This website presents research on three aspects of settlement history in the Upper Calder Valley area of the parish of Halifax in West Yorkshire, England.

The history of named settlements
This research was undertaken by Nigel Smith between 2009 and 2013 as part of a PhD study into settlement and field patterns in the Upper Calder Valley.[1] The study collated information from a number of published and unpublished sources on the date when a named settlement was first mentioned in surviving documentation. The Sources page provides details of the documentary evidence used. The Data page lists each settlement and clicking on the Action column provides more detailed information on the selected settlement, including showing its position on the modern Ordnance Survey map and a satellite image from Google Earth.

Fields in 1805
For the township of Stansfield, settlement information is supplemented by information derived from the first extant local valuation list, which was in 1805. This list provides very detailed information on the various fields, cottages and other property comprising each settlement. It is hoped that it will be possible to add further valuation information for other townships in due course.

Buildings and streets in Hebden Bridge
Information on individual streets and buildings in Hebden Bridge has been gathered by Diana Monahan over many years. This information is gradually being added to this website and is presented in the same way as individual settlements on the Data page. The information presented is what is known at the moment. Further information may be discovered as the research progresses.

If you have any corrections or further information that you would like to have considered for addition to this website, please use the contact form.

[1] N. Smith, Settlement and field patterns in the South Pennines: a critique of morphological approaches to landscape history in upland environments, unpublished PhD thesis, Lancaster University, 2013. A slightly revised version was published as N. Smith, Patterns in the landscape: evaluating