RIVER WHARFE

The River Wharfe has its headwaters in the Yorkshire Dales National Park close to the source of the River Ribble and just south of Hawes. It flows southeast through Buckden and Kettlewell in a deep, wide valley whose sides resemble a broad staircase.

The staircase is made by the various bands of level rocks that come to the surface. Where they are hard, as in the case of the mountain limestone so the slope is steep. Indeed, the white limestone cliffs, or scars, make a prominent feature of the landscape. The gentler slopes between the scars are formed by shales and other soft rocks.

Bolton Priory marks the edge of the dales and the start of the lower, broader moors formed in sandstone. Through a landscape of deeply carved and quite steep valleys, the Wharfe picks a way to the north of Leeds. The deep Wharfe valley has reduced the amount of settlement that developed to just Ilkley and Otley, both modestly sized settlements, whose shape is very much affected by the valley they have grown in.

Finally, the Wharfe flows out over the Vale of York and meanders its way over a wide floodplain to join the Ouse.

In many dales there are five or six terminal moraines across the valleys. These represent times when the ice remained in the same place for some time during the retreat of the glaciers at the end of the Ice Age. In Wharfedale, Ilkley church and Leathley church are on natural mounds that are the remains of the moraines that once dammed the dale.

Places on the Wharfe

Bolton Priory

Bolton Priory was built in a meander of the River Wharfe and made famous by a painting by Sir Edwin Landseer in 1834. The nearby gorge is called The Strid because the river is almost stridable as it goes through the narrow defile.

Up river are the stone arches of Barden Bridge.

Boston Spa

Eighteenth century Boston Spa grew up on mineral springs that flow from the Magnesian Limestone rocks. The spring waters naturally help feed the Wharfe.

Clifford

Quarries in the Magnesian Limestone near Boston Spa were used to provide the stone for York Minster. The giant blocks were floated on rafts down the River Wharfe and then up the River Ouse to York.

Ilkley

Ilkley developed as a spa town in the 19th century using spring waters that flow into the Wharfe. Its history goes back much farther, however, because it was a Roman fort and an important river crossing.

Wetherby

Limestone-built houses are a feature of Wetherby, a market town that grew up at a crossing of the River Wharfe. The old bridge still stands at the town center.