Stock Ghyll

{{Short description|Stream in Cumbria, England}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2021}} {{EngvarB|date=May 2021}} thumb|upright=1.2|Stock Ghyll flowing through Ambleside '''Stock Ghyll''', also known as '''Stock Gill''', '''Stock Gill Beck''' and '''Stock Beck''', is a stream in the district of Westmorland and Furness, in the ceremonial county of Cumbria and the historic county of Westmorland. It flows about four miles{{sfn|Ordnance Survey|1989}} from Red Screes through the town of Ambleside to the River Rothay. Its course includes two long-popular tourist attractions, Stockghyll Force and Bridge House. Stock Ghyll has been painted by J. M. W. Turner, John Ruskin, Kurt Schwitters, and many others. Its name derives from Old English ''stocc'', 'tree-trunk', and Old Norse ''gil'', 'a deep glen'.<ref>{{cite book |last=Smith |first=A. H. |author-link=Albert Hugh Smith |date=1967 |title=The Place-Names of Westmorland. Part 1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PFIKAQAAMAAJ&q=%22stockghyll%22 |series=English Place-Name Society, 42 |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=184 |access-date=27 April 2021 }}</ref>

== Course == thumb|upright=0.8|Bridge House

Stock Ghyll rises on the southern slopes of Red Screes,<ref>{{cite book |last=Wainwright |first=A. |author-link=Alfred Wainwright |year=1955 |chapter=Red Screes |title=A Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells. Book One: The Eastern Fells |location=Kendal |publisher=Westmorland Gazette }}</ref> near Kirkstone Pass, and then runs in a generally southern direction, subsuming Snow Cove Gill and Grove Gill. Its course turns first south-westerly then westerly, at which point it enters woodland and descends 70 feet in a waterfall called Stockghyll Force. Up to this point the ghyll runs roughly in parallel with Kirkstone Road. It then flows canalized through the town of Ambleside in a series of low waterfalls falls and rapids, and passes under several bridges,{{sfn|Ordnance Survey|1989}}{{sfn|Skinner|Ed|Allison|Simpson|n.d.}} notably that carrying Bridge House, a tiny 17th- or 18th-century house, said to be the most photographed building in the Lake District, now used as an information centre by the National Trust.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1245148 |title=Details from listed building database (1245148) |author=Historic England |author-link=Historic England |website=National Heritage List for England |access-date=29 April 2021 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author= |title=Ambleside's historic Bridge House given makeover in time for tourist season |url=https://www.thewestmorlandgazette.co.uk/news/11193151.amblesides-historic-bridge-house-given-makeover-in-time-for-tourist-season/ |work=The Westmorland Gazette |location=Kendal |date=6 May 2014 |access-date=29 April 2021 }}</ref> A final canalized stretch takes it through Rothay Park, at the end of which it empties into the River Rothay.{{sfn|Skinner|Ed|Allison|Simpson|n.d.}}

== Flooding ==

Stock Ghyll reacts quickly to heavy rain events because so much of its catchment comes from steeply-sloping fellsides. In December 2015 heavy rainfall produced by Storm Desmond resulted in Stock Ghyll breaking through various informal flood defences and flooding a wide area between the A591 and the River Rothay.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.cumbria.gov.uk/eLibrary/Content/Internet/544/3887/6729/6735/4279383612.pdf |title=Ambleside Flood Investigation Report, 5th–6th December 2015 |author= |date=2016 |publisher=Cumbria County Council |pages=6–7, 12, 22 |access-date=29 April 2021 }}</ref> In July 1998 a flash flood almost cost the lives of two children playing in the ghyll behind the Salutation Hotel. Stock Ghyll is also recorded to have flooded in July 1873, June 1910, July 1929, June and November 1931, September 1950, and June 1953.<ref>{{cite news |author= |title=Girl, 9, Plucked From Torrent |url=https://www.thewestmorlandgazette.co.uk/news/237955.girl-9-plucked-from-torrent/ |work=The Westmorland Gazette |location=Kendal |date=7 August 1998 |access-date=29 April 2021 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://ceg-fepsys.ncl.ac.uk/outputs/archer_search/SOUTH_LAKES.html |title=Chronology: South Lakes |author= |website=FEPSys |access-date=29 April 2021 }}</ref>

