Cowling is a village, electoral division and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

in the Craven district of

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by national parks, including most of the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors. It is one of four co ...

, England. It is situated on the borders with the adjacent counties of

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 ...

, and

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancas ...

Historically History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

part of the

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county County of York, West Riding (the area under the control of West Riding County Council), abbreviated County ...

, it is a village consisting of 2,000 to 3,000 residents, measured at 2,355 in the Census 2011. The village is expanding due to new housing being built in the middle of the village. Cowling includes a variety of services to support the community including a village hall, primary school, shops, a pub, a restaurant, a pizza take-away, and hairdressers. A gala is held in Cowling every year.

History

The village is

Saxon The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...

in origin and is recorded 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 'Collinge'. The name means Coll's people or tribe. At the time of the

Norman conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Conq ...

the main landowner was Gamel who had very large land holdings in

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

. His name survives in Gamsgill on the northern edge of the village. Originally the village comprised three separate hamlets namely Ickornshaw, Middleton, Gill and Cowling Hill. It was only following the construction of the main

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 o ...

Colne Colne () is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Pendle in Lancashire, England. Located northeast of Nelson, north-east of Burnley, east of Preston and west of Leeds. The town should not be confused with the unrelated Colne ...

road (A6068) and the building of large mills alongside the road that what is now regarded as the main village was constructed providing terraced cottage homes for the mill workers. The older parts of the village faded in importance and as a result the

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

and primary school are located on what appears to be the outskirts of the village between Ickornshaw and Middleton, the centre of the village having moved since their construction. The mills continued to operate and to provide the main source of local employment until the end of the 20th century but are now all closed down and their sites largely redeveloped for housing and the village hall. The village is now very much a dormitory village for those working in the surrounding towns of

and East

. It is the base for a licensed

community radio Community radio is a radio service offering a third model of radio broadcasting in addition to commercial and public broadcasting. Community stations serve geographic communities and communities of interest. They broadcast content that is popu ...

station,

Drystone Radio Drystone Radio, operating online and on frequencies of 103.5 FM (formerly 106.9 FM) and 102.0 FM, is a not-for-profit community radio station operating from Cowling, North Yorkshire to listeners across Craven, Wharfedale and par ...

Famous people from Cowling

Philip Snowden Philip Snowden, 1st Viscount Snowden, PC (; 18 July 1864 – 15 May 1937) was a British politician. A strong speaker, he became popular in trade union circles for his denunciation of capitalism as unethical and his promise of a socialist utop ...

, who served as

Chancellor of the Exchequer The chancellor of the Exchequer, often abbreviated to chancellor, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom, and head of HM Treasury, His Majesty's Treasury. As one of the four Great Offices of State, the Ch ...

in the first two Labour governments, was born in the village; when awarded a

viscount A viscount ( , for male) or viscountess (, for female) is a title used in certain European countries for a noble of varying status. In many countries a viscount, and its historical equivalents, was a non-hereditary, administrative or judicia ...

cy in 1931, his full title was "Viscount Snowden, of Ickornshaw in the

". In the early 1930s, Snowden spoke in the local dialect of Cowling on a 78rpm gramophone produced by the Yorkshire Dialect Society. Snowden's ashes were scattered on Ickornshaw Moor and there is a memorial cairn to Snowden to mark the fact that he "died in the love of his native land".

Gallery

File:The former butcher's shop in Cowling - geograph.org.uk - 844085.jpg, Former butcher's shop, Keighley Road, Cowling File:Foresters building, Cowling - geograph.org.uk - 1745204.jpg, Cowling File:Village festivals - Cowling Gala - geograph.org.uk - 844097.jpg, Cowling Gala, 2007 File:Wainman's Pinnacle - geograph.org.uk - 1746937.jpg,

Wainman's Pinnacle Wainman's Pinnacle, originally built as a folly (and still used as a folly), is a stone obelisk in Sutton-in-Craven, North Yorkshire. It tends to be referred to as ‘Cowling Pinnacle’ or 'The Salt Pot' and could also be seen as being a part of ...

, a stone obelisk near Cowling, often referred to as Cowling Pinnacle File:Lund's Tower 1 (4015529598).jpg, Lund's Tower, near Cowling

References

External links

Cowling News, local newsletterCowling Village Hall, facebookHarlequin Bistro, Cowling
{{authority control Villages in North Yorkshire Civil parishes in North Yorkshire Craven District