Garfit Gap and upper Bilsdale

Image: © Mick Garratt Taken: 22 Feb 2022

In spite of the blue sky and sunshine over upper Bilsdale, Urra Moor was decidedly gloomy and showery this afternoon. Ahead is Garfit Gap, the col between the Wainstones and Cold Moor. The farm below the gap to the left is Whingroves where Jack Garbutt, the Bilsdale Bombardier, grew up as a child. He was killed on the Western Front in 1918. To the right of the gap, nestled in a combe on Hasty Bank is Garfitts, a farm which has some history. There is no mention of Bilsdale in the Domesday Book but there are indications of pre-Norman settlement. Perhaps William the Conqueror did indeed get lost on the moors above Bilsdale and told his legati not to bother with the dale when ordering the survey of his realm. But the thinking is that medieval Bilsdale consisted of a number of scattered hamlets, and one of these was Garthwait, the ‘clearing with an enclosure’, situated where Garfitts farm is today. Interesting too, and probably completed unconnected, is that ‘garfits’ is an 18th-century Yorkshire ‘provincialism’ for garbage. For links and references see my blog http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=27439

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