Horton in Ribblesdale is a small village, situated in Ribblesdale in the county of North Yorkshire, on the Settle/Carlisle Railway to the west of Pen-y-ghent.
Horton in Ribblesdale was historically a part of Ewcross wapentake located in the West Riding of Yorkshire. It became a parish town early in the 12th Century when the church of St. Oswald was established and this church in turn was historically associated with the Deanery of Chester, and part of the Diocese of York although, today it is part of the Diocese of Bradford with records dating back to 1556.
In the 13th Century the village and parish were ruled by rival monastic orders at nearby Jervaulx Abbey and Fountains Abbey. Their dispute started from a 1220 transfer of property here by William de Mowbray to the Fountains monks, which challenged the primacy of an earlier grant by Henry III to Jervaulx's predecessors at Fors Abbey. It was not until 1315 that this dispute was firmly settled, when Edward II confirmed the Abbot of Jervaulx as Lord of Horton in Ribblesdale.
During the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the monks' interests at Horton in Ribblesdale was deemed to have an annual income of 32 pounds, 5 shillings; and was given to the Earl of Lennox. He, in turn, disposed of the manor lands about 1569 or 1570 to a syndicate comprising of John Lennard, Ralph Scrope, Ralph Rokebie, Sampson Lennard, William Forest, Robert Cloughe, and Henry Dyxon.
It appears the manor lands were eventually held solely by the family of John Lennard, the first named member of the syndicate. His daughter Lady Anne Lennard married Sir Leonard Bosville of Bradburne in Kent, and together they sold their interests at Horton in Ribblesdale during the reign of Charles II to a syndicate consisting of Lawrence Burton, Richard Wigglesworth, and Francis Howson.
In 1597 Horton in Ribblesdale, like much of northern England, was struck by the killer plague. This is confirmed by the parish burial register, which shows 74 deaths that year compared to just 17 deaths during the preceding and succeeding years. Those lost to this pandemic amounted to approximately one-eighth of the parish's population.
In 1725, the local squire, John Armistead left an endowment to construct a free grammar school here.
Horton in Ribblesdale is the traditional starting, and indeed finishing, point for the Three Peaks walk. The Pennine Way and Ribble Way long-distance footpaths both pass through the village.
The region is well known for caving and potholing, with Alum Pot and the Long Churn cave system just to the north of the village, and Hull Pot and Hunt Pot on the western side of Pen-y-ghent in England.
The Three Peaks walk is a recognised endurance challenge of some 26 miles distance, which includes some 5,000 feet of ascent and descent of the mountains of Pen-y-ghent, Whernside and Ingleborough, all of which to be completed in under 12 hours and attracts thousands of walkers each year.
The circuit is also used for a well established fell race in April, while the gruelling Three Peaks cyclo-cross race also visits the three summits in the course of a longer 38-mile route on the last Sunday in September each year. Participants in both the running and cycling race regularly achieve winning times of around three hours, and it is not unknown for both races in the year to be won by the same competitor.
The village has two pubs, The Crown Hotel and The Golden Lion, a village store as well as a cafe and various tea rooms. The village Post Office that was previously located in the village store is now situated in The Crown Hotel and only open Monday afternoon pm and Thursday morning.
The village church is dedicated to St Oswald and has a complete Norman nave, south door and tub-font and is the most complete of the Norman churches built in the Yorkshire dales after the Norman conquest and the Harrying of the North that followed. The square tower was added later and the lychgates to enter the churchyard are roofed with huge slabs of Horton slate.
Other buildings in Horton are very typical of the area. Seventeenth-century yeomens' farmhouses can be found towards the edge of the village, and later cottages can be seen nearer the centre. In the 1870s the new railway resulted in the building of Victorian terraced housing and later the local quarrying of limestone led to the building of housing for the quarrymen.
