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Photo Pages: Ponden Kirk - Rock Outcrop in England in Yorkshire (West)
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Submitted by Richard Thornhill on Sunday, 09 October 2005 Page Views: 4814
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 Site Name: Ponden Kirk Country: England County: Yorkshire (West) Type: Rock Outcrop
Nearest Town: Keighley Nearest Village: Stanbury
Map Ref: SD981364
Latitude: 53.823867N Longitude: 2.030345W
Condition:| 5 | Perfect | | 4 | Almost Perfect | | 3 | Reasonable but with some damage | | 2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site | | 1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks | | 0 | No data. | | -1 | Completely destroyed |
5
Ambience:| 5 | Superb | | 4 | Good | | 3 | Ordinary | | 2 | Not Good | | 1 | Awful | | 0 | No data. |
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Access:| 5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access | | 4 | Short walk on a footpath | | 3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk | | 2 | A long walk | | 1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find | | 0 | No data. |
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Accuracy:| 5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates | | 4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map | | 3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map | | 2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village | | 1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town | | 0 | no data |
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External Links:               Ponden Kirk submitted by DavidRaven
Rock Outcrop in West Yorkshire
An original article by Richard Thornhill.
Ponden Kirk (SE981364) is a gritstone outcrop with a natural hole through its base large enough to crawl through. This article, summarising knowledge about this rock, is based on an article I published in Northern Earth (“Ponden Kirk: Tradition and literature”, 102: 13-15, 2005).
The first interesting thing about Ponden Kirk is its traditional connection with marriage. Growing up in Haworth, I heard that if a couple crawl through the hole together, they would die if they do not marry within a year, or they would commit suicide and haunt the rock forever if either married someone else. A less popular version was that if a lass were to crawl through the hole alone, she would marry within a year. Traditions of this type date were recorded in the 19th century:-
Any lady or gentleman who can successfully “go through one part of the rock” (which is quite possible) is declared to all intents and purposes duly married according to the forms and ceremonies of “Ponden Kirk”. (James Whalley, “The Wild Moor: A Tale Founded on Fact”, Todmorden, 1869, p. 103).
...a curious wedding ceremony is frequently observed. It consists in dragging one’s-self through a crevice in the rock, the successful performance of which betokens a speedy nuptial. (J. Horsfall Turner, “Haworth, Past and Present”, J.S. Jowett, Brighouse, 1879, reprinted Hendon Publishing, Nelson, 1999, p. 154).
The natives of these parts have a saying: “Let’s go to Ponden Kirk where they wed odd uns”, which has its origins in an old custom of passing through an enormous boulder called Ponden Kirk, capable of admitting only one at a time … The belief is that if you pass through it you will never die single! (Johnnie Gray, “Through Airedale from Goole to Malham”, Walker and Laycock, Leeds, 1891, p. 189).
A plaything now of lovers, who come, half laughing, to consult the oracle; if a maid can struggle through the narrowish opening in the rocks, she will be married before the year is out; if not, she is like to go unwedded all her days. (Halliwell Sutcliffe, “By Moor and Fell”, T. Fisher Unwin, London, 1899, pp. 44-45).
A place-name expert maintains that when “kirk” is used to refer to something other than a kirk, it is almost always a prehistoric pagan site (A.H. Smith, “The Place-Names of the West Riding of Yorkshire”, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1961, part 3, pp. 115-116). Leaving aside rocks that look vaguely kirk-like (e.g. Kirkstone in the Lake District), it is difficult to see why people would call somewhere a kirk unless it were in some sense analogous to one. This suggests that the customs associated with Ponden Kirk may represent that elusive creature, a genuine pagan survival.
Ponden Kirk also has considerable literary significance:-
1. Penistone Crag in Emily Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights” is usually identified with Ponden Kirk, and the hole is thus the “fairy cave” where Hareton courted the younger Cathy. In a previous article (“Wuthering Heights and the fairy cave”, Northern Earth 93:16-19, 2003), I drew out the mystical and erotic symbolism of Brontë’s view of Ponden Kirk, although I am no longer sure I agree with what I wrote.
2. Halliwell Sutcliffe’s novel, “Through Sorrow’s Gate” (Wright and Brown, London, 1903), features Wynyates Kirk, which is closely modelled on Ponden Kirk and has its marriage-related traditions (p. 38). In “By Moor and Fell” (p. 46), Sutcliffe also hints at the sexual rituals that may once have taken place at Ponden Kirk: “this dark kirk of the wilderness, at which Pagan mothers once worshipped lustily, seems yet to have its message for the world.”
3. In “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”, written in about 1390 (ed. J.R.R. Tolkien and E.V. Gordon, rev. Norman Davis, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1967, p. 60), there is a natural “kyrk” that sounds rather like Ponden Kirk:-
'It hade a hole on the ende and on ayther side,
And overgrowen with gresse in glodes anywhere,
And al watz hole inwith, nobot an olde cave,
Or a crevisse of an olde cragge'
This is usually identified with Lud’s Church, in Derbyshire, but it has crossed my mind that it could actually be Ponden Kirk, as it was in the North, in a steep bank above a fork in a fast-flowing stream.
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 Ponden Kirk submitted by tone
Ponden Kirk, Stanbury Moor, West Yorkshire. It has a hole running through it and they say if you climb through it you'll be married in a year.
 Ponden Kirk submitted by tone
Ponden Kirk (Penistone Crag) West Yorkshire
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