Calverley is a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...

in the

City of Leeds The City of Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. The metropolitan borough includes the administrative centre of Leeds and the towns of Farsley, Garforth, Guiseley, Horsforth, Morley, Otley, Pudsey, Rothwell, W ...

metropolitan borough 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, on the

A657 road The A657 is an A road in West Yorkshire, England that begins in Bramley and ends in Saltaire near Shipley. The road is approximately long. The road starts from the Bramley Town End ( Stanningley By-Pass junction) and ends at the junction wit ...

, about from Leeds city centre and from Bradford. The population of Calverley in 2011 was 4,328. It is part of the City of Leeds ward Calverley and Farsley, with a population of 22,594 at the 2011 Census.

Etymology

The name of Calverley is first attested in the 1086

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 manus ...

, as ''Caverlei'' and ''Caverleia''. Spellings including the ''l'', such as ''Kalverlay'', are found in twelfth-century sources. The name comes from the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...

words ''calfra'', the genitive

plural The plural (sometimes abbreviated pl., pl, or ), in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than the default quantity represented by that noun. This de ...

of ''calf'' ('calf'), and ''lēah'' ('open ground in woodland'). Thus the name once meant "calves' clearing" or something similar.

History

Historically, Calverley was a parish in the district of Bradford and the Morley wapentake, but was incorporated into the municipal borough of

Pudsey Pudsey is a market town in the City of Leeds Borough in West Yorkshire, England. It is located midway between Bradford city centre and Leeds city centre. Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, it has a population of 22,408. History T ...

in 1937, of which it remained a part until its abolition in 1974. Calverley is a rural village with 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 period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...

, Calverley Old Hall, which dates back to the 14th century and was home to the Calverley family. In 1605 the landowner,

Walter Calverley Walter Calverley (c. 1570–1605) was an English squire from Yorkshire. Perhaps the most infamous member of the Calverley family, he is most known for murdering two of his young children, leading to his own execution by pressing in 1605. His sto ...

, went insane and murdered some of his children in Calverley Hall. He refused to plead and was ordered to be pressed to death, a method used to try to force a confession. He died without confessing his crime in order to ensure that his estate was not taken from his remaining family. Houses in the village are mostly constructed of

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

, darkened by the soot of the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

, though there are brick buildings to the south of the original village. The Anglican parish church

St Wilfrid Wilfrid ( – 709 or 710) was an English bishop and saint. Born a Northumbrian noble, he entered religious life as a teenager and studied at Lindisfarne, at Canterbury, in Francia, and at Rome; he returned to Northumbria in about 660, and ...

's has parts dating from the 11th or 12th century. The tower was added and increased in the 13th to 15th century.Calverley Today
David Weldrake (20 December 2007) ''Calverley Village History'' The

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...

church beside Victoria Park opened in 1872. Both churches are Grade II listed buildings.Claverley Today
Faith Calverley Cutting, a straight road which was intended to replace the old winding packhorse way through the woods between Carr Road in Calverley and

Apperley Bridge Apperley is a village in Gloucestershire, England, about southwest of Tewkesbury, south of Deerhurst and east of the River Severn. It is the largest settlement in Deerhurst civil parish. In 2020 it had an estimated population of 625. The p ...

, was cut through the local sandstone rock by 1856. It was meant to be part of a scheme to develop the area for luxurious residential purposes which, however, failed. Local residents objected to the closure of the old route because the new road proved to be very steep. Calverley and Rodley railway station on the line of the former

Leeds and Bradford Railway The Leeds and Bradford Railway Company (L&BR)The abbreviation L&BR is more commonly seen referring to the London and Birmingham Railway. opened a railway line between the townsLeeds obtained city status in 1893; Bradford became a city in 1897. on ...

was opened in 1846, closed to passengers in 1965 and to freight in 1968.

Administration

The village was part of the

Municipal Borough Municipal boroughs were a type of local government district which existed in England and Wales between 1835 and 1974, in Northern Ireland from 1840 to 1973 and in the Republic of Ireland from 1840 to 2002. Broadly similar structures existed in S ...

alongside

Farsley Farsley is a town in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough, West Yorkshire, England to the west of Leeds city centre, east of Bradford. Farsley is situated between the two cities and near the town of Pudsey. Before April 1974, Farsley was pa ...

until 1974, though for centuries previously both Pudsey and Farsley were part of the Calverley parish.

Sports and recreation

The recreation ground in Victoria Park is home to Calverley St Wilfrid's Cricket Club.Calverley St Wilfrid's Cricket Club
There are two golf courses to the south of the village: Woodhall Hills (established 1905) off Woodhall Road, and Calverley Golf Club off Woodhall Lane.

Notable people

* Alfred Blunt, former

Bishop of Bradford The Bishop of Bradford is an episcopal title used by a suffragan bishop of the Church of England Diocese of Leeds, in the Province of York, England. The title takes its name after Bradford, a city in West Yorkshire. Upon the creation of the ...

, is buried in the parish churchyard *

Frederick William Faber Frederick William Faber (1814–1863) was a noted English hymnwriter and theologian, who converted from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism in 1845. He was ordained to the Catholic priesthood subsequently in 1847. His best-known work is the hymn ...

, priest, theologian and hymnographer * Sir Percival Hartley, biochemist * Charles Smith, cricketer *

Ann Husler Ann Husler (1803–1874), née Procter, was a quarry owner and stone merchant based in Weetwood, Leeds, in West Yorkshire. She ran a quarry business after the death of her husband, John Husler. She ran the business until her death at the age of ...

, local 19th century stone merchant

Gallery

Calverley Hall.jpg, Calverley Old Hall CalverleyMethodist.JPG, Methodist Church (1872) CalverleyHouses1.JPG, Older Calverley Houses Calverley Cutting (2999945097).jpg, Calverley Cutting, with the bridge of Clara Drive in the background

Location grid

References

External links

CalverleyInfo
Genealogical and historical Website * {{West Yorkshire, state=collapsed Places in Leeds