source of the stream and were the source of the Austwick water supply.  The boulders, which appear along the summit of Norber, are erratic boulders of Silurian rocks deposited on the younger Carboniferous limestones by ice during the last Pleistocene glaciations.

The Craven Fault system passes through the Austwick area marking the west side of the uplands. The downthrow is to the west where downfaulted rocks are of Upper Carboniferous age. Two parallel North and South Craven Faults pass through the Ingleton area to the southeast. Near Austwick the two faults diverge. From this location the North Craven Fault continues up the valley of Austwick Beck, across Ribblesdale towards Grassington. The south Craven fault continues south eastward to beyond Settle. Giggleswick scar to the southeast of Austwick is a result of the faulting.

Figure 3: View looking east across the valley of Austwick Beck and into Ribblesdale from Norber The glacial erratic boulders of Silurian age are in the foreground.

Figure 4: The unconformable Silurian-Carboniferous contact below Norber; the path is on the Silurian rocks. The base of the Carboniferous rocks is formed of incompetent limestone rubble into which a notch has been eroded.