Sarkless Kitty

Soul of Kitty Garthwaite

Was laid to rest, with dalesfolk standing

By a lonely ford and a priest conducting

The funeral service - no coffin, no body

Only the words "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, water to water"

and the gathering of dalesfolk vociferously murmuring

Its assent with a loud "Amen".

The tale is told that Sarkless Kitty was

Courted by a likely lad called Willie Dixon

Who travelled from neighbouring Hutton-le-Hole

To see his love at nearby Gillamoor.

One September day in Douthwaite Dale

Whilst brambling, a splinter pricked Kitty's thumb nail.

She cried out loud and who should come

But Willie travelling from market to home.

On reaching Gillamoor, darkness had fallen

Both by then were joyful and gay

The outcome, however, was not so good

As a pregnancy occurred, out there in the wood.

They used to meet at the ford at Lowna

Where Kitty would sit on the trunk of an alder tree.

Seven months after, he failed to keep

A rendezvous with his love, Kitty.

She heard tell that Willie had been

Seen that day with a young lady from Castleton.

On a Whit Sunday, 29th May,

The couple met on that fateful day

For the very last time - a quarrel ensued.

He galloped off - leaving Kitty bereft.

Her body was found in the pool by the ford

next morning - clothed in white sark

Her other clothes across four fields scattered.

It was concluded she'd drowned herself

And her body was taken to Lowna Mill

The miller's wife attended to everything

But three days after, the body had vanished.

When Willie came looking after a wedding licence obtaining

At York, he searched all over.

At dusk, he rode along the old bridleway.

Next morning, his horse was found by Lowna Mill grazing.

His body lay in the pool by the Mill,

the same in which his Kitty had drowned

Sarkless Kitty as she henceforth was called

Had claimed her first victim, as the story told.

Two Hutton-le-Hole children some time later

Swore they'd seen Kitty stark naked

Sitting on her tree, from which she'd smiled

Waving her sark; but they were not believed.

However, in October, a riderless horse

Galloped up to the Royal Oak

His master, a well-known traveller, to be sure,

Was found soon after in Kitty's pool.

Over the next few years, 16 more men drowned.

The locals believed that Kitty's ghost

Startled the horses and they threw the riders.

Hence the exorcism, the fully-robed priest, the choristers

With candle lit and bell ringing

And Kitty's ghost never re-appearing.

It would seem that a Quaker couple

Had received a message from a Bible reading

And got up at night to bury Kitty

At Lowna with their own daughter, Mary.

And this ends the tale of Sarkless Kitty,

Who loved and lost at Lowna Mill.

May she rest in peace, and be happy now

With her love, Willie Dixon by her now.

Submitted by Vera Young,

North Shields, after reading about Sarkless Kitty in a Gazette & Herald article from May last year, taken from A Prospect Of The North York Moors, by Harry Mead. As Kitty also cropped up in Brian Beadle's recent Country Walks column, we decided to forego our usual limit on the length of a poem, in order to learn a little more about this restless spirit.

Updated: 11:29 Thursday, March 14, 2002