Low Row is a village in

Swaledale Swaledale is one of the northernmost dales (valleys) in Yorkshire Dales National Park, located in northern England. It is the dale of the River Swale on the east side of the Pennines in North Yorkshire. Geographical overview Swaledale runs ...

, in the

Yorkshire Dales The Yorkshire Dales is an upland area of the Pennines in the Historic counties of England, historic county of Yorkshire, England, most of it in the Yorkshire Dales National Park created in 1954. The Dales comprise river valleys and the hills ri ...

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by National parks of the United Kingdom, national parks, including most of ...

, England. It lies about 3 miles west of

Reeth Reeth is a village west of Richmond in the Richmondshire district of North Yorkshire, England, in the civil parish of Reeth, Fremington and Healaugh. Historically part of the North Riding of Yorkshire, it is the principal settlement of uppe ...

and is between Healaugh and

Gunnerside Gunnerside is a village in the Richmondshire district of North Yorkshire, England. It is situated on the B6270 road, east of Muker and west of Grinton. The village lies between the River Swale and its tributary, Gunnerside Beck, in the Swale ...

. It is part of the

Richmondshire {{Infobox settlement , name = Richmondshire District , type = District , image_skyline = , imagesize = , image_caption = , image_blank_emblem= Richmondshire arms.png , blank_emblem_type = Coat ...

parish

Melbecks Melbecks is a civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. It is located in upper Swaledale and covers the settlements of Gunnerside, Low Row Low Row is a village in Swaledale, in the Yorkshire Dales, North Yorkshire, England. It lies about ...

. It is a

linear village Linearity is the property of a mathematical relationship (''function'') that can be graphically represented as a straight line. Linearity is closely related to '' proportionality''. Examples in physics include rectilinear motion, the linear r ...

running along one road, the B6270. To the east, Low Row merges with the settlement of

Feetham Feetham is a hamlet opposite Low Row in the Yorkshire Dales, North Yorkshire, England. The origin of the place-name is from Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects bef ...

. A working farm, Hazel Brow Farm, is open to visitors and 'The Punch Bowl', a stone inn dated 1638, is by the main road.

History

The name Low Row comes from the Norse "The Wra" (a nook). The surname "Raw" is associated with the village. The village was raided by

Jacobites Jacobite means follower of Jacob or James. Jacobite may refer to: Religion * Jacobites, followers of Saint Jacob Baradaeus (died 578). Churches in the Jacobite tradition and sometimes called Jacobite include: ** Syriac Orthodox Church, sometime ...

in 1745, and bodies probably from that raid are buried at the church in Low Row. On 5 July 2014, the

Tour de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consists ...

Stage 1 from Leeds to Harrogate passed through the village.

Smarber Chapel and Low Row United Reformed Church

Philip, Lord Wharton, owned land in the area. On this stood a number of shooting lodges including one at Crackpot, near Keld, and one at Smarber, a small hamlet on the ridge to the west of Low Row. A

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic Church, Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become m ...

sympathiser, in around 1690 Wharton converted part of the Smarber lodge into a chapel for ‘ Protestant Dissenters’. He particularly had the needs of the local lead miners in mind. It was a small, simple building; the lower part of the dry-stone wall remains and shows evidence of plaster and the location of a window. At the east end, an adjoining barn still stands. This also shows traces of plaster and windows and is considered originally to have been a cottage attached to the chapel. It is known that Wharton bought land near

Kirkby Stephen Kirkby Stephen () is a market town and civil parish in Cumbria, North West England. Historically part of Westmorland, it lies on the A685, surrounded by sparsely populated hill country, about from the nearest larger towns: Kendal and Penrith. ...

, the income from which was to support a minister at Smarber. Low Row - geograph

In 1809 a new chapel was built, beside the road at the west end of Low Row, and the former building fell into disrepair. Having originally tended to favour the

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

position, the chapel declared itself

Congregational Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its ...

in 1867, during the 50-year ministry of John Boyd. He also supervised a major rebuild in 1874. This cost over £300 and resulted in the building as seen today. Now part of the

United Reformed Church The United Reformed Church (URC) is a Protestant Christian church in the United Kingdom. As of 2022 it has approximately 40,000 members in 1,284 congregations with 334 stipendiary ministers. Origins and history The United Reformed Church resulte ...

, an active congregation continues to worship in the chapel and ‘pilgrimages’ to the former building take place from time to time.Conran, Elizabeth, ''Dissent in the Two Dales 1662–2012'', 2012

References

External links

Low Row United Reformed Church, including a history
{{authority control Villages in North Yorkshire Swaledale