The Dales hills proved a challenge for early vehicles. Dr Bill Mitchell recalls a time when tackling steep gradients was an adventure

In the early years of the last war, when motoring was an adventure, the top of Buckhaw Brow, beyond Settle, was a popular resting place for motorists and their vehicles. A car driver would draw into the roadside, wait for the engine to cool down and pass time watching other motorists struggling up the steep gradient. In pre-war days, some passengers dismounted and walked beside the car.

The first motor car to be seen in Settle, described by Mabel Thompson as “a queer, top-heavy sort of contraption”, held four smart young men. They made a triumphant exit from the town. The car shuddered noisily to a halt at the bottom of Buckhaw Brow.

Every known effort was made to bring the car back to life. Darkness fell. The young men laboriously turned the car round and returned to Settle, inconspicuously, by a side street. One of the men sat at the wheel. The other three pushed the car, hoping that no one would notice.

Early in the century, when a short run over fairly level roads was classified as an adventure, a noisy vehicle, known as a Marshall Dog-cart, en route from Bradford to Morecambe, attained an average speed of 12 miles an hour – until Buckhaw Brow was reached.

Herbert Atkinson, the driver, and his motoring companions, were apprehensive at the thought of negotiating the Brow. It was in a rough state with a notorious “stiff bit” at the top. They “filled up” with water at the Ebbing and Flowing Well. The engine was allowed to cool down in anticipation of a long grind. Their car was the only one on the Brow. A few cyclists, resting at the summit, cheered as they cleared the steep rise.

Another Dog-cart, owned by a Bradford provision merchant, arrived in Settle towards the close of the 19th century. Lunch was enjoyed at a local hotel and when the car resumed its journey north it was to the cheers of many spectators. The Dog-cart, jibbing at Buckhaw Brow, was brought back to Settle by Thomas Hardacre and Dick, his horse. The car was made roadworthy again by William Slinger – a local man who, incidentally, made the first motor cycle to be seen in Settle. My first car was an old Ford. I had a sinking feeling during a trip into the dale-country. Looking down through a gap I could see the road passing beneath. Driving the car to a craftsman in the nearest village, the seats were re-set on wooden boards, which were creosoted.

I crossed Buckhaw Brow regularly in this old Ford car. The awesome bank lay between my home at Settle and the Dalesman office at Clapham. On my return to Settle I did not lose my admiration of the limestone scars that flanked the left hand side of the road or the sweep of green landscape on the right with the misty outline of Pendle Hill in the distance.

There was an anxious time on the Brow when, having gone home at midday, I was surprised to find JB Priestley in the front room of my terraced house. I drove JB over the Brow to Clapham so he might have a chat with Harry J Scott, founder of the magazine.

Priestley, a biggish chap, was a little cramped but still bright enough when he clambered from the car. He lit up a tobacco pipe. So did Harry Scott. The room occupied by these two distinguished men soon filled with smoke.

Harry would have been delighted to have met Alf Wight, best-known as James Herriot, a world-famous vet. Alf may not have ascended Buckhaw Brow but the dale-country roads, where many of his farming associates were to be found, were ultra-steep and winding.

At the start of his motoring life, Alf had a car similar to mine. The windscreen was so cracked he could only see through a small part of it. There were holes in the floor of the car. He was aware whenever the car encountered a puddle.

Traffic on Buckhaw Brow was much reduced when the Settle bypass was created. And modern cars do not jib – or buck – at the steep bit encountered by motorists travelling from the town.