Multiple etymologies have been proposed for the name Gargrave. The name may contain Old Englishgāra in its original meaning of "spear"[3] formed with graf apparently meaning wood,[3] originally meaning "wood from which spear-shafts were cut".[3] The first part of the name may also have had the sense "triangular piece of land" and was replaced by the cognate Old Norsegieri.[4] Also suggested is that the name contains one of the Old Norse names with Geir- (e.g. Geirmundr, Geirlaug)[5] with the Old English termination græf, "grave, trench", Gargrave therefore meaning "grave of the Scandinavian Giermundr, Geirlaug etc".[5] William Wheater thought Gargrave to be derived the Celticcaer and the Saxongerefa,[6] meaning "the camp or city of the reeve/governor".[6] The element -grave may be a "Celtic lenited" variant of Craven.[7]
History
In the second century, the Romans built a villa in flat meadowland near the River Aire at Kirk Sink; it was excavated in 1968–1974 by Brian Hartley. Its central room had a seven-metre square mosaic floor and a bath house was built alongside. The villa was surrounded by two ditches.[8]
In the 1820s, the main industry in Gargrave was cotton manufacturing and there were numerous warehouses along the side of the canal. The population at this time was 972 and there were several public houses including the Masons Arms and the Swan Inn.[9]
Gargrave House was built in 1917 by the distinguished Scottish architect, James Dunn; it is a Grade II listed building.[10]
The Old Swan is also Grade II listed[11] and was named the Keighley and Craven CAMRAPub of the Season in summer 1998.[12]
The main road through Gargrave is the A65Leeds to Kendal road. There has been a long-running campaign to have a by-pass built around the village, given the volume of traffic it provides.[15]
St Andrew's Church, Gargrave was built in 1521 and restored in 1852,[18] though there is thought to have been a church on the site long before this time. Robert of Newminster who was born in the parish in about 1100 was an early rector.[19]
It has a village hall that hosts art exhibitions, tea dances, snooker, lectures, indoor bowls and pantomimes.
Sport
Gargrave AFC, the village football club, had an A and a B team playing in the Premier Division and Division 1 of the Craven League until 2016, when they withdrew from the league.[22]
The cricket club has first and second team playing in the Craven and District Cricket League.[23]
There is also a snooker club and a bowling club in the village, as well as the Craven Lawn Tennis Club.[24]
Since the turn of the century, there has been a golf society run from the Masons Arms public house in the village.
^"Gargrave AP/CP through time". visionofbritain.org.uk. GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
^McNulty, Joseph (2013), The Chartulary of the Cistercian Abbey of St Mary of Sallay in Craven (2 ed.), Cambridge University Press, p. 201, ISBN9781108058797