Magazine’s comic take on school’s past

Giggleswick is a name that always raises a smile with those who are not familiar with it – and that has long been the case.

The famous satirical magazine Punch was so amused by the Dickensian-sounding name that it poked fun out of it in an article published in 1870.

“What’s in a name,” the magazine asked. “Something. For instance, there’s a peculiarly chuckling sort of look about an educational advertisement headed Giggleswick Grammar School.

“The School for the Giggleswick Grammar must be an amusing place, and the Giggleswick Grammar itself a most entertaining, and also, of course, a most instructive book,” it gently mocked.

The ribbing continued: “Giggleswick, we discover, is near Settle, in Yorkshire. Probably the natives do not appreciate the advantages of Giggleswick so much as do the Settlers. ‘New Boys’, says the Giggleswick (it's a delightful name! – so cheery!) advertisement, ‘should come to the school at two o'clock on the 22nd of August’.

“We would like to be there as a New Boy. That being impossible, we must content ourselves with going down in our popular character of The Old Boy. ‘The dormitories,’ continues the Giggleswickian advertisement, have ‘separate cubicles.’ “How charming, how ecstatic, to sleep in a Giggleswickian cubicle! But stay, what is a cubicle? Did we ever sleep in a cubicle? No; we should as soon have thought of slumber in a bicycle.

“Cubicle is, we suppose, a translation of cubiculum, that is, with due deference to the Giggleswickian Professors. A cubiculum was a bedchamber. There were cubicula diurna et nociurna, to quote Smith, who quotes Pliny, and the nociurna were also called dormiloria.

“But Giggleswick says that the dormitoria contain cubicula. Wheels within wheels, that is, rooms within rooms; Giggleswick all over.

“There is yet another meaning for cubiculum, the pavilion or tent in which Roman emperors were accustomed to witness the public games.

“Perhaps this is the idea of the Cubiculum Gigglesvrichum, or Giggleswickian Cubicle. No doubt there are plenty of games in the dormitory, bolstering, for example, and perhaps the big boys, or monitors, recline in their cubicles while Fourth Form gladiators contend.

“This may be the Giggleswickian sense of cubicle. But as “on application” the Giggleswickian Head Master (it sounds pantomimic, a Master with a Giggleswickian head) will give any further information, we can only refer ourselves to him; and wishing him and his health and happiness, with the additional Jeffersonian-Rip-van-Winkleish wish “that he may live long, and prosper”, we finish by flinging our college cap in the air and crying, “Success to Giggleswick!”

According to the experts, the origin of the name Giggleswick is dissapointingly sober.

A Dictionary of British Place Names states that this place, recorded as Ghigeleswic in 1086, means “dwelling or (dairy) farm of a man called Gikel or Gichel”.

Giggleswick School itself has a history that dates back more than 500 years and it has been rebuilt on a number of occasions during that time.

Plans for one such rebuild prompted a correspondent, known only as “Investigator”, to write to the Gentleman’s Magazine in 1786.

He felt the old building should not end up forgotten and his description, plus accompanying picture, offer an insight into what the school once looked like.

“As I have been informed that the school at Giggleswick, near Settle, in Craven, is shortly to be pulled down, to be rebuilt in a more elegant and commodious manner, I thought it a pity that the memory of the old one should drop with the stones,” he wrote.

“As it is a structure which can boast of some antiquity, no doubt my intentions will meet the approbation of those who are zealous for the preservation of venerable reliques.

“The building is low, small and irregular; consisting of two stages, the lower for reading, the higher for writing. On the north side is a small projecting building, in which was once a tolerable collection of books, now dispersed.

“Upon the front wall, almost over the door, is an ornamented vacant niche, under which is the following inscription in old characters. By the inscription it appears that this building was originally a chauntry and, on searching Browne Willis, I find, ‘ Egleswick, Virgin Mary’s chauntrv, an annuity of 3I. 12s. to Richard Summerskale, incumbent.’ This must certainly mean Giggleswick, which was anciently spelt Gegleswick.

“There are some old cups preserved, upon which it is spelt Ygleswick. The initial G or Y is probably left out by an erratum in Willis, there being no such place as Eglefwick in those parts.

“This then fixes, in conjunction with the stone, the date, &c. of the foundation of this chauntry and, we may conjecture, the nich was silled up by the effigies of the Virgin Mary.

“This building stands on the north side of the churchyard; and I find author’s remark, that chauntries were as frequently placed without as within the church.

“The school was founded May 26, 7th Edward VI and in the grant is styled, “The Free Grammar School of King Edward VI of Giggleswick” and was endowed by several rents and services (amongst which was twelve pence and two chickens annually).

“It is superintended by eight governors, one of whom is to be the vicar of the parish for the time being. There are two masters, and one occasionally for writing, &c. it is under Christ’s college, Cambridge. I have also heard that it is dependent upon the fee of Durham. The Archbishop of York is also to be consulted on the election of a master or governor, &c.

“Since its original foundation its revenues have increased very much and it is at present well endowed.

“A person left a certain sum of money to be laid out, upon the nth day of March annually, in figs, which curious legacy is yet kept up, being styled the Potation-day; and upon the fame day a jubilee fair is kept up at the village and the governors meet to inspect and regulate their affairs.”