Riddlesden is a suburb of

Keighley 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. Keighley is north-west of Bradford city centre, north-west of Bi ...

(historically a separate village) in the

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and 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 exi ...

, England and on the

Leeds and Liverpool Canal The Leeds and Liverpool Canal is a canal in Northern England, linking the cities of Leeds and Liverpool. Over a distance of , crossing the Pennines, and including 91 locks on the main line. The Leeds and Liverpool Canal has several small branc ...

. The village lies east of Keighley town centre and is on the

B6265 road New B roads are numbered routes in Great Britain of lesser importance than A roads. See the article Great Britain road numbering scheme The Great Britain road numbering scheme is a numbering scheme used to classify and identify all roads in ...

between Keighley and Bingley. The part of the village by the canal is at a height of above sea level.

History

Riddlesden is mentioned in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

as belonging to

William the Conqueror William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first House of Normandy, Norman List of English monarchs#House of Norman ...

and being in the

Wapentake A hundred is an administrative division that is geographically part of a larger region. It was formerly used in England, Wales, some parts of the United States, Denmark, Southern Schleswig, Sweden, Finland, Norway, the Bishopric of Ösel–Wiek, C ...

Skyrack Skyrack was a wapentake of the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. It was split into upper and lower divisions and centred in Headingley, Leeds. The Lower Division included the parishes of Aberford, Bardsey, Barwick-in-Elmet, Kippax, Thorne ...

. The name of the village appears throughout history as ''Redlesden'' and as ''Redelesden'' and it derives from the name of a wooded vale (or farm) of ''Rœd'' or ''Redwulf''. The village was historically in the parish of

Bingley Bingley is a market town and civil parish in the metropolitan borough of the City of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, on the River Aire and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, which had a population of 18,294 at the 2011 Census. Bingley railwa ...

, but it is currently in the civil parish of Keighley. There have been proposals in 2010 and 2012 for Riddlesden to have a separate parish which includes nearby Stockbridge and Sandbeds. The ecclesiastical parish is known as Riddlesden St Mary, which is the name of the church in the village. The Diocese of Leeds estimates the ecclesiastical parish to have a population of 4,500. The village lies in the Ward of Keighley East for the purposes of census data. In 1773, the Bingley to Skipton section of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal was opened. Riddlesden had several wharves which allowed for the exportation of coal from the nearby collieries. Coal was mined at Riddlesden between 1700 and the early 1920s. The manor of Riddlesden, incorporating both houses (East and West Riddlesden Halls), was the breeding place of the Airedale Heifer, a legendary heavy cow similar in stature to the

Craven Heifer Craven Heifer (1807–1812) was a cow which lived in the early 19th century, and to this day remains the largest cow ever shown in England: weight , length nose to tip of rump , height at the shoulder , thickest girth . Craven Heifer was bred b ...

. A pub called the ''Airedale Heifer'' is located in nearby Sandbeds, just to the east.

Landmarks

East Riddlesden Hall, North Yorkshire-geograph

East Riddlesden Hall East Riddlesden Hall is a 17th-century manor house in Keighley, West Yorkshire, England, now owned by the National Trust. History The hall was built in 1642 by a wealthy Halifax clothier, James Murgatroyd. The hall is a Grade I listed buildin ...

is in the care of the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

. It was built in 1642 by a wealthy Halifax clothier, James Murgatroyd. There is a

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

tithebarn in the grounds. East Riddlesden Hall was featured on an episode of the paranormal themed reality television programme ''

Most Haunted ''Most Haunted'' is a British paranormal reality television series. Following complaints, the broadcast regulator, Ofcom, ruled that it was an entertainment show, not a legitimate investigation into the paranormal, and "should not be taken ser ...

''. A lot of walkers and campers and various clubs, e.g.

Scouts Scouting, also known as the Scout Movement, is a worldwide youth movement employing the Scout method, a program of informal education with an emphasis on practical outdoor activities, including camping, woodcraft, aquatics, hiking, backpacking ...

, are attracted to the village because of its sights, such as the peculiarly shaped cliff known as "turtle rock" to locals.

Amenities

The school for Riddlesden is St. Mary's

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

Primary School A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

and Nursery. The village has a large grocery shop and two pubs. Walks in the area are centred on the towpath of the canal, which is also designated as

National Cycle Route 69 National Cycle Network (NCN) Route 69 is a Sustrans National Route that runs from Hest Bank to Cleethorpes. The route is incomplete and consists of one long section in Lancashire, and seven short sections in West Yorkshire. The open sections are ...

. Between 1927 and 2017, Riddlesden had a golf course to the west of the village overlooking the canal. The site closed due to dwindling numbers and has been converted into a scout activity centre. Just past the former golf course is Low Wood Nature Reserve, which is run by the

Yorkshire Wildlife Trust The Yorkshire Wildlife Trust is a charitable non-governmental organisation, one of the UK's 46 county-based Wildlife Trusts. It's focus is nature conservation and it works to achieve a nature-rich Yorkshire with healthy and resilient ecosystems ...

Notable people

Denis Healey Denis Winston Healey, Baron Healey, (30 August 1917 – 3 October 2015) was a British Labour Party (UK), Labour politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1974 to 1979 and as Secretary of State for Defence from 1964 to 1970; he ...

- Labour MP, later ''Baron Healey, of Riddlesden in the County of West Yorkshire'', was brought up in the village from the age of eight.

References

Sources

External links

* . {{authority control Villages in West Yorkshire Geography of the City of Bradford