In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Aysgarth like this:
AYSGARTH, a township and a parish in Askrigg district, N. R. Yorkshire. The township lies on the river Ure, at the junction of Wensleydale and Bishopdale, 4 miles ESE of Askrigg, and 7½ WSW of Leyburn r. station. It has a post office under Bedale. Acres, 1,174. Real property, £1,513. Pop., 283. Houses, 64. A remarkably fine fall of the Ure, called Aysgarth force, is adjacent. The river flows in a narrow channel over a rugged bed of limestone, between picturesquely wooded banks; and makes a series of cascades which are variously grand or beautiful according to the fluctuations of its volume. ...
"In floods it is a great, a mighty river, burst ing with a prodigious effect-through magnificent rocks; but in droughts, only a few gentle rills, the tears of the Naiads, run over the ledges of limestone." The parish church, an ancient structure, restored in 1536, by the last abbot of Jervanx, and containing a splendid carved wooden screen which belonged to Jervaux abbey, occupies a finely picturesque site above the rapids. A bridge of a single arch, 71 feet in span, stands immediately above the falls, and commands a fine view of the church and the river. Another waterfall, called Foss Gill, occurs in Bishopdale. The parish is identical, in extent and statistics, with the district. See Askrigg. Real property, £48,454. The property is much subdivided. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Ripon. Value, £137. Patron, Trinity college, Cambridge. The p. curacies of Askrigg, Hawes, Stalling-Busk, and Hardrow-with-Lunds, are separate charges. An endowed school has £65, and other charities £107.
Aysgarth through time
A Vision of Britain through Time includes a large library of local statistics for administrative units. For the best overall sense of how the area containing Aysgarth has changed, please see our redistricted information for the modern district of Richmondshire. More detailed statistical data are available under Units and statistics, which includes both administrative units covering Aysgarth and units named after it.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Aysgarth, in Richmondshire and North Riding | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
URL: http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/11247
Date accessed: 22nd May 2013
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