Lightcliffe | |
---|---|
Wakefield Road, Lightcliffe | |
Location within West Yorkshire | |
Population | 11,308 (Hipperholme and Lightcliffe Ward) |
OS grid reference | SE140253 |
Metropolitan borough | |
Metropolitan county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | HALIFAX |
Postcode district | HX3 |
Dialling code | 01422 |
Police | West Yorkshire |
Fire | West Yorkshire |
Ambulance | Yorkshire |
UK Parliament | |
Lightcliffe is a village in the Calderdale district in West Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is situated approximately three miles east of Halifax and two miles north west of Brighouse [1] . Lightcliffe was a separate parish in 1846 in the West Riding of Yorkshire. [2]
Lightcliffe is a dormitory village for people working in Halifax, Brighouse, and Bradford, and commuting to Leeds, Manchester, and Sheffield. [3] It stretches along the Wakefield and Leeds roads, surrounded by fields and rolling countryside. Lightcliffe feels very established and green – with many mature trees and large houses. Lightcliffe's main park, "the Stray", is 11 acres of lawn and trees and contains a war memorial erected in 1923. [4] In April 1937, an avenue of trees was planted in the park to commemorate King George VI's coronation. [4] Towards the village centre is the cricket club. There are two golf clubs, the long established Lightcliffe Golf Club and Crow's Nest Golf Club.
The oldest part of the village contains the Sun Inn – a former coaching inn, along what was in antiquity the main road to London. The new Lightcliffe Anglican church, St Matthew's, was built in 1875 to replace the old church. It is a Gothic Revival building, with an embattled parapet which is reminiscent of a medieval castle. [5]
Lightcliffe Academy is a secondary school serving the area. Lightcliffe Church of England Primary School is located in an old stone building and Cliffe Hill Primary has newer premises.
Sir Titus Salt, a wealthy businessman known for having built the village of Saltaire, as well as owning a mill there, once lived in a large house, Crow Nest. The house was a former home of Ann Walker, partner of Anne Lister, the latter of whom was also known as "Gentleman Jack". Crow Nest has since been demolished, and its grounds are now a golf course. Walker is buried a short distance away, across the road at the site of Old St Matthew's Churchyard. Old St Matthew's Church has since been replaced by a newer Church of St Matthew. Walker also once lived at Lydgate House, now surrounded by a residential street called Lydgate Park, and formerly alongside Crow Nest. Walker and her family also lived at Cliffe Hill, which still survives[ citation needed ] .
On Leeds Road is situated the URC church – now converted to offices. A feature of this church is that it contained a peal of bells – unusual for a nonconformist church. It has a tall steeple and stained glass. The church congregation has joined with Hipperholme Methodist Church to form a Local Ecumenical Partnership worshipping at Christ Church at the main Crossroads.
Brighouse is a town within the metropolitan borough of Calderdale, in West Yorkshire, England. Historically within the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is situated on the River Calder, 4 miles (6.4 km) east of Halifax. It is served by Junction 25 of the M62 motorway and Brighouse railway station on the Caldervale Line and Huddersfield Line. In the town centre is a mooring basin on the Calder and Hebble Navigation. The United Kingdom Census 2001 gave the Brighouse / Rastrick subdivision of the West Yorkshire Urban Area a population of 32,360. The Brighouse ward of Calderdale Council gave a population of 11,195 at the 2011 Census. Brighouse has a HD6 postcode.
Rastrick is a village in the county of West Yorkshire, England, between Halifax, 5 miles north-east and Huddersfield, 4 miles south.
The Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale is a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, England. The estimated population in mid-2020 was 211,439. It takes its name from the River Calder, and dale, a word for valley. The name Calderdale usually refers to the borough through which the upper river flows, while the actual landform is known as the Calder Valley. Several small valleys contain tributaries of the River Calder.
Clifton is a small village, near Brighouse, in the metropolitan borough of Calderdale in West Yorkshire, England.
The Calder Valley line is a railway route in Northern England between the cities of Leeds and Manchester as well as the seaside resort of Blackpool. It is the slower of the two main rail routes between Leeds and Manchester, and the northernmost of the three main trans-Pennine routes.