== Stockghyll Force == thumb|upright=0.8|Stock Ghyll Force

Stockghyll Force, about half a mile east of Ambleside town centre, is a waterfall in a series of cascades totalling 70 feet in height.{{sfn|Ordnance Survey|1989}}{{sfn|Anonymous|n.d.}} Stock Ghyll divides into two channels at the top of the waterfall, and then into three, all of which are finally reunited. The falls are surrounded by woodland composed of mixed trees in which beech predominates;<ref>{{cite book |last=Fellows |first=Griff J. |date=2003 |title=The Waterfalls of England: A Practical Guide for Visitors and Walkers |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9aXViqDsmOUC&pg=PA76 |location=Wilmslow |publisher=Sigma Leisure |page=76 |isbn=1850587671 |access-date=29 April 2021 }}</ref> in spring many daffodils can be seen at the bottom. There is a railed viewpoint from which the waterfall can be seen.{{sfn|Anonymous|n.d.}} Stockghyll Force can be accessed from Ambleside by taking first Stockghyll Lane and then a well-signposted footpath.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.britainexpress.com/counties/cumbria/countryside/waterfalls/Stock-Ghyll.htm |title=Stock Ghyll Force Waterfall |last=Ross |first=David |website=Britain Express |access-date=29 April 2021 }}</ref>

== Early tourism ==

Thomas West's pioneering ''Guide to the Lakes'' (1778) advises tourists to visit Stockghyll Force on account of its "singular beauty and distinguished features" even in dry seasons.<ref>{{cite book |last=West |first=Thomas |author-link=Thomas West (priest) |date=1778 |title=A Guide to the Lakes: Dedicated to the Lovers of Landscape Studies, and to All Who Have Visited, or Intend to Visit the Lakes in Cumberland, Westmorland, and Lancashire |url=https://archive.org/details/guidetolakesdedi00westiala/page/n85/mode/2up |location=London |publisher=Richardson and Urquhart |page=78 |access-date=26 April 2021 }}</ref> Joseph Budworth devoted a chapter of his ''A Fortnight's Ramble to the Lakes in Westmoreland, Lancashire, and Cumberland'' (1792) to Stockghyll Force. He was particularly struck by the "rocky, yet verdant, island, which separates the upper fall, and makes two distinct flushes", and assured his reader that, having made the short walk to the falls "you will be repaid by too impressive a sight ever to leave your memory, and which is calculated to remind you of the softest moments of your life".<ref>{{cite book |last=Budworth |first=Joseph |date=1792 |title=A Fortnight's Ramble to the Lakes in Westmoreland, Lancashire, and Cumberland |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=26NYAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA127 |location=London |publisher=Hookham and Carpenter |pages=124–125, 127 |access-date=29 April 2021 }}</ref> In 1818 John Keats visited the falls, and in a letter to a friend described the streams into which Stock Ghyll is here divided:

{{blockquote|At the same time the different falls have as different characters; the first darting down the slate-rock like a rocket; the second spreading out like a fan—the third dashed into a mist—and the one on the other side of the rock a sort of mixture of all these. We afterwards moved away a space, and saw nearly the whole more mild, streaming silverly through the trees. What astonishes me more than any thing is the tone, the coloring, the slate, the stone, the moss, the rock-weed; or, if I may so say, the intellect, the countenance of such places. The space, the magnitude of mountains and waterfalls are well imagined before one sees them; but this countenance or intellectual tone must surpass every imagination and defy any remembrance. I shall learn poetry here.<ref>{{cite book |last=Felstiner |first=John |author-link=John Felstiner |date=2009 |title=Can Poetry Save the Earth? A Field Guide to Nature Poems |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I36fMZuVO_oC&pg=PA47 |location=New Haven |publisher=Yale University Press |page=47 |isbn=9780300155532 |access-date=29 April 2021 }}</ref>}} thumb|upright=1.2|Restored waterwheel{{sfn|Brown|Stephenson|Murray|Brown|2002|p=58}} in Ambleside beside Stock Ghyll [[File:Turner's The Old Mill, Ambleside.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|J. M. W. Turner ''The Old Mill, Ambleside'' (1798)]]

