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Heritage
The Wilderness was formerly the garden of Skipton’s first Grammar School, Ermysted’s, dating from the 16th century
The school was built on green fields, on the eastern edge of town. The Ordnance Survey map of 1852 shows the school buildings then standing free of other buildings, quite unlike the built-up area we know today. Interestingly, the site is adjacent to one of the early routes into Skipton from the east - via Sunmoor Lane and the pack horse bridge, a medieval
entry to the growing market town.
The garden itself dates from the 18th century and had a Shell Grotto, still there today though now in ruin. It is thought to have been created by Headmaster Samuel Plummer,1773-80, when he built himself a fine new house (now the Cross Keys pub) using money from the sale of school land to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal Company. This included a paddock and the garden planted with flowers, shrubs and trees. After a period of neglect the grounds and school buildings were rebuilt in the 1840s to create a second master’s house, boarding accommodation and the schoolroom. The neglected garden was allocated £10 for cultivation.
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The Shell Grotto was a feature probably dating from the creation of the garden in the late 1700s. Lined with scallop shells and glistening pieces of calcite in a sunburst design, it must have looked spectacular. It appears from the 1852 Ordnance Survey map to have had an apron frontage and paths laid out to follow the stream. The two weirs, above and below the grotto, would have created a pool in front of the grotto. This is possibly the origin of the anecdote of a swimming pool for the boys.
In 1876 the Grammar School moved to new premises on Gargrave Road, and the old site plus grounds were put up for sale. At first in private hands, the main
building, the Headmaster’s house, was later bought by a brewery and the Cross Keys pub was created and opened in the late 1950s. What had been a proud
garden with grotto became a dumping ground for rubbish - totally neglected.
In 1998 the town’s Civic Society, as a Millennium project, decided to rescue what had now become known as The Wilderness. Led by the late Gwynne Walters, they
raised almost £30,000 to buy it from the brewery and restore it to an approximation of its original layout. In August 2000 it was formally handed over to the town.
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The Friends of the Wilderness group was formed in 2008 to care for and maintain the area. We strive to hold a balance between what is essentially a ‘wild’ and natural area and managing this to ensure you can enjoy it in safety
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