Sowerby ( ) is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale, 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. It lies in the Pennines, contiguous with

Sowerby Bridge Sowerby Bridge ( ) is a market town in the Upper Calder Valley in Calderdale in West Yorkshire, England. The Calderdale Council ward population at the 2011 census was 11,703. History The town was originally a fording point over the once mu ...

, west-southwest of Halifax.

History

Historically a 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 ...

, Sowerby appears 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 manus ...

'' of 1086, and was an important settlement long before Halifax began to dominate. The ancient district of Sowerbyshire, a stretch of forest centred on the town leading down the Ryburn and Calder valleys and almost up to Halifax, was a Royal chase. The name Sowerby, is made up from the Norse ''Sor'' for sour and suffixed with ''by'' representing a parished area.Sowerby Bridge, West Yorkshire - BBC
/ref> The local pronunciation follows the original Norse. (''saw+bi''). A local legend described a castle in Sowerby and its presence was confirmed by excavations on 'Castle Hill' at the high end of the old town. Archaeologists uncovered the foundations of a Norman

motte-and-bailey castle A motte-and-bailey castle is a European fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised area of ground called a motte, accompanied by a walled courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade. Relatively easy t ...

Governance

Sowerby was the centre of the Sowerby parliamentary constituency until the 1983 general election, when the constituency was expanded and renamed

Calder Valley Calder is a Scottish name and may refer to: People *Calder (surname) * Calder baronets, two baronetcies created for people with the surname Calder *Alexander Calder (1898-1976), the American sculptor known for his mobiles, son of Alexander Stirli ...

. Sowerby now falls within the Calderdale Ward of Ryburn.

Landmarks

Once home to many chapels and churches of several Christian denominations, the Anglican St Peter's Church is of architectural interest and the main focus of religious worship in the town.

Notable people

John Tillotson John Tillotson (October 1630 – 22 November 1694) was the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury from 1691 to 1694. Curate and rector Tillotson was the son of a Puritan clothier at Haughend, Sowerby, Yorkshire. Little is known of his early youth ...

, 'The people's priest', Archbishop of Canterbury between 1691 and 1693, was a native of Sowerby. A statue of Tillotson exists in St Peter's Church and an avenue is named after him in the lower end of the town. The summer home of the former MP for

Great Grimsby Grimsby or Great Grimsby is a port town and the administrative centre of North East Lincolnshire, Lincolnshire, England. Grimsby adjoins the town of Cleethorpes directly to the south-east forming a conurbation. Grimsby is north-east of Linc ...

Austin Mitchell Austin Vernon Mitchell (19 September 1934 – 18 August 2021) was a British academic, journalist and Labour Party politician who was the member of Parliament (MP) for Great Grimsby from a 1977 by-election to 2015. He was also the chair of t ...

, was situated in the town. The nearby mansion of

Field House Field house or fieldhouse is an American English term for an indoor sports arena or stadium, mostly used for college basketball, volleyball, or ice hockey, or a support building for various adjacent sports fields, e.g. locker room, team room, coac ...

was the seat of the Stansfeld family, who contributed much to the local community, including building St Peter's Church. Sowerby Hall, close to the church, was built by Josiah Horton in 1650 and the Rawson family, who owned the Brockwell estate at the lower end of St Peter's Avenue, contributed to the construction of several notable buildings in the town during the 18th century.

References

External links