William Wordsworth, writing in 1835, recommended visitors to Ambleside to spend three minutes looking at the course of Stock Ghyll through the village, adding that "Stockgill-force, upon the same stream, will have been mentioned to you as one of the sights of the neighbourhood".<ref>{{cite book |last=Wordsworth |first=William |author-link=William Wordsworth |date=1835 |title=A Guide Through the District of the Lakes in the North of England, with a Description of the Scenery, &c. for the Use of Tourists and Residents |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=idlAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PR12 |edition=5th |location=Kendal |publisher=Hudson and Nicholson |page=xi–xii |access-date=30 April 2021 }}</ref> Victorian writers confirm that the waterfall was the standard sight of Ambleside, the first that any tourist went to visit.<ref>{{cite book |last=Prior |first=Herman |date=n.d. |title=Guide to the Lake District of England |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R88HAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA12 |edition=5th |location=Windermere |publisher=J. Garnett |page=12 |access-date=30 April 2021 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author= |date=April 1865 |title=[Review of E. Lynn Linton ''The Lake Country''] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xxgaAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA137 |journal=The London Quarterly Review |volume=24 |issue=47 |page=137 |access-date=30 April 2021 }}</ref> Indeed it was so often and so easily seen that the writer Harriet Martineau reported that "it is the fashion to speak lightly of this waterfall", familiarity breeding contempt,{{sfn|Martineau|1854|p=36}} though she herself thought it an "exquisite waterfall...Grander cataracts there may be—scarcely a more beautiful one".<ref>{{cite book |last=Martineau |first=Harriet |author-link=Harriet Martineau |date=1861 |title=Health, Husbandry, and Handicraft |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jclUAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA441 |location=London |publisher=Bradbury and Evans |page=441 |access-date=30 April 2021 }}</ref>

== Industry ==

Stock Ghyll formerly powered a series of fulling mills and bobbin mills in the centre of Ambleside, most of which still survive, though repurposed, and give some idea of how the stream looked in the 19th century.{{sfn|Brown|Stephenson|Murray|Brown|2002|p=58}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Welsh |first=Frank |year=1997 |orig-year=1989 |title=The Companion Guide to the Lake District |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ucXmnrtKu_YC&pg=PA165 |location=Woodbridge |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |page=165 |isbn=9781900639231 |access-date=1 May 2021 }}</ref> One such, called the Old Corn Mill, was originally built as the manorial mill in 1335, rebuilt in 1680, and finally converted to shops in the 1970s.{{sfn|Anonymous|n.d.}} The Horrax mill was one of the best known of the Lake District bobbin mills, built around 1840 to supply the Lancashire cotton mills with bobbins made from local coppiced wood, though it also produced a wide range of other wooden objects. It has since been converted to holiday flatlets.<ref>{{cite book |last=Gambles |first=Robert |year=1975 |title=Man in Lakeland: 2000 Years of Human Settlement |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t1WUIK3eaRYC&q=%22stock+beck%22+ambleside |location=Clapham, North Yorks. |publisher=Dalesman |page=35 |isbn=0852063024 |access-date=1 May 2021 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Pearsall |editor-first=William H. |editor-link=William Harold Pearsall |year=1975 |orig-year=1969 |title=Lake District |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ls8PAQAAIAAJ&q=%22bobbin+mill+built+about+1840%22 |location=London |publisher=Her Majesty's Stationery Office |series=National Park Guides, 6 |page=75 |isbn=9780117004825 |access-date=1 May 2021 }}</ref>

== In art ==

Various scenes along Stock Ghyll have long been popular with artists. Bridge House has been painted by J. M. W. Turner and John Ruskin, and in the 20th century by Kurt Schwitters.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.english-lakes.com/bridge_house.html |title=Bridge House, Ambleside |author= |website=English Lakes |access-date=1 May 2021 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Buckley |first=Norman |date=1998 |title=Lake District |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kvyjJjfMfbwC&pg=PA183 |location=Ashbourne |publisher=Landmark |page=183 |isbn=1901522385 |access-date=1 May 2021 }}</ref>

