Kildwick's poppies

The main reason for my flying visit to Kildwick (see yesterday) was to see the poppy cascade that had been constructed on St. Andrew's church tower to commemorate the centenary of the end of the First World War. It was inspired by the poppies displayed at the Tower of London in 2014 (see here), part of which was a 'weeping window' with poppies cascading down. The poppies at the Tower were made of ceramic, whereas the Kildwick poppies (1599 of them!) had been knitted, crocheted or fashioned from fabric and sewn onto a 17m long base structure by church members, villagers, children and members of a local knitting group. It was a very impressive sight.

A flying visit

Before my holiday, I paid a flying visit to the village of Kildwick, a few miles up the valley from Saltaire. It was a roasting hot, sunny day so I only took a short walk. The village hugs the banks of the Leeds-Liverpool Canal, although higher up the hill is a fine Jacobean manor house called Kildwick Hall, built in 1642 and in private ownership.

It is a nice little village, mostly residential properties, with a good pub and a large church. The village has historic links to the priory at Bolton Abbey. Below the village, in the valley bottom, the main road from Keighley to Skipton crosses the River Aire and in the 1300s Bolton Priory paid for a stone bridge to be constructed here, the oldest stone bridge in Airedale. (It's not the one in my photo, which is a canal bridge.) The bridge still stands at the entrance to the village, though the main road has since been diverted onto a bypass to avoid the bottleneck that the village became.

This stretch of the Leeds-Liverpool Canal from Bingley to Skipton was the first section to be completed, in 1773.

Kildwick church

Despite having a population of less than 200, the village of Kildwick, situated between Silsden and Skipton, has an enormous church, St Andrew's. It is very old. An Anglo-Saxon church stood here before the Norman Conquest and fragments of 9th century crosses have been found. Much of the existing church dates back to the time of Henry VIII. It was lengthened in the 15th and 16th centuries and some restoration was undertaken in Victorian times (1873).  It is now one of the longest churches in Yorkshire and is known as 'The Lang Kirk of Craven' (Craven being the name for this part of Yorkshire, around Skipton).

It has two burial grounds, one on either side of the canal, but burials are only allowed now into existing graves. However, its surroundings are lovely. The church was locked so I couldn't go in but they have made a Lent Labyrinth in the church yard, laid out with mown grass and miniature daffodils. It was good to take a few minutes of quiet, walking and praying the Labyrinth.

From Silsden to Kildwick

I had to take my car for its first annual service recently. I can't believe I've already had it for a year! I went back to the garage where I purchased it, in Silsden, which is a small town about 10 miles away. To while away the time while it was being looked at, I decided to walk in a westerly direction along the Leeds-Liverpool Canal towpath, since it passes through the centre of Silsden on its way to Kildwick and eventually to Skipton. It's not a stretch I know very well and, even on a fairly dull day, it proved to be a pleasant walk. The river Aire runs in the valley bottom, which tends to get flooded and boggy in this area, and so the canal is constructed part way up the valley side. There are lovely views from the towpath.

The small village of Kildwick is to the right of my photo. It has a long history and some quite old buildings. The stone bridge over the river was constructed in the very early 1300s when Kildwick was part of the Bolton Priory estate.