Ilkley West Ramble #22: Upper Gate Croft
This is the 22nd in a series of 28 caches which will take you on a memorable ramble through some fine, varied West Yorkshire countryside immediately west of Ilkley and south of Addingham. The southern half of the ramble climbs up to (Q3) and then traverses (Q4) Addingham Moorside.
See Ilkley West Ramble #1: Intro & Start for maps, background info on the trail, and parking waypoints.
The cache, a camo-taped lock-top pot (align the arrows), is hidden at a shady spot just west of Upper Gate Croft
Continuing east along the lane from IWR#21, after 100m is an attractive C18 terrace of stone-built houses. After another 50m the lane crosses Lumb Beck which was crossed by footbridge earlier in the series en route to IRW#10 Lumb Ghyll Crossing on the Roman Road.
On the north side of the lane just after the beck is the fine old Grade II listed (for its special architectural or historic interest) Lumb Beck Farmhouse - see here for the Historic England listing - which is initialed 'ESC' and dated 1670 as inscribed in a shield above the basket-arched [shaped like a basket handle] doorway.
At the beck crossing the 72 km (Bradford) Millennium Way long-distance circular footpath (see here for map and description), which the IWR Series route has been following since joining the Gildersber Farm lane on the way to IWR#16, leaves the lane on its way (in this section) south up to Black Hill and then east along Addingham Edge to Ilkley - White Wells & the Cow & Calf.
The route continues past more notable historic Grade II listed farm buildings including Ghyll House (mid-C17, see here), Sunny Bank Farmhouse (probably 2nd quarter of C18 - see here) and on to the cache location near Upper Gate Croft, one of the oldest buildings along the lane.
The late-C16 farmhouse and attached mid-C17 barn are both Grade II listed - see detailed listing here. Unusually, there is a doorway (blocked) from house direct to barn placing it in the longhouse tradition.
In 1689 the farm was home to Joshua Dawson and was licensed as a Quaker preaching house. Methodist services were held here for many years until the 1930s.