Starbotton
| Starbotton | |
|---|---|
| Population | fewer than 200 |
| OS grid reference | SD953747 |
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | SKIPTON |
| Postcode district | BD23 5HY |
| Dialling code | 01756 |
| Police | North Yorkshire |
| Fire | North Yorkshire |
| Ambulance | Yorkshire |
| UK Parliament | |
Starbotton is a hamlet (of around 70 houses) and civil parish in the West Riding of Yorkshire in the administrative district of Craven, North Yorkshire, England. It is situated in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, by the River Wharfe in Wharfedale. The resident population is only around 75 with many of the village houses being used as holiday accommodation. There are only two remaining working farms - one at either end of the village, the rest having being converted in one way or another. It is on the opposite bank of the River Wharfe to the Dales Way half way between Kettlewell and Buckden.
Starbotton has a Quaker burial ground (which was restored as a Millennium Project), a cash machine and a public house, the Fox and Hounds, but no church. Footpaths lead from Starbotton in five directions, up to the top of Buckden Pike (via Cam Road), down the river to Kettlewell, up the river to Buckden, over the top to Arncliffe and over to Coverdale.
The derivation of the name is the subject of much debate but has nothing to do with "stars" or "bottom". Instead it is thought to be derived from "Stamphotne" (1086 Domesday Book) or "Stauerboten" (12th Century - Old English "stæfer" replacing the Norse "stafn" in the first form and meaning "the place where stakes are got"). People have lived in this part of the dale since at least the Iron Age. The area is criss-crossed with pack horse trails from the time when the great monasteries like Fountains Abbey, Jervaulx and Rievaulx traded wool and other goods across this part of the Pennines.
Cam Road is a green lane and has recently been closed to motor vehicles by the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority as part of an experiment to reverse damage caused by off-roaders. The main damage was caused by trail bikes on the steep section and sharp bends just before it enters the village – resulting in the bed of the track becoming almost impassable to pedestrians. Once the surface had been broken, subsequent rains washed the remaining soils away leaving nothing but stone. Even attempts to fill the holes with quarry waste were undone by the traction from motorbikes which sprayed the loose chippings down the hillside.
Other interesting features include the Smelt Flue leading up from the back of the village to the Smelt Chimney above Cam Gill. This is a remnant of the Smeltmill. It is still possible to crawl through parts of the flue as it climbs the hillside. This was the principal job for children at the mill - to collect the white lead oxide from the sides of the flue. Hence the number of very young people buried in the churchyard at Kettlewell in the 18th and 19th centuries.
There was a small quarry next to the bridge over Cam Gill Beck leading up to Cam Road (accessed from the lane beside the Fox and Hounds). Many of the buildings in the village were constructed from its stone. This was also refurbished as part of the Millennium Project for the village and the quarry face was replanted to stabilise the hillside. There is also a small pound on the lane at the back of the pub - originally for housing stray animals.
The imposing house with a pointed arch window, looking down the road (next to the pub), was built for the manager of the Smelt Mill. In addition, the rather derelict-looking barn with an external staircase, on the bend in the road opposite the Fox and Hounds, once housed a drovers' bar on the upper floor. Beasts could be accommodated at ground level. A little further up the road travelling towards Buckden the last house on the right hand side is below road level. This was the original pub in the village and its position shows how much the road was raised when the ford across the Cam Gill Beck was converted to a bridge. For many years there was a vast pile of rubble (now removed back to the remaining walls) standing to the north of the former pub. This was once a large barn that, to quote one of the oldest residents (when in his 90's), "collapsed when my wife looked at it - she was a stern woman!". There have been plans for its reinstatement for many years.
On the opposite side of the road, just before the bridge, is what appears to be a small gatehouse beside the entrance gateway to a Victorian dwelling. The roof to this was broken by a loose tank gun, which swung out of control, on a convoy moving through the Dale prior to D-Day. The owner at the time was too patriotic to claim the costs of the repair and it was not refurbished until the early 2000s. The Victorian house itself is an extension of a much older Dales Long Barn. The older part appears now as the small cottage attached to the Victorian villa at the end furthest from the road. Much of this end of the village had been rebuilt following a disastrous flood in 1686 which demolished about 1/3 of the then existing village. The neighbouring Cleveliot House (subsequently extended) was built in the 1970s in the style of a typical Dales house of the late 18th century on the site of a former barn dating from 1685.
There is a drinking water tap (discreetly placed) in a lane off to the right of the main road through the village before reaching the pub (when approaching from Kettlewell) close to the site of what was once the village school (now a private house). There are no other public facilities apart from phone booth and post box - both close to the former Village Institute that originally housed the post office, which closed in 1971.