Cottingley, Bradford
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Cottingley is a
suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...
an village within the
City of Bradford The City of Bradford () is a local government district of West Yorkshire, England, with the status of a city and metropolitan borough. It is named after its largest settlement, Bradford, but covers a large area which includes the towns and v ...
in
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 between Shipley and
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 ...
. It is known for the Cottingley Fairies, which appeared in a series of photographs taken there during the early 20th century.


Etymology

The village is first 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 ''Cotingelai'' in the wapentake of
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 ...
and the lands of Erneis of Buron. The first element is the
personal name A personal name, or full name, in onomastic terminology also known as prosoponym (from Ancient Greek πρόσωπον / ''prósōpon'' - person, and ὄνομα / ''onoma'' - name), is the set of names by which an individual person is known ...
''Cotta'' (the origin of which is unknown), and the second the suffix ''-ingas'' denoting a group of associated people. Thus the ''Cottingas'' were a group descended from or otherwise associated with someone called Cotta. This group name was then compounded with the Old English word ''lēah'' ('open land in a wood'). Thus the name once meant 'the clearing of the descendants of Cola'.


History

The village was clustered around the original St Michaels Church, Cottingley Town Hall and the Sun Inn. This village was from Bingley, with Cottingley Bridge a mile closer. In 1917, two girls, 15-year old Elsie Wright and nine-year old Frances Griffiths, claimed to have photographed fairies in the dell (Cottingley Beck) at the bottom of their garden. This led to the Cottingley Fairies hoax, which still resonates in the village into the modern day. The village has a festival to celebrate the story (Cottingley Fairy Fest), and in 1997, parts of a film inspired by the story, FairyTale: A True Story, were filmed in the village.


Governance

Cottingley is part of Bingley Rural Ward on Bradford City Council and part of the Parliamentary constituency of Shipley, represented since 2005 by the Conservative
Philip Davies Philip Andrew Davies (born 5 January 1972) is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Shipley in West Yorkshire since the 2005 general election. A member of the Conservative Party, he is the most rebellious se ...
. At the 2011 Census, Bingley Rural Ward, which includes
Cullingworth Cullingworth is a village and civil parish in the City of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. Within the boundaries of the historic West Riding of Yorkshire, it is west of Bradford and south of Keighley. The surrounding countryside is mainly u ...
,
Denholme Denholme is a town and civil parish in the Bradford Metropolitan Borough, West Yorkshire, England. It is west of Bradford, from Keighley and roughly the same distance from Halifax. Administratively, it is part of the Bingley Rural ward of ...
, Harden and
Wilsden Wilsden is a village and civil parish in west Bradford, in West Yorkshire, England. Wilsden is west of Bradford and is close to the Aire Valley and the nearby villages of Denholme, Cullingworth, Harden, Cottingley and Allerton. Wilsden re- ...
, had a population of 17,895.


Geography

The village is in the Aire Valley between Shipley and
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 ...
approximately above sea level with the
River Aire The River Aire is a major river in Yorkshire, England, in length. The ''Handbook for Leeds and Airedale'' (1890) notes that the distance from Malham to Howden is direct, but the river's meanderings extend that to . Between Malham Tarn and Ai ...
to the north. The road through the village has been changed at least twice. Originally, to exit south from Bingley, travellers had to cross Ireland Bridge then
Beckfoot Bridge Beckfoot Bridge (also known as the Packhorse Bridge) was historically a significant crossing point over Harden Beck in Bingley, West Yorkshire, England. The cost of repair and maintenance of bridges was meted out by either the county, wapentak ...
and approach Cottingley on the south side of the river. The bridge across the River Aire leading towards Bingley was built by 1649, when it appears in the ''Book of Bridges in the Session Rolls of Wakefield.'' It was recorded in 1664 that "a great floode hath taken away the foundations so that the whole bridge is shrunke." Cottingley Bridge was rebuilt and in the early 19th century, it was a hamlet independent of Cottingley. The
A650 road A65 or A-65 may refer to: * A65 road (England), a major road in England * A65 motorway (France), a major road in France * A65 motorway (Germany), a road connecting Kandel and Wörth am Rhein * A65 motorway (Netherlands) * A65 motorway (Spain) * Ben ...
is now to the north of Cottingley after a bypass was built and opened in 2003. The land to the east of the B6269 is mainly flat and to the west rises to a height of at March Cote Farm. Cottingley
beck Beck David Hansen (born Bek David Campbell; July 8, 1970) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He rose to fame in the early 1990s with his Experimental music, experimental and Lo-fi music, lo-fi style, and became ...
cuts a deep, narrow, rocky channel flowing north to the River Aire. Although the road, railway and 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 ...
are on the opposite side of the Aire Valley to Cottingley, Parliament was asked to consider making the Aire Navigable from Cottingley to Shipley. The village lies on Millstone Grit and there are coal deposits, some bands and seams up to thick. Old mine shafts litter the fields either side of Cottingley Cliffe Road shown as either Old Coal Pits or Coal pits on the 1852 map, and one is listed as ''Cottingley Moor Bottom'' as having closed in 1860.


Amenities

There are two churches in the village; St Mary and St Monica is the Catholic church and the Church of St Michael and All Angels is the Anglican Church. St Michaels and All Angels was part of a regeneration project that spent £4.5 million, which included meeting rooms, a doctor's surgery, nursery and youth facilities and 50 new homes. The project started because a 1960s war memorial had been vandalised, and reports in the press caught the eye of Prince Charles, who came to speak at the grand unveiling. The village has a primary school on Cottingley Moor Road, rated ''Good'' by OFSTED, and a secondary school,
Dixons Cottingley Academy Dixons Cottingley Academy (formerly Samuel Lister Academy, Aire Valley School, Nab Wood School and originally Nab Wood Grammar School) is a mixed secondary school located in Cottingley, West Yorkshire, England. Originally opened as Nab Wood ...
. Cottingley Town Hall, which is now
grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
, celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2015.


Notable residents

*
Dominic Brunt Dominic Adam Brunt (born 15 April 1970) is an English actor, director and producer, best known for portraying the role of Paddy Kirk in the ITV (TV channel), ITV soap opera ''Emmerdale''. For his role as Paddy, Brunt has been nominated in variou ...
– lived in the house of the Cottingley Fairy hoax in the early 2000s *Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths (Cottingley Fairies girls)


Other notes

* ''Cottingley Hall'' is shown on the 1908 map near the site of Cottingley Manor Park. On the 1852 map it is Cottingley House. (As Cottingley Hall bore the date 1659 RAF (Robert & Anne Ferrand) together with the Knights double cross, Cottingley House and Cottingley Hall are different names for the same property.) * Cottingley also had a reservoir managed by Cottingley Water Works Co. This is shown above Manor Farm (now March Cote Lane) on the local map of 1908.


See also

*
Listed buildings in Bingley Bingley is a civil parish in the metropolitan borough of the City of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. It contains 102 listed buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England. Of these, one is listed at Grade I, th ...


References


Sources

* *


External links


Cottingley.Net
– The Cottingley Network
Cottingley Connect
– non commercial site charting Cottingley village from domesday to present day including the Cottingley fairy story * . {{authority control Villages in West Yorkshire Geography of the City of Bradford