Ingleton: bygone and present

Authors: Robert and Margaret Balderston

Publisher: Simpkin, Marshall & Co., London and Edmondson & Co. Skipton. 1888

This is a very fine book, and worthy of the attention of anyone interested in the caves and scenery of the Yorkshire Dales. It was written by a husband and wife team, Robert Balderston being a professor of natural sciences. The book includes a map of the area engraved by Goodall and Suddick of Leeds, which marks many of the features described, as well as a number of fine engraved illustrations.

This book is divided into a number of sections, of which the first will be of most interest to cavers:


 * 1) The Scenery
 * 2) The History
 * 3) The Natural History
 * 4) Appendices

The Scenery section starts with a description of Ingleton, followed by three chapters on Kingsdale, Chapel-le-Dale, and Jenkins Beck and Ingleborough. These are all worth reading.

The final chapter of the section is titled "The Caves, Chasms, Alpine Waterfalls and Underground Streams" in which the prominent caves from all the main areas of Ingleborough and Whernside are described, as well as those of Leck Fell and around Easegill. They explored many of the caves for a considerable distance, describing, for example, how the main stream way in Great Douk divides where it gets low, and their descent of the first 100 feet of the Rowten Pot gully on rope. They also measured the depth of most of the shafts with a plumb line with great accuracy (Long Kin West was plumbed to 294').

The descriptions are liberally interwoven with anecdotes. When describing what is now known as Ivescar Caves, they say:

''The most remarkable circumstance connected with Boggart Hole consists, however, in the fact that at one time, after heavy rainfalls, gold and silver coins were occasionally washed from this contracted cavern. Whether these coins formed part of a hoard secreted in the cave itself or some other cranny higher up the hill, whence they could be swept by the rush of waters into the rifts in the limestone, has not been ascertained.''

This section contained the only guide to the caves of the area until Albert Mitchell produced his Yorkshire Caves and Potholes in 1937, and it was to inspire many of the explorations undertaken by the Yorkshire Rambles before the First World War.

The Natural History section includes a comprehensive description of the geology of the area which still has relevance today.

Whilst the book is undated and is sometimes given a publication date of 1889, it was almost certainly published in 1888. In the The English Catalogue of Books: Books Issued in the United Kingdom published in 1891, its publication date is given as 1888 and its price as 4s 6d.

This book is now difficult to get hold of and is expensive, but a searchable facsimile edition is available on CD Rom from Yorkshire CD Books.