Harriet Martineau noted that "The view of the mill and the rocky channel of the Stock on the left of the bridge is the one which every artist sketches as he passes by; and if there is in the Exhibition in London, in any year, a View at Ambleside, it is probably this".{{sfn|Martineau|1854|p=49}} A notable example is Turner's watercolour ''The Old Mill, Ambleside'' (1798), which includes Stock Ghyll.<ref>{{cite book |last=Milner |first=Frank |date=1990 |title=J.M.W. Turner: Paintings in Merseyside Collections: Walker Art Gallery, Sudley Art Gallery, Williamson Art Gallery, Lady Lever Art Gallery, Liverpool University Art Gallery |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8VNIAQAAIAAJ&q=%22gill+beck+with+the+slopes%22 |location=Liverpool |publisher=National Museums & Galleries on Merseyside |page=11 |isbn=9780901534064 |access-date=1 May 2021 }}</ref> The same subject was painted in oils by Thomas Miles Richardson<ref>{{cite web |url=https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/the-old-mill-ambleside-cumbria-37112/view_as/grid/search/keyword:ambleside/page/1 |title=The Old Mill, Ambleside, Cumbria |author= |website=Art UK |publisher=Public Catalogue Foundation |access-date=1 May 2021 }}</ref> and in watercolour by Alfred William Hunt.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6012109 |title=Alfred William Hunt, R.W.S (1830-1896) Ambleside Mill, Westmoreland, Cumbria |author= |date=2016 |website=Christie's |access-date=1 May 2021 }}</ref>

Though the influential writer William Gilpin, apostle of the picturesque, condemned Stock Ghyll Force as "the most unpicturesque we could have", others differed.<ref>{{cite book |last=Lefebure |first=Molly |author-link=Molly Lefebure |date=1964 |title=The English Lake District |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s7qtAAAAIAAJ&q=%22stockghyll+force+was%22 |location=London |publisher=B. T. Batsford |page=73 |isbn=9787240006788 |access-date=1 May 2021 }}</ref> His contemporaries Joseph Farington and Francis Towne, for example, painted the Force twice and three times respectively.<ref>{{cite book |last=Fellows |first=Griff J. |date=2003 |title=The Waterfalls of England: A Practical Guide for Visitors and Walkers |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9aXViqDsmOUC&pg=PA21 |location=Wilmslow |publisher=Sigma Leisure |page=21 |isbn=1850587671 |access-date=1 May 2021 }}</ref> More recently, Jeremy Gardiner's ''Stockghyll Force'' (2011) forms part of a series of paintings of Lake District waterfalls.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Collins |first1=Ian |last2=Varley |first2=William |last3=Davies |first3=Peter |last4=Payne |first4=Christiana |author-link4=Christiana Payne |last5=Martin |first5=Simon |date=2013 |title=The Art of Jeremy Gardiner: Unfolding Landscape |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xcQ0EBg25gAC&pg=PA137 |location=Farnham |publisher=Lund Humphries |pages=137–138 |isbn=9781848221000 |access-date=1 May 2021 }}</ref>

== Footnotes == {{Reflist}}

== References ==

* {{cite web |url=https://www.visitcumbria.com/amb/stock-ghyll-force/ |title=Stock Ghyll Force: Ambleside |author=Anonymous |website=Visit Cumbria |date=n.d. |access-date=24 April 2021 }} * {{cite book |last1=Brown |first1=Jules |last2=Stephenson |first2=Kate |last3=Murray |first3=Mark |last4=Brown |first4=Jean |year=2002 |orig-year=2000 |title=The Lake District |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FGAdAyitVvIC |location=London |publisher=Rough Guides |isbn=1858288940 |access-date=1 May 2021 }} * {{cite book |last=Martineau |first=Harriet |author-link=Harriet Martineau |date=1854 |title=Guide to Windermere, with Tours to the Neighbouring Lakes and Other Interesting Places |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RfcGAAAAQAAJ |location=Windermere |publisher=John Garnett |access-date=25 April 2021 }} * {{cite map |author=Ordnance Survey |title=The English Lakes, South Eastern Area |year=1989 |scale=1:25,000 |series=Outdoor Leisure 7 |publisher=Ordnance Survey |isbn=0319260070 }} * {{cite web |url=https://www.ukriversguidebook.co.uk/rivers/england/north-west/stock-ghyll |title=Stock Ghyll |last1=Skinner |first1=Philip |last2=Ed |first2=Steve |last3=Allison |first3=Robin |last4=Simpson |first4=Robin |last5=Pinn |first5=John |last6=Cave |first6=Paddy |website=The UK Rivers Guidebook |date=n.d. |access-date=23 April 2021 }}

== External links ==

{{coord|54.43179|-2.97079|format=dms|type:river_region:GB|display=title}}

Category:Leven catchment Category:Rivers of Cumbria Category:Westmorland and Furness Category:Ambleside