Shelf, Yorkshire

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Shelf
Yorkshire
West Riding

St Michael and All Angels, Shelf
Location
Grid reference: SE125285
Location: 53°45’10"N, 1°48’43"W
Data
Population: 11,618  (2011)
Post town: Halifax
Postcode: HX3
Dialling code: 01274 / 01422
Local Government
Council: Calderdale

Shelf is a village in the West Riding of Yorkshire, three miles north-east of Halifax and five miles south-west of Bradford, on the A6036 road.

History

In the Domesday Book the village is called "Scelf."[1][2] The place name probably derives from the Old English word 'Scelf', suggesting a broad and level shelf of land.[3][4] In the period before 1700 Shelf developed from a mixed moorland and forested landscape to a few scattered farmsteads; to a landscape full of activity.[3]

Shelf gained a number of mills and workers cottages during the Industrial Revolution, and there are a number of historical relics including a stone horse trough and a stone chair milestone originally erected in 1737 which gave rise to the local area being named Stone Chair, Shelf. Prior to 1851, Shelf was a part of the large Parish of Halifax. The Parish Church of Shelf, St Michael and All Angels, was built in 1850 and there were a number of chapels of other denominations, including the Independent Methodist Bethel Chapel, dating from 1853.[5][6]

The Stone Chair milestone
Bethel Chapel

Shelf village centre has many shops and facilities such as a bakery and pharmacy. There is a Village Hall, and a new library was opened in 2009. There is a local Lidl supermarket.

The village is on the route of the Calderdale Way, a fifty-mile circular walk around the hills and valleys of Calderdale.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material
about Shelf, Yorkshire)

References

  1. Archives, The National. "The Discovery Service". http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D7316028. 
  2. Darby, H. C.; Versey, G. R. (11 September 2008). Domesday Gazetteer. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521078580. https://books.google.com/books?id=L3dWJnqv5lEC&pg=PA506. Retrieved 29 May 2017. 
  3. 3.0 3.1 Stables, Ben (2018). The Early History of Shelf: A West Yorkshire Village before 1700 (1st ed.). Shelf, Halifax: Author. 
  4. Metcalfe, Cyril (1986). "Coming to Grips with Shelf". The Bradford Antiquary 2: 65–68. http://www.bradfordhistorical.org.uk/shelf.html. Retrieved 28 November 2018. 
  5. "Shelf Bethel Independent Methodist Chapel". https://www.explorechurches.org/church/bethel-independent-shelf. Retrieved 22 November 2021. 
  6. Stables, Ben (2015). St. Michael and All Angels Church, Shelf (1st ed.). Shelf, Halifax: The Author. p. 1. 
  • Metcalfe, Cyril (1990). Shelf: Chapters on the History of a West Yorkshire Township (1086-1988). Local History Press.. ISBN 0951614509. 
  • Stables, Ben (2018). The Early History of Shelf: A West Yorkshire Village before 1700. Independently Published. ISBN 978-1794401228.