Hipperholme Grammar School is an independent grammar school in Hipperholme, West Yorkshire, England. It educates pupils between the ages of 3 and 16.
Walterclough Hall, sometimes known as Water Clough Hall or Upper Walterclough, lies in the Walterclough Valley south-east of Halifax and north-east of the village of Southowram in the West Riding of Yorkshire, alongside the Red Beck.
King Cross, originally the site of an ancient stone cross, is an ecclesiastical parish created in 1845 in the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England. Part of the Diocese of Wakefield, it is located along the top of a ridge above the town of Halifax. The A58 road into Lancashire divides here, with one fork, the A646, branching off towards Burnley via Hebden Bridge and the other going to Littleborough via Sowerby Bridge. During the English Civil War, when Halifax was a Royalist stronghold, King Cross was a key outpost, with the Parliamentarians holding parts of the Calder Valley.
Bailiff Bridge is a village 1.5 miles (2.4 km) north from Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England, and is 5 miles (8.0 km) from Huddersfield and 7 miles (11 km) from Bradford. Bailiff Bridge falls within the Hipperholme and Lightcliffe Ward of Calderdale Council.
Southowram is a village in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England that stands on the hill top to the east of Halifax, on the south side of Shibden valley. The village falls within the Town ward of Calderdale Council. It is a small Pennine village near Bank Top, Brookfoot and Siddal. Northowram is on the northern side of the valley and is roughly equidistant from Halifax and Brighouse.
Hipperholme is a village in West Yorkshire, England, located between the towns of Halifax and Brighouse in the Hipperholme and Lightcliffe ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale. The population of this ward at the 2011 Census was 11,308.
Halifax Choral Society is a choir based in the town of Halifax in the English county of West Yorkshire. It is notable for being the oldest amateur choral society in Britain with an unbroken record of performance.
Norwood Green is a small village situated between Bradford, Halifax and Huddersfield in West Yorkshire, England. It is in the metropolitan borough of Calderdale. The village falls within the Calderdale ward of Hipperholme and Lightcliffe. It once had a railway station on the Calder Valley line.
Halifax is a minster and market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale in West Yorkshire, England. It is the commercial, cultural and administrative centre of the borough, and the headquarters of Calderdale Council. In the 15th century, the town became an economic hub of the old West Riding of Yorkshire, primarily in woollen manufacture. Halifax is the largest town in the wider Calderdale borough. Halifax was a thriving mill town during the industrial revolution.
Lightcliffe railway station served the village of Lightcliffe in West Yorkshire, England. It was opened in August 1850 and was a victim of the Beeching cuts on 14 June 1965.
Old St Matthew's Church, Lightcliffe, is a former church in the village of Lightcliffe, West Yorkshire, England, of which only the tower remains. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building, and is under the care of the Friends of Friendless Churches.
William Swinden Barber FRIBA, also W. S. Barber or W. Swinden Barber, was an English Gothic Revival and Arts and Crafts architect, specialising in modest but finely furnished Anglican churches, often with crenellated bell-towers. He was based in Brighouse and Halifax in the West Riding of Yorkshire. At least 15 surviving examples of his work are Grade II listed buildings, including his 1875 design for the Victoria Cross at Akroydon, Halifax. An 1864 portrait by David Wilkie Wynfield depicts him in Romantic garb, holding a flower. He served in the Artists Rifles regiment in the 1860s alongside Wynfield and other contemporary artists.
Ann Walker was an Englishwoman, married in Britain's first known lesbian wedding, to diarist and fellow Yorkshire landowner Anne Lister. Their union was solemnised by taking the sacrament together on Easter Sunday in 1834 at Holy Trinity Church, Goodramgate, York, which bears a commemorative plaque acknowledging the event. Walker inherited half of her family's estate, Crow Nest, located in Lightcliffe, West Yorkshire, near Shibden Hall, Lister's family estate, in Calderdale. Both women inherited their respective estates during the early 19th century, when primogeniture, the custom of granting lands and property to the oldest surviving son, dominated European law and society. They were travelling abroad together when Lister fell ill and died. Research into their diaries and letters suggest Walker may have experienced bouts of anxiety and depression throughout portions of her life.