Kettlewell village

Kettlewell is a quintessential Yorkshire Dales village, sleepy during the week but a magnet for visitors at weekends and in the school holidays. It's bisected by Kettlewell Beck, which meets the River Wharfe at the west end of the village. Many of the properties are quite old - 17th and 18th century - and the area boomed in the late 18th/early 19th centuries when lead was mined in the surrounding hills. 

It's attractive in a solid, Dales kind of way, with well-kept cottage gardens overflowing with roses at this time of year.

Keep your eyes open and there are hints of its history - though I do not know how old this engraving in a barn wall is. 

There has been a church, St Mary's, here since Norman times though the present structure dates only to the 19th century. 

Surrounded by the meadows and fells of Upper Wharfedale, its churchyard is a haven of peace, and has been developed as a wildflower and wildlife sanctuary. At the entrance is a beautifully carved lych gate, erected in 1921 by George and Mabel Holdsworth in thanksgiving for their marriage. The Holdsworths lived at Scargill House until they sold it in the 1950s to the Church of England to become the Christian community that it is now. 

I took some photos inside the church on a previous visit - see HERE if you're interested. It has some lovely stained glass.