|
High on the moors above Ramsgill and Lofthouse in North Yorkshire (England) on an area of moor land known as The Sypelands, sit two enigmatic outcrops of rock, they are known as Jenny Twigg and her daughter Tib. These two rocks stand isolated from any other geological features on the landscape and can be seen protruding like statues out of the bleak surrounding moor. |
 |
||
The weird shapes of Jenny Twigg and Her Daughter Tib have been contorted by millennia of erosion into characteristic forms that resemble grotesque and distorted human features. As a result the two rocks are a strange and awe inspiring sight, especially when approached from the south and enshrouded in a dense cloud of mist as they were when I first encountered them in 1980. Anyone interested in unusual geological oddities should pay these rocks a visit to truly appreciate the sense of wonder at their creation. Many thousands of years of wind, rain and ice have shaped these pillars of millstone grit into forms that seem to have a life of their own, they stare like sentinels silent and grim over the bleak surrounding landscape. |
|||
| Legends | |||
| Whilst it is unclear how
the two rocks got their names there have been some interesting
suggestions. Albert Winstanley, a prominent cyclist and travel
writer from Bolton, pondered that they could have been named after a
murderess and her accomplice daughter from Arkleside about 5 miles
to the north east of the rocks. In his book "The Golden Wheels
of Albert Winstanley (1985)" in a section entitled "Over
the Hill of the Dead Men", Winstanley tells the tale of three
pedlars who were found murdered - and without their heads - at the
head of Nidderdale on what became known as Dead Man's Hill. This was
in 1728, and the landlady of the old inn at Arkleside near
Horsehouse, where the three men had spent the night, was suspected
of the crime. On his travels Albert Winstanley rode the packhorse lanes around the head of Nidderdale and found Dead Man's Hill still marked on the map some 5.25 miles to the NE of the Jenny Twigg. He also came across the inn at Arkleside which has now been converted into a modern house, and the village of Middlesmoor which is Nidderdale's highest village. It is at Middlesmoor that the headless bodies of the pedlars are supposedly buried. According to recent information supplied to me by Mark Ellison, it is a fact that the transportation and burial in St Chad's churchyard of three bodies are recorded in the Middlesmoor parish records. However the tale of their murder seems to be speculation as there is no evidence of a trail or investigation following their discovery. It is more likely that the bodies lay for years before they were discovered, which is why no official proceedings were ever carried out. Apparently the inn where some drovers/pedlers were supposed to have vanished was in High Woodside on the Nidderdale side of the valley, not at Arkleside. The bodies were unearthed near the deserted village of Lodge at the foot of Dead Man's Hill. Mark Ellison also informs me that according to his own investigations, a woman from Knaresborough in 1621 called Jennet Dibble was once tried for witchcraft along with her daughter Margaret Thorpe, they were accused by a family from nearby Fewston. He speculates that these characters would have gained some notoriety in the dale and that the rocks my well have been named after them. In the early 1980's I came across an elderly couple from nearby Pateley Bridge who recalled the rocks being named as Jenny Twigg and her daughter Meg, rather than Tib. Could the Meg have been short for Margaret? Mark also notes that Dibble had a 'great black cat called Gibbe' and he also recalls the fragment of a rhyme he once came across: 'Jenny, Jenny, Jenny Twigg Jenny Twigg and her daughter Tib, Jenny, Jenny, Jenny Twigg, Jenny Twigg and her black cat Gibbe'. Could the daughter Tib in this rhyme simply have been created out of the need to ryhme with Gibbe, perhaps her real name was Margaret or 'Meg' as the elderly couple recalled? I have to say that I find Marks witchcraft theory compulsive and probably closer to the truth than that of Winstanley's story, although the former does have its own appeal. I would be interested to know if anyone else has any other suggestions as to the origin of the names of the gruesome twosome. If so please let me know! |
|||
January 2006
It is free hosting after all and that's the price I have to pay, lets face it you get nowt for nowt.
Home - Geology - Location - Brimham Rocks - Jenny Twigg Picture Gallery
Paul's Stone Circle Data Base has measurements and photographs of around 100 stone circles from around the UK.
Feel free to take a look!
Click the link below to find out more.
(be aware it's not for the faint hearted!)
Feel free to email the site owner.
All
material, pictorial and sound is sole copyright of the site owner and
may not be used without expressed permission.
However permission
is not usually refused for none profit making uses.