Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Strid 12 Font

Etymology

Ghaistrill's Strid, Strid 12 Font, from OE  stride 'stride, step', 'a narrow river-channel which can be stepped over' (cf. The Strid 64supra ), here denoting a place where the R. Wharfe 'projects himself through a cleft in the rock little more than two feet in diameter…and forms a boiling cauldron of tremendous depth beneath' (1812 Whit 213); Ghaistrill is a surname (cf. Peregrin Gastrell 1717 PRThn 234), which had a common local variant Gastill (18 PRLntfreq ); Whitaker calls the place the Gastrills and derives the name from OE  gāst 'ghost, spirit' and þyrel 'hole', but this is doubtful.