Burnsall
OS grid reference:- SE 031 615
The highly attractive riverside village of Burnsall is situated in beautiful Upper Wharfedale in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Situated by an ancient packhorse bridge crossing a bend in the River Wharfe, the village lies 2 miles to the south-east of Grassington.
Burnsall, which makes an ideal location for a holiday in the Dales, boasts a parish church, a chapel, a cricket pitch by the river, tea rooms, two hotels and a pub, the Red Lion Hotel.
The village school, (pictured below left) which is a Grade II listed building, dates back to 1602 and was once a grammar school which was founded by William Craven. An inscription over the doorway reads "William Craven, Alderman of London, Founder of this school, anno domini 1601". William Craven was born in nearby the village of Appletreewick and made his way to London where he prospered and rose to become Lord Mayor of the city in 1611.
The ancient village church is dedicated to St Wilfrid, who was a seventh century Anglo-Saxon saint from Northumbria, who lived 634 to 709. Wilfrid is one of the greatest and also one of the most controversial English Saints. He directly influenced the move away from Celtic to the more orderly Roman church practices and is best known for championing and winning the case for the Roman, as opposed to the Celtic method of calculating the date of Easter at the famous Synod of Whitby in 664.
A place of worship has occupied this site since at least the late ninth century. The present church, which is perpendicular in style, is a Grade I listed building. It contains an unusual eleventh century font elaborately carved with bird and beasts, twelve Anglo-Saxon sculpture fragments and a fourteenth century alabaster panel depicting the Adoration of the Magi.
The east window of St Wilfrid's Chapel depicts the saint as a youth with his patron Queen Enfleda at the monastery at Lindisfarne on the left and on the right as Bishop of York in 669. The church may have been endowed by the Romille family who acquired the Manor of Burnsall from the King's theigns within 50 years of the Domesday Survey. During a refurbishment of the church in the mid nineteenth Century, a number of Viking stones and artefacts were discovered. Some of these have been retained in the church, and form a fascinating exhibition at the back of the building. Hog-back gravestones in the churchyard date to the tenth century.
The Red Lion Inn (pictured above right) dates back to the sixteenth century, and was originally a Ferryman's inn. The cellars are much older than the rest of the building and are said to date from the twelfth century. The inn is open for accommodation and meals throughout the year and offers excellent food, fine wines and real ale.
A path along the river from Burnsall to Hebden, 1 mile (2 km) to the north-west, dates back to Viking times.
Nearby attractions include Bolton Abbey, Loup Scar and the limestone gorge of Troller's Gill in Trollerdale, which is reputed to be haunted by Scandinavian trolls and a huge spectral hound.
Towns and Villages of Yorkshire