Lead By Generations | TRAIL TALES

History isn’t simply about what is recorded in books. History is people, lives, experiences. The best history is tangible. The kind we can reach out and feel and that touches us back in some way. In Episode 2 of Trail Tales we travel to the Yorkshire Dales to ride a trail with more history than most. Singletrack threads its way along the steep sides of Gunnerside Gill connecting the village of the same name below to a ghost town of derelict mine buildings. Set in bleak, yet beautiful moorland, tunnels stretch deep into the fells for mile upon mile. From the early mining of lead in Roman times until a heyday and decline in the 17 and 1800s, humans have shaped the landscape of Gunnerside: and with it their marks have been cast. At the bottom of that trail stands the Old Smithy of Gunnerside. It has a tale or two to tell. In fact, it has barely changed since it opened in 1795. Stephen Calvert, the sixth generation of his family to work as a blacksmith stands in the very same spot as his ancestors before him.