Your Ribblehead

If the Ribblehead Viaduct didn’t exist, then neither would I! As a child I was told by my uncle that my great-grandfather built the Ribblehead Viaduct single-handed (tongue in cheek of course!) The true story is less dramatic but one that still makes me feel proud. Thomas Sheldrick travelled up from Suffolk in 1869 to work as a navvie on the viaduct. I don’t know his previous history or even if his first name was indeed Thomas – I have nobody to confirm it now. How I wish I’d asked more questions when I was young. It’s likely that he lived in one of the shanty towns but at some point he met a girl from Settle. They fell in love and got married. So when the building work was completed he didn’t want to return down south. The mid 1870s experienced the cotton boom where mills were crying out for weavers, so Mr & Mrs Sheldrick headed to Barnoldswick where they both found work as weavers. My uncle told me that they arrived by train and there was a brass band playing to welcome them and other new workers to the cotton mills! Sheldrick descendants have lived in the town ever since then – myself included. I’d love to find out more about my great-grandfather’s life as a navvie to fill in all the details that have been lost over time.

Around 1974 I walked Yorkshire’s 3 peaks for the first time. In subsequent years, I walked the route on a number of other occasions. The first time I did the walk I got good views of Ribblehead viaduct, soon after climbing Pen-y-Ghent. It didn’t look that far away. A few hours later it still didn’t look that far away! Nowadays, after you pass Ribblehead the route of the 3 peaks follows the railway northwards and you start the ascent of Whernside beside Force Gill. However, when I first did the walk the route took you under the viaduct leading to a clamber to the top of Whernside.