Calverley Is a Place of Special Character and Historic Interest
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Calverley is a place of special character and historic interest. This draft appraisal and management plan sets out the features that contribute to its distinctiveness and identifies opportunities for its protection and enhancement. Calverley CONSERVATION AREA APPRAISAL & MANAGEMENT PLAN Adopted 9 April 2009 Overview Summary of special interest Summary of issues Calverley is an historic village lying Calverley retains a strong historic between Leeds and Bradford. It character and much of its historic street originated as an agricultural settlement pattern. However, the historic core of but was enlarged in the 19th century as the village is rather cut off from the a result of the growth of the woollen church and church house by the busy industry. Its attractive rural setting, A657. overlooking the Aire Valley but within easy reach of Bradford, led to its Two of the most important historic popularity as a residence for a number buildings in Calverley, 1 Church House of prominent Bradford industrialists in and Calverley Old Hall, are unoccupied the later 19th century. and consequently vulnerable to deliberate damage, theft of materials or Calverley Old Hall, listed Grade I, is a unnoticed decay. It is important that Medieval manor house and the former those responsible for the buildings seat of the Calverley family. It is maintain a regular inspection and currently in the ownership of the maintenance regime to prevent damage Landmark Trust but is partially to the buildings, and make efforts to 1 & 3 Church House, Town Gate. An unusual example of semi-detached unoccupied. bring them back into use. 18th century houses, listed grade II*, next to the Grade I listed church. The historic field pattern survives to The historic buildings in Calverley are the north and east of the village and, largely in good repair. It is important along with the views over the Aire that historic architectural features are Valley, plays a significant role in the retained and appropriate materials are character of the conservation area. used in any repairs or alterations in order to preserve the character of the area. While there is some survival of historic paving and walling in the public realm, many of the sandstone paving slabs are cracked and in poor condition. Historic paving and walling should be retained wherever possible and new sections of The site of a former workhouse on Non-Conformist chapels have been paving should be of appropriate Blackett Street is marked by this present in Calverley since the early materials. plaque. The site is now occupied 19th century. The present chapel Vernacular cottages on West End by modern bed-sit housing. on Carr Road was built in 1872. Road. Extent of the Conservation Area The Calverley conservation area was first designated in 1984. While it covered all of the historic core of the settlement and most of the significant late-19th and early-20th-century buildings, a small number of historic buildings were not included. In addition, neither the area of historic field pattern to the north of the village nor the remnants of the 1850s development in Calverley Wood were included. Current guidance on conservation area designation suggests that conservation area boundaries should be clearly based on analysis of the historic character of the area. The revision to the boundary of the conservation area has followed the character areas defined in this appraisal. Each of the four character areas set out in this report are of sufficiently high quality and historic significance to be included in the conservation area. The former and revised boundary are shown on the map, right. It is anticipated that this conservation area will be reviewed after 2013. Former (blue) and revised (red) conservation area boundary. Location and context Sandstone General character and plan form Location and setting Millstone grit The early village of Calverley lay and lower coal Calverley is situated between Leeds and between the church and Calverley Old measures Bradford in rolling countryside Hall in an informal and irregular pattern overlooking the Aire valley. It is a of lanes and footpaths. Enlargement of medium-sized village supporting a the village in the late 19th century led range of local services including two to the development of a more regular schools, two churches and a post office. grid-like pattern of terraced streets, The Leeds and Liverpool Canal lies in mainly to the south and west of the the valley to the north of the village and original village core. A park together with the railway line between incorporating a cricket pitch and Bradford and Leeds formerly connected bowling green lies between the early the area with the wider region during village and the site of Clover Greaves the 19th and early 20th century. The Mill, which marked the western edge of A657 passes through the centre of the the village for over 100 years until the village. 1970s. Geology map of Calverley. Geology, topography and landscape setting The geology underlying Calverley is a Calverley’s elevated position, lying at a complex pattern of carboniferous height of 150 metres (490 ft) in open sandstone and coal measures, overlain agricultural land is a key contributory by drifts of clay and other materials laid factor to the settlement’s character. down along the Aire valley. The Views north across the Aire Valley give Millstone Grit sandstone was exploited a sense of elevation and openness, both for the manufacture of grinding while Calverley Wood to the north acts stones and as a building material, and as a terminus to the village. Glimpsed the remains of quarrying activity can be views of Horsforth Church on the north- seen in Calverley Wood. The coal east horizon and the chimneys of measures were also exploited by the Woodbottom Mill in the middle distance sinking of small drift mines, evidence of give a sense of depth to the landscape. which can be traced in the open land to The land rises a further 40 metres (130 the south of the village. ft) to a hilltop approximately 1km (1/2 mile) to the south-west of the village. Location of Calverley, between Leeds and Bradford. The manor of Calverley was sold by the Historic development last Sir Walter Calverley (also known as Sir Walter Blackett) in 1754 to the Origins and historic settlement Thornhill family. A survey (reproduced left) commissioned by the new owner, Calverley is of Anglo-Saxon origin, its Thomas Thornhill, gives a record of the name deriving from the Old English extent of the village at this time as well “calfra” and literally meaning ‘clearing as providing information about the used for calves’. The historic core of the surrounding agricultural land. It is clear village probably originated in the early from field names that there were 7th century, close to where the church extensive apple orchards around the now stands, on the edge of Calverley village in the 1750s. The Thornhill Wood. Although the present church Estate still owns large parts of Calverley dates from about 1150, there is township. evidence to suggest that a pre-Norman building once stood on the site: several In 1756 a workhouse was built in the 10th-14th century cross slab grave village by Sir Walter Blackett. Formerly covers have been found inside the named Sir Walter Calverley, he had church, along with a few early (possibly changed his surname as a condition of Anglo-Saxon) stones embedded in the the inheritance of his uncle’s estates in chancel arch. The fact that the church is Northumberland shortly before selling dedicated to St Wilfrid, an Anglo-Saxon Calverley to the Thornhills. Sir Walter saint, is also indicative of an early was a prominent parliamentarian and origin. also endowed a hospital in Newcastle. All that remains of the Calverley A late Neolithic cup-marked rock in Survey of the Manor of Calverley for Thomas Thornhill, circa 1755. workhouse is a commemorative plaque Calverley Wood indicates that this area at its site. may have held special significance in prehistoric times. There is also a possible prehistoric burial to the west Calverley is mentioned in the Domesday Apart from the church, the oldest side of St Wilfrid’s Church that suggest Survey of 1086, but the entry does not building in the village is Calverley Old a Bronze Age presence in the area. mention a hall or a church, although Hall, parts of which date from the 14th both probably existed at the time. The century. A timber-framed solar wing, Further evidence for Anglo-Saxon present St Wilfrid’s church was lying between the hall and chapel, is the occupation of the area includes the presented as a gift to the Archbishop of earliest surviving part of the building. It possible site, situated to the north of York in 1150; the south nave wall dates was encased in stone circa 1485 when Carr Road, of an Anglo-Saxon hall from this period, but much of the rest of the existing hall was built to replace an known as Arknell. A field named “Old the fabric dates from the 14th century earlier one and the chapel built to the Hall” on a map of the 1760s may and is Decorated in style. The upper west of the solar. The Hall fell out of indicate its former location. stage of the tower was added in the use as a manor house at the end of the 15th century. The church was 17th Century and was later sub- Late Medieval window in Calverley extensively restored in the 19th century. divided into cottages. Old Hall, Woodhall Road. and related buildings can pass Historic development unnoticed. 1-15 Rushton Street, now a row of cottages, was formerly a store The woollen trade in Calverley for woollen waste.