Heptonstall
| Heptonstall | |
| Yorkshire West Riding | |
|---|---|
 View of Heptonstall across the Hebden Valley | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SD988279 |
| Location: | 53°45’11"N, 2°2’14"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 1,470 (2011) |
| Post town: | Hebden Bridge |
| Postcode: | HX7 |
| Dialling code: | 01422 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Calderdale |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Calder Valley |
Heptonstall is a small village in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The population of Heptonstall, including the hamlets of Colden and Slack Top, was recorded as 1,470 in 2011.
The town of Hebden Bridge standsdirectly to the south-east.
The village is on the route of the Calderdale Way, a fifty-mile circular walk around the hills and valleys of Calderdale.[1]
History
The name 'Heptonstall' is first recorded as Heptonstall in the 1274 Wakefield Court Rolls, and in 1316 in the Feudal Aids. The name means "the stall or stable in Hebden". The name 'Hebden' means "rose-hip dene or valley".[2]
Heptonstall initially formed part of the manor of Halifax-cum-Heptonstall, itself subinfeudatory to the manor of Wakefield, and so does not explicitly appear in early taxation records, such as those for the 1379 Poll Tax. In 1626 the manor was spun-off and sold[3] and was extinguished in the late 19th century.
Heptonstall was the site of a battle during the early part of the Civil War in 1643.[4]
Historically a centre for hand-loom weaving, Heptonstall's cottages and terraced houses are characterised by large first-floor windows to maximise the light for weaving.[5]
The older churchyard claims "King" David Hartley amongst notable graves there.[6] Hartley was founder of the Cragg Coiners and lived as a rogue in the Calderdale area until he was hanged at Knavesmire (Tyburn) near York in 1770.[4]
The foundation stone of its octagonal Methodist chapel, the oldest still in continued use,[7] was laid following the visit of John Wesley in 1764.[6][8]
In the mid-1980s the paving on a road through Heptonstall was removed, revealing the original stone setts. Although there was a plan to remove the setts, local protests convinced the council to restore them. At the same time the existing concrete street-lights were replaced with lampposts imitating late 19th-century cast-iron gas lamps.
Churches
Parish church
Heptonstall's original church was dedicated to St Thomas Becket. It was founded c.1260, and was altered and added to over several centuries. The church was damaged by a gale in 1847, and is now only a shell. A new church, St Thomas the Apostle, was built in the same churchyard. This suffered a lightning strike in 1875.[4]
The tower of the new church contains eight bells, cast in 1912 by John Taylor & Co. These were removed to a bell foundry for refurbishment on 31 August 2012 and were returned, with new bearings, in October 2012.[9]
The American poet Sylvia Plath, who was married to Poet Laureate Ted Hughes from nearby Mytholmroyd, is buried in the graveyard extension, to the south-west of St Thomas Becket's churchyard.[6][10] Plath's headstone has been several times vandalised by removing Hughes's surname from the memorial.[11]
Another American poet buried here is Asa Benveniste, a co-founder in London of the publisher Trigram Press.[12][13] In the 1980s Benveniste and his partner Agnetha Falk ran a second-hand bookshop in Hebden Bridge.[14] His gravestone reads: "Foolish Enough to Have Been a Poet".[15]
Methodist chapel
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John Wesley laid the foundation stone of the octagonal chapel situated off Northgate, which was completed in 1764 – he recommended the shape to avoid conflict with the established church. Local people attended the parish church and Methodist preaching. The chapel also provided teaching in reading and writing for the poor. The chapel was originally built as a symmetrical octagon but by 1802, with the Society including 337 members and 1,002 scholars, one end of the chapel was pulled down and the side walls were extended to provide extra space.[16]
About the village
A local park is used for sport and includes a playground for children. Adjacent to Heptonstall lie the National Trust woodlands of Hardcastle Crags with walking paths and a restored 19th-century mill.[17]
Half a mile out of the village is Lumb Bank, the second of the Arvon Foundation's residential centres for writers.[18]
The village is a day-trip destination for tourists and walkers, especially in the summer months. The two public houses are the Cross and the White Lion. There is a small post office – the original post office, on Smithwell Lane, is now a residential property. A café/delicatessen is found in Towngate.
The village's oldest house is Stag Cottage (c.1580), which is within a small courtyard called Stag Fold. At the back of the cottage, on the level of a public car park, is a doorway to the old village lock-up.
On television
Heptonstall Methodist Chapel featured in the BBC Four 2010 series Churches: How to Read Them,[19] in which Richard Taylor named it as one of his ten favourite churches, saying: "If buildings have an aura, this one radiated friendship."[20]
The ruin of St Thomas a Becket church featured as a location in the 1993 BBC Television drama series Mr. Wroe's Virgins[21] directed by Danny Boyle.[22]
The village was the main location used in the BBC Three situation comedy The Gemma Factor, with the local tearoom being used for a major part of the programme.
Heptonstall was a major location in The Rochdale Pioneers, a film produced by the Co-operative British Youth Film Academy,[23] telling the story of the birth of the Co-operative movement, screened in November 2012.
The 2014 BBC drama Happy Valley was partly filmed in Heptonstall, and featured Sylvia Plath's grave.
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Heptonstall) |
References
- ↑ "Calderdale Way". The Long Distance Walkers Association. https://www.ldwa.org.uk/ldp/members/show_path.php?path_name=Calderdale+Way.
- ↑ Ekwall, Eilert, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 4th edition, 1960. ISBN 0198691033
- ↑ "Pennine Heritage". http://www.pennineheritage.org.uk/document/18534.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "Heptonstall – a well-kept secret!". Where I Live Bradford and West Yorkshire. BBC. June 2005. https://www.bbc.co.uk/bradford/sense_of_place/heptonstall_1.shtml.
- ↑ Lucy Caffyn (October 1983) World Archaeology, Vol. 15, No. 2, p 174 "Housing in an Industrial Landscape: A Study of Workers' Housing in West Yorkshire"
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Reader's Digest (1998) Land of Moors and Dales Reader's Digest Association Ltd
- ↑ "Heptonstall Chapel". http://heptonstallchapel.weebly.com/.
- ↑ "Heptonstall Methodist Chapel – A place of worship since 1764 | Heptonstall Parish Website". Heptonstall.org. 27 December 2013. http://heptonstall.org/heptonstall-methodist-chapel.
- ↑ Pask, Reverend Howard (9 July 2012). "Refurbishment of the bells of St Thomas' church". Heptonstall Parish Website. http://heptonstall.org/2012/07/09/refurbishment-of-the-bells-of-st-thomas-church/.
- ↑ Kirk, Connie Ann (2004). Sylvia Plath: A Biography. Westport, CN: Greenwood Press. p. 104. ISBN 0-313-33214-2.
- ↑ BALDWIN, JESSICA (8 February 1993). "Plath's Grave Now Quiet After Years of Desecration". http://articles.latimes.com/1993-02-08/entertainment/ca-1304_1_plath-s-grave.
- ↑ "Local History". Heptonstall Parish Council. http://heptonstall.org/loocal-history/.
- ↑ "Trigram Press Archive". http://library.wustl.edu/units/spec/manuscripts/mlc/trigram/trigram.html.
- ↑ Iain Sinclair, London: City of Disappearances, London: Hamish Hamilton, 2006.
- ↑ "Gabriel Gudding blog, 10 October 2006.". http://gabrielgudding.blogspot.co.uk/2006/10/asa-benveniste-poet-and-printer-in.html.
- ↑ Heptonstall Trail, A Calder Civic Trust publication, 1996
- ↑ Hardcastle Crags: National Trust
- ↑ "Lumb Bank". Arvon Foundation. http://www.arvon.org/centres/lumb-bank/.
- ↑ "BBC Four – Churches: How to Read Them, Dark Beginnings". BBC. 24 November 2011. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00tlwfb.
- ↑ "Richard Taylor, Rider Books". http://riderbooks.tumblr.com/post/1137648531/richard-taylors-top-10-churches.
- ↑ "Mr. Wroe's Virgins". https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106074/. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
- ↑ "Mr. Wroe's Virgins". https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106074/. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
- ↑ "The Rochdale Pioneers". http://www.therochdalepioneers.co.uk/the-making-of-the-film.