Dales retreat that started life as a family home (From Craven Herald)

Dales retreat that started life as a family home

11:20am Saturday 18th September 2010 in Craven History

Scargill House at Kettlewell has been the focus of much attention over recent months. The Christian retreat and conference centre is set to go undergo major redevelopment after being bought by the Scargill Movement Council last year. Its original application for a £6.5 million scheme to bring it into the 21st century was withdrawn after a local outcry, but amended plans have been submitted. Here we look at the history of the site.

Scargill House, in the heart of Upper Wharfedale, was originally built during the 18th century as a rural residence. It was in an ideal setting, allowing its owners to shoot grouse on Conistone Moor or fish in the nearby River Wharfe.

In 1900, John Overend Wood sold the house to wealthy mill owner Clement Holdsworth, who intended to use it as a shooting lodge for entertaining his friends.

The sale was completed on December 20.

Clement was a big name in Halifax, where he ran the family’s Shaw Lodge Mills, was president of the Halifax and District Master Spinners Federation and chairman of Halifax Chamber of Commerce.

He never lived at Scargill, although in 1912 he and his wife, Emma, left the West Riding to move to Netherside Hall, Threshfield.

He died there in 1920 and left his land at Kettlewell and Conistone to his eldest son, George Bertram Holdsworth.

George and Mabel, his wife of two years, moved to Netherside Hall in August 1921, but only lived there for three years. In March 1924, they bought Catteral Hall in Giggleswick and this remained their principal home throughout their marriage.

In addition, George extensively remodelled and refurbished Scargill as a focal point for sporting weekends, with fishing parties during the spring and summer and shooting parties from the “Glorious Twelfth” onwards.

George was also a keen huntsman, played golf on courses close to his homes at Settle and Threshfield, and continued to travel overseas.

The thousand acres he owned in Wharfedale also made him a leading light in farming circles in the area and he was a strong supporter of local agricultural societies. He was president of the Upper Wharfedale society.

George moved to Scargill in 1933 after Mabel died of cancer at the age of 40. He never really recovered from the loss, although he did remarry.

When he died in 1942, he was buried at Kettlewell, his coffin borne on a lorry covered with heather from the grouse moor at Conistone.

He left his estate to his three sons, Michael, John and William. However, Michael had died six months previously having been shot down over Malta and John died after being wounded on the border between Holland and Germany in March 1945.

Only William survived the Second World War. In 1946, he was demobbed, married Dina Kuperus in Amsterdam and returned to find a neglected estate.

To cover death duties, he sold it to the Holdsworth textile company, which the family still controlled, and set about reviving its fortunes.

Builders and painters came out to the estate. The house was re-wired so it could be connected to the national grid, central heating was installed, the gardens were restored and cottages built.

William made it into a home for his growing family – John Michael born in 1947, Ingrid Rona (1948), Howard Irving (1949), David William (1952) and Kirsten Roselyn (1953).

As well as overseeing the estate, he commuted daily to the family business in Halifax.

But in 1957 Scargill was put up for sale because of losses incurred by the mill and William decided to move to his estate in Ireland.

In the sale catalogue at the time, estate agents, Jackson-Stops & Staff, said of Scargill: “The invigorating air and completely unspoilt grandeur of the surroundings make the property a most attractive and healthy resort.

“The attraction of the estate must be enhanced by the sporting attributes which have always been jealously nursed and improved. Benefits are just being reaped from endeavours to create a good pheasant shoot. The game records speak for themselves over the value of grouse shooting. It is very seldom that an opportunity arises to secure sport over first class Yorkshire Moor.

“Last but not least is the recreation available with the broad and swift trout water of the Wharfe which forms the boundary of the estate for one-and-a-quarter miles.”

The estate also included “the right to pew sittings in the parish church and share of the lordship”, two stock farms of 500 acres and various other properties in the village.

The successful purchasers were a dedicated group of Anglicans from Manchester and so a Christian community was founded at Scargill, spearheaded by the Rev H Frankham and the Right Rev Donald Coggan, then Bishop of Bradford.

In 1959, the estate was recorded as “a centre for conferences and events, specialising in multi-faith, youth and environmental issues”.

Almost at once work began on its now-famous chapel.

It was designed by York-based George Pace, who was also responsible for the King George VI Memorial Chapel at Windsor, and was built in a Scandinavian-style to reflect the fact that the Yorkshire Dales’ most significant settlers were Viking farmers.

The original brief called for a design capable of being built by people who stayed within the community – hence its simple “cruck” structure.

In the event, the project was given to a local builder because it soon became evident that such an endeavour would take too long to complete.

However, the stone used for the chapel was hewn from the landscape by a student staying at Scargill.

It was opened in 1961 and was widely acclaimed for its “sympathetic affinity with local traditional building whilst achieving a strikingly modern effect”.

Later expansion followed, with the erection of dormitory blocks and lounges.

Scargill continued as a Christian retreat until July 2008 when it closed with the loss of 20 jobs. At the time, trustee David Baker said the community had been running at a deficit.

“It is with immense sadness that we have made this decision, but also with thankfulness at what we have achieved over the last 49 years or so,” he said.

It was put on the market with a £2.5 million price tag.

Months of uncertainty came to an end in March 2009 when it was announced that the 100-acre complex, with its grade two listed chapel, had been bought by the newly-formed Scargill Movement Council, which would continue to run it as a Christian retreat and conference centre.

The sale was completed using money from individual donations and a loan from the Lee Abbey Movement, which runs a similar centre in Devon.

Now the Scargill Movement Council is trying to bring the centre into the 21st century. Its amended plans have just been submitted to the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority and a decision is expected by the end of the year.