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Clapham = Home near or on a clop, low hill.
Clapham is a village in the civil parish of Clapham cum Newby in the Craven district of North Yorkshire, England. It was previously in the West Riding of Yorkshire. It lies within the Yorkshire Dales National Park, 6 miles (10 km) north-west of Settle, and just off the A65 road.
Clapham is situated at the base of Ingleborough mountain, one of Yorkshire's "Three Peaks" - Ingleborough, Whernside and Pen-y-ghent, and is a starting point for its ascent.
Running through the village is Clapham Beck, fed from Fell Beck which starts on the slopes of Ingleborough and sinks into Gaping Gill, England's highest waterfall, where Fell Beck drops 110 metres vertically into a pothole, and exits via Ingleborough Cave into Clapham Beck. The beck feeds into the River Lune via the River Wenning. The beck is crossed by four bridges in the village (two footbridges: Brokken Bridge and Mafeking Bridge, and two road bridges).
Above the village is a man-made lake built and expanded in the 19th century. This provided pressure for the water turbines and the drinking water supply, while the outflow fed an artificial waterfall at the top of the village.
Clapham lies on the Craven Fault zone, a complex geological fault which marks the division of the sandstone rocks of the Bowland area and the limestone of the Ingleborough area. However, the valley of Clapham Beck has cut through the limestone and into the underlying Ordovician basement rocks which produce soils that are acid, not alkaline like those on the limestone. This is beneficial to the many species of rhododendron planted along Clapdale and which would suffer in alkaline soils.
Ingleborough Cave is a show cave open to the public, accessed through the grounds of the Ingleborough Estate. Beyond the show cave a path continues through the gorge of Trow Gill and Gaping Gill. Local caving clubs set up a winch down Gaping Gill during the Spring and August bank holidays, when it is open to the public.
The Cave Rescue Organisation, which serves people and animals above and below ground across a wide area of the Dales, is based in the village.
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