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East Riddlesden Hall is a 17th-century manor house in Keighley, West Yorkshire, England, now owned by the National Trust.
| | This article needs additional citations for verification .(December 2016) |
East Riddlesden Hall is a 17th-century manor house in Keighley, West Yorkshire, England, now owned by the National Trust.
The hall was built in 1642 by a wealthy Halifax clothier, James Murgatroyd. The hall is a Grade I listed building. [1] There is a medieval tithebarn in the grounds.
East Riddlesden Hall perches on a small plateau overlooking a bend in the River Aire on its way downstream from the town of Keighley. Interesting features include well-restored living accommodation on two floors, two Yorkshire Rose windows, walled garden, the ruined Starkie wing and several ghosts (reputedly).
The property was extended and re-built by James Murgatroyd and his wife Hannah, using local Yorkshire stone, in 1648. He also built other stone manor houses throughout the West Riding of Yorkshire. In the great hall, a small fireplace can be seen above the main fireplace, where the floor for the first floor accommodation was not built. James Murgatroyd was a Royalist and this can be seen in royalist symbols and graffiti on and in the building. For example, the Bothy (now the tea room and shop) has the heads of Charles I of England and Henrietta Maria of France carved in the topmost stone work.
According to a National Operatic and Dramatic Association news feature in 2007, the Murgatroyd family are reputed to have been the inspiration for the Murgatroyd Baronets in the comic opera Ruddigore by Gilbert and Sullivan, and the opera has been performed at the Hall. W. S. Gilbert is supposed to have often stayed at the Hall. The feature comments that the Murgatroyds became notorious "for their profanity and debauchery". A legend arose that the River Aire changed its course in shame, in order to flow further away from the hall and its occupants (the river sweeps into a wide U-bend to skirt the meadow, giving the building a wide berth). The feature continues "Members of the family were fined, imprisoned and excommunicated". It asserts that the character of Sir Despard Murgatroyd in Ruddigore is based on James Murgatroyd. [2]
East Riddlesden Hall has been used as a filming location for the 1992 film Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights [3] and for the 2009 TV adaptation. [4] It was also used in Sharpe's Justice episode from the Sharpe TV series in 1997. [5] The BBC Television series 'Gunpowder' (2017) used East Riddlesden Hall as a location. [6]
Ruddigore; or, The Witch's Curse, originally called Ruddygore, is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It is one of the Savoy Operas and the tenth of fourteen comic operas written together by Gilbert and Sullivan. It was first performed by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company at the Savoy Theatre in London on 22 January 1887.
Haworth is a village in the City of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, in the Pennines, 3 miles (5 km) south-west of Keighley, 10 miles (16 km) west of Bradford and 10 miles (16 km) east of Colne in Lancashire. The surrounding areas include Oakworth and Oxenhope. Nearby villages include Cross Roads, Stanbury and Lumbfoot.
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the reorganisation of the Local Government Act 1972 which saw it formed from a large part of the West Riding of Yorkshire. The county had a population of 2.3 million in the 2011 census making it the fourth-largest by population in England. The largest towns are Huddersfield, Castleford, Batley, Bingley, Pontefract, Halifax, Brighouse, Keighley, Pudsey, Morley and Dewsbury. The three cities of West Yorkshire are Bradford, Leeds and Wakefield.
Bretton Hall is a country house in West Bretton near Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. It housed Bretton Hall College from 1949 until 2001 and was a campus of the University of Leeds (2001–2007). It is a Grade II* listed building.
Riddlesden is a suburb of Keighley in the county of West Yorkshire, England and on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal.
Keighley is a market town and a civil parish in the City of Bradford Borough of West Yorkshire, England. It is the second largest settlement in the borough, after Bradford.
Stanbury is a village in the Haworth, Cross Roads and Stanbury civil parish, and in the metropolitan borough of the City of Bradford in West Yorkshire, England. The name Stanbury translates as Stone Fort from Old English.
Airedale is a geographic area in Yorkshire, England, corresponding to the river valley or dale of the River Aire.
Oakworth Hall is located in Oakworth, West Yorkshire, England. The manor house was rebuilt in the 17th century, but has a history dating back to 1066. The building overlooks the Worth Valley, facing south towards Haworth.
Wensleydale is the dale or upper valley of the River Ure on the east side of the Pennines, one of the Yorkshire Dales in North Yorkshire, England.
Brontë Country is a name given to an area of south Pennine hills west of Bradford in West Yorkshire, England. The name comes from the Brontë sisters, who wrote such literary classics as Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall while living in the area.
Kildwick, or Kildwick-in-Craven, is a village and civil parish of the district of Craven in North Yorkshire, England. It is situated between Skipton and Keighley and had a population of 191 in 2001, rising slightly to 194 at the 2011 census. Kildwick is a landmark as where the major road from Keighley to Skipton crosses the River Aire. The village's amenities include a primary school, church and public house.
East Morton is a small village which lies 2 miles (3 km) north of Bingley and 2.5 miles (4 km) east of Keighley, in the county of West Yorkshire, England. The small hamlet of West Morton lies 1 mile (1.6 km) to the north west. The village has a population of 1,169 according to the 2011 census.
Gargrave is a large village and civil parish in the Craven district located along the A65, 4 miles (6 km) north-west of Skipton in North Yorkshire, England. It is situated on the very edge of the Yorkshire Dales. The River Aire and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal pass through the village. It had a population of 1,764 in 2001 reducing slightly to 1,755 at the 2011 census.
Murgatroyd is a surname among the English nobility, originating in Yorkshire. Its etymology, according to one source, is as follows: in 1371, a constable was appointed for the district of Warley in Yorkshire. He adopted the name of Johanus de Morgateroyde, or literally: Johanus of Moor Gate Royde or 'the district leading to the moor'. Another source says the place name means Margaret's road. In Old Norse, royd means "clearing". Although Moorgate in London was a gate with the road to the moor passing through, in Yorkshire, gate means "street", so Moor Gate Royd would be 'a clearing in the forest on the road to the moor'.
Hornby Castle is a country house, developed from a medieval castle, standing to the east of the village of Hornby in the Lune Valley, Lancashire, England. It occupies a position overlooking the village in a curve of the River Wenning. The house is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building.
Ponden Hall is a farmhouse near Stanbury in West Yorkshire, England. It is famous for reputedly being the inspiration for Thrushcross Grange, the home of the Linton family, Edgar, Isabella, and Cathy, in Emily Brontë's novel Wuthering Heights since Bronte was a frequent visitor. However, it does not match the description given in the novel and is closer in size and appearance to the farmhouse of Wuthering Heights itself.
Cliffe Castle Museum, Keighley, West Yorkshire, England, is a local heritage museum which opened in the grand, Victorian, neo-Gothic Cliffe Castle in 1959. Originating as Cliffe Hall in 1828, the museum is the successor to Keighley Museum which opened in Eastwood House, Keighley, in c. 1892. There is a series of galleries dedicated to various aspects of local heritage, and to displaying the house itself, which is a Grade II listed building. Entrance to the museum is free of charge.
The Worth Valley is a geographic area in West Yorkshire, England, that extends eastwards from Crow Hill and Oxenhope Moor, providing drainage for the River Worth for nearly 10 miles (16 km) to the River Aire. It is a side valley to Airedale, with the River Worth being a major tributary of the River Aire. The Worth Valley was important for its contribution to the textiles industry of the West Riding of Yorkshire and was furnished with several reservoirs to allow mills to operate within the valley. Most of the reservoirs are still in use into the modern day.
Keighley is a civil parish in the metropolitan borough of the City of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. It contains 192 listed buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England. Of these, three are listed at Grade I, the highest of the three grades, three are at Grade II*, the middle grade, and the others are at Grade II, the lowest grade. The parish includes the town of Keighley, the settlements of East Morton, Hainworth, Ingrow, Laycock, Oakworth, Oldfield, Riddlesden, and Utley, and the surrounding countryside and moorland.
Coordinates: 53°52′29″N1°52′52″W / 53.87471°N 1.88118°W
