Illingworth is a village within the
Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale
Calderdale () is a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, England, which had a population of 211,439. It takes its name from the River Calder, and dale, a word for valley. The name Calderdale usually refers to the borough through which the up ...
, 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. The appropriate Calderdale Ward is called Illingworth and Mixenden. The population of this ward at the 2011 Census was 12,739.
It is situated north-west of
Halifax.
Illingworth is one of the Halifax villages that have all become suburbs through urban expansion. Situated on the side and top of a hill, this is an exposed area, and feels cooler than lower down districts.
History
The village also has the former Illingworth Gaol and village stocks. The
gaol
A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where people are imprisoned under the authority of the state, usually as punishment for various cri ...
has an inscription above the door giving the date as 1823 of when it was built. It had four cells. In June 2009, it was advertised for sale by
auction
An auction is usually a process of Trade, buying and selling Good (economics), goods or Service (economics), services by offering them up for Bidding, bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from th ...
br>
An ancient settlement, many old buildings remain, but many have been lost including the old Talbot public house, demolished in the 1930s for a new building to be erected, in a
Tudor Revival architecture, Tudor style with stained glass windows. This in turn has been demolished in 2009.
The Commercial Inn is another pub now demolished, and on its site there are some mews style private housing.
Housing
The old village smithy stands derelict. In the 1970s, some ancient cottages were lost on Church Terrace, as were some farmsteads on the upper west of Keighley Road to make way for the Abbey Park social housing scheme. The greater part of this housing scheme has in turn been demolished to make way for private sector housing.
Housing in Illingworth includes a mixture of social housing: the Halifax council built their estates towards the north of Halifax and more recently new private housing.
Illingworth is on the whole in what could be described as an attractive setting, the countryside is never far away, and there are many ancient buildings, but the village centre has witnessed severe deterioration of the environment with the aforesaid demolitions of the two public houses, and the "tram shelter". which gave a focal point on Wrigley Hill.
Sports
The village of Illingworth has competitive sports teams within the area including Crossleys Juniors (
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
), Illingworth St Mary's
Cricket
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 ...
Club who play in the
Halifax Cricket League and Illingworth A.R.L.F.C. (
rugby league
Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...
) who play at Mason Green in the
Pennine League.
See also
*
Listed buildings in Illingworth, West Yorkshire and Mixenden
References
External links
{{authority control
Villages in West Yorkshire
Areas of Halifax, West Yorkshire