Calverley is a village in the

City of Leeds Leeds, also known as the City of Leeds, is a metropolitan borough with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in West Yorkshire, England. The metropolitan borough includes the administrative centre of Leeds and the towns of Farsley, Gar ...

metropolitan borough in

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a Metropolitan counties of England, metropolitan and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and east, South Yorkshire and De ...

, England, on the A657 road, about from

Leeds city centre Leeds city centre is the central business district of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is roughly bounded by the Leeds Inner Ring Road, Inner Ring Road to the north and the River Aire to the south and can be divided into several quarters. A ...

and from

Bradford Bradford is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in West Yorkshire, England. It became a municipal borough in 1847, received a city charter in 1897 and, since the Local Government Act 1972, 1974 reform, the city status in the United Kingdo ...

, and lying north of the town 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 25,393. History T ...

. The population of Calverley in 2011 was 4,328. It is part of the City's Calverley and Farsley ward, 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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

, 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 , or ), 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 developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

words ''calfra'', the

genitive In grammar, the genitive case ( abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can ...

plural In many languages, a plural (sometimes list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated as pl., pl, , or ), is one of the values of the grammatical number, grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than ...

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

History

Calverley is a rural village with a

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

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 usually held the lord's manorial courts, communal mea ...

Calverley Old Hall Calverley Old Hall is a medieval manor house with Grade I listed building status situated at Calverley, West Yorkshire, England. Architectural features Unusually, significant portions of the house have escaped alteration and modernisation in l ...

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

Walter Calverley Walter Calverley (1579–1605) was an English squire from Yorkshire. In some of her letters, his mother-in-law spelled the name "Coverley", which suggests that it was then pronounced with the "al" as in "calf" ("Calverley" means "pasture for calv ...

, 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 rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

, darkened by the soot of the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution, sometimes divided into the First Industrial Revolution and Second Industrial Revolution, was a transitional period of the global economy toward more widespread, efficient and stable manufacturing processes, succee ...

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

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

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 beca ...

'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 Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

church beside Victoria Park opened in 1872. Both churches are

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

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 Bridge is a village in the metropolitan borough of the City of Bradford, in West Yorkshire, England in the Idle and Thackley Ward. Apperley Bridge is north-east of Bradford on the boundary with the City of Leeds bounded in the east b ...

, 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 Calverley and Rodley railway station, originally called Calverley Bridge Station for the nearby river crossing, is a closed railway station on the line of the former Leeds and Bradford Railway (whose route now forms part of the Leeds to Bradfo ...

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. In 1931 the parish had a population of 3655.

Governance

Historically, Calverley was an ecclesiastical parish in the district of Bradford and the Morley wapentake. In 1894 Calverley Urban District was formed and on 1 April 1937 it was abolished and merged into the

Municipal Borough of Pudsey Pudsey was a local government district in the West Riding of Yorkshire from 1872 to 1974 established around the town of Pudsey, covering Farsley, Calverley, and parts of Stanningley, Swinnow and Rodley, West Yorkshire, Rodley. A local board for ...

, where it remained until its abolition in 1974. 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 Alfred Walter Frank Blunt (24 September 1879 – 12 June 1957) was an English Anglicanism, Anglican bishop. He was the second Bishop of Bradford (diocese), Bishop of Bradford from 1931 to 1955 and is best known for a speech that exacerbated the ...

, former Bishop of Bradford, is buried in the parish churchyard *

Frederick William Faber Frederick William Faber (28 June 1814 – 26 September 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-kn ...

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

cricketer Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

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,

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 City of Leeds Former civil parishes in West Yorkshire Pudsey