Eccleshill, Yorkshire
| Eccleshill | |
| Yorkshire West Riding | |
|---|---|
 Harrogate Road, Eccleshill | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SE175358 |
| Location: | 53°49’26"N, 1°44’13"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 17,945 (2011) |
| Post town: | Bradford |
| Postcode: | BD2 and BD10 |
| Dialling code: | 01274 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Bradford |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Bradford East |
Eccleshill is an village which has become subsumed in the conurbation of Bradford, in the West Riding of Yorkshire. Today the village is a more or less completely residential urban area with very little open space, although there is substantial open land directly to the east.
The village is beside the Fagley Beck, which flowing a short distance directly north under the name Carr Beck to meet the River Aire. To the north of Eccleshill is the village of Idle and to the north east is Greengates.
The origins of the name Eccleshill are uncertain. At the time of the Domesday Book the manor was recoded as ‘Egleshill’: this may mean 'eagle’s hill'[1] or perhaps named after an Anglo-Saxon landlord; or it could mean ‘Church Hill’.
Contents
History
In Roman times the Eccleshill area was crossed by two lanes. One lane was along what is now Norman Lane and the other to Apperley Bridge down the road now known as Bank.
After the Norman Conquest the lands of Eccleshill were given to William of Warren.[1] In 1274 ownership of lands passed to the Sheffields and in 1407 to the Bolling family of Calverley then the Scargills, Saviles, Wyatts, Zouches, Stanhopes, Hirds, and then to Jeremiah Rawson.[1]
In the Middle Ages Eccleshill was shunned by church authorities after a supposed incident in which it is said a preacher or monk was stoned to death on the main road though Eccleshill village. This supposed incident is said to be the reason behind naming the main road 'Stony Lane'. The real explanation may be that either the road was stony or that it led on to Stone Hall.
Eccleshill Hall
In 1713 Eccleshill Hall was built for Dr Stanhope, located to the east of Stony Lane at the site of previous Eccleshill Halls, on what is now Victoria Road.[1] Eccleshill hall was demolished in 1878 and all that remains are parts of stone gateposts embedded in a roadside wall.
Church history
The first churches built in Eccleshill were nonconformist.
Before 1775 the only place of worship in Eccleshill was The Quaker Meeting House on Tunwell Lane.[2]In 1775 Prospect Chapel also known as Bank Top Chapel a Wesleyan Chapel was constructed on Lands Lane off Norman Lane.[3]
In 1776, John Wesley (1703-1791) the founder of Methodism preached in Eccleshill.[3]
On the opposite side of Norman Lane is Prospect Chapel burial ground, created in 1823. Doctrinal disagreement led to a split and the establishment in 1823 of Salem Independent Chapel.[2] Salem Chapel and Sunday school both now demolished, were built on Dobby Row, an event that was to prompt the renaming of the street to Chapel Street. The Chapel Street chapel was eventually replaced by the Congregational Church on Victoria Road near Harrogate Road, built in 1889.[2] Salem Chapel burial ground remains on Chapel Street.
The Congregational Church was demolished in the 1960s and the United Reformed Church, a single storey building built on the site in 1967 and the Congregational Church building was demolished in 1979/80.[2]
A further split at Prospect Chapel had led to the establishment of Eccleshill United Methodist Chapel on the corner of Workhouse fold now named Stewart Close.[2] In 1854 the remaining worshippers of Prospect Chapel built Eccleshill Wesleyan Methodist Chapel in Stony Lane and sold Prospect Chapel.[2] The old Prospect Chapel building had many subsequent uses including as an organ works.[1]
When congregations shrank at the Wesleyan Methodist Church on Stony Lane worshippers moved to join the Primitive Methodist Chapel built in 1911 on Norman Lane to become Eccleshill Methodist Church.[2] The Eccleshill Methodist Church has now been demolished and there are plans to replace it with apartments. The Wesleyan Methodist Chapel was sold in 1965 then became the Ukrainian Autocephalic Orthodox Church.[2][4]
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The Church of England finally arrived in the Victorian Age. St. Luke’s Church was built at the order of the Rev William Scoresby, Vicar of Bradford,[1] and this was consecrated in 1848. St Luke’s as designed in a vertical Gothic style with a spire, however, the spire was removed circa 1971 when the stonework began crumbling.
Mills
The quarrying, pottery, spinning and weaving industries have been located in the area for some time but only quarrying remains today.
Eccleshill has a number of mills. The Old Mill on Victoria Road was a woollen mill built in 1800 but was destroyed by fire in 1816. The present building on the site is dated 1863 although parts of it date back to the early 1800s.
On the other side of Victoria Road from the Old Mill is a row of houses and street once known as Dobby Row - a dobby being a type of cloth, a type of loom or part of an early form of loom|weaving loom taking its name from a corruption of the words 'draw boy' - a weaving assistant.
In around 1816 Union Mill on Harrogate Road was built for the manufacture of woollens. A further three storey mill building known as Pilley's Mill was added to the south of the site. Union Mills had a serious fire in 1905.[5] In 2019 both mills were demolished and the site cleared to make way for a retail complex.
In the 1838 White's Directory Eccleshill is described as engaged in the manufacture of white woollen cloth.[1]
In 1872 Tunwell Mill was built by Messrs Smith and Hutton as a woollen mill[1] near Tun Well (Town Well) directly south of Stony Lane—although today's Tunwell Mills are not the original mill building.
At the north end of Stone Hall Road is a mill variously known as Stone Hall Shed and Whiteley's Mill where worsted was manufactured.[6] Halfway down Stone Hall Road off to the west stood Victoria Mill, a worsted mill. This mill has been demolished and domestic properties now stand on the site.
Moorside Mills was built on Moorside Road in 1875 by John Moore for worsted spinning. [7][8] In 1919, two floors were added and a clock tower as a war memorial.
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In 1837, the Manor Pottery was established by Jeremiah Rawson, lord of the manor on a site east of the Undercliffe Road-Pullan Avenue junction using beds of shale, fireclay and coal at a deep quarry near Bolton Junction[1][9] The kilns were shut down in the early 20th century, and in 1921 the chimney was demolished,[1][9] however the manor house still remains.[1][10]
Coal
There were numerous coal pits in what is now the Thorpe Edge and Ravenscliffe areas around Eccleshill: the coal was used for steam powered machinery and the pottery.
Unfortunately the digging of the coal pits caused many local water wells to run dry.
Eccleshill Mechanics' Institute
Eccleshill Mechanics' Institute on Stone Hall Road was built in 1868.[11]
Charles Bottomley converted the upper floor of the Eccleshill Mechanics' Institute into a 359-seat picture hall which he named Eccleshill Picture House and then opened in 1911.[12] Shortly after this the cinema was renamed 'Picture Palace' but closed in 1931 never running any 'talkies'.[1]
The railway and Eccleshill Railway Station
In 1874 the Great Northern Railway opened its Laisterdyke - Shipley branch (the Shipley and Windhill line), a six-mile double track branch line from Quarry Gap junction in Thornbury to Shipley and Windhill railway station. Eccleshill railway station opened in 1875 with its sidings and coal yard.[11] Only the embankment and abutment of one side of the rail bridge remain.
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Bradford Industrial Museum
In the south of Eccleshill off Moorside Road close to Fagley is the Bradford Industrial Museum in what was Moorside Mills.[13] This museum houses machinery from local textile and printing industries and has a row of workers houses. It used to house the popular Horses at Work exhibition but this has now closed.[14]
Churches
- Church of England: St Luke’s
- RomanCatholic:
- St Francis
- St Clare’s
- Ukrainian Autocephalic Orthodox Church (originally built in 1854 as a Wesleyan Methodist Church)
Sport
- Badminton: Eccleshill Badminton Club[15]
- Football: Eccleshill United F.C.
Culture and events
The Eccleshill Village Fair is held annually in The Delph, a grassed over former Stoney Lane Quarry north of Stony Lane.
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Eccleshill, Yorkshire) |
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 Eccleshill Local History Group (January 1990). Memories of Eccleshill. Department of External Studies, University of Leeds.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Kenzie, Kenneth (February 2012). Eccleshill Echoes 1. Self published.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Eccleshill Methodist Church". Bradford North Circuit. 14 December 2009. http://www.bradfordnorth.org.uk/eccleshill.html.
- ↑ National Heritage List 1314131: Ukrainian Autocephalic Orthodox Church (Grade II listing)
- ↑ "History of Bradford, Yorkshire - 1900 to 1949". Bradford Timeline. http://www.bradfordtimeline.co.uk/190049.htm.
- ↑ Mangan, Lucy (26 June 2005). "Farewell to a jolly good egg". The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2005/jun/28/broadcasting.arts.
- ↑ "Bradford Industrial Museum". Visit Bradford. http://www.visitbradford.com/thedms.asp?dms=13&venue=2180365.
- ↑ "Bradford Industrial Museum & Horses at Work". Culture24. http://www.culture24.org.uk/yh000036.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Sallery, Dave. "Old Bricks - History at your feet". Penmorfa. http://www.brocross.com/Bricks/Penmorfa/Pages/england15.htm.
- ↑ National Heritage List 1133044: Manor House (Grade II listing)
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 "History of Bradford, Yorkshire - 1850 to 1899". Bradford Timeline. http://www.bradfordtimeline.co.uk/185099.htm.
- ↑ Sutton, Colin (2004). "Bradford - Eccleshill Cinemas History". A History of Bradford Cinemas. http://www.bradfordtimeline.co.uk/eccles.htm.
- ↑ "Bradford Industrial Museum & Horses At Work". Britain's Finest. http://www.britainsfinest.co.uk/museums/museums.cfm/searchazref/80001348BRAC.
- ↑ Winrow, Jo (16 August 2011). "Consultation on Bradford heavy horses 'was a sham'". Bradford Telegraph and Argus. http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/9196630.Consultation_on_Bradford_heavy_horses__was_a_sham_/.
- ↑ Eccleshill Badminton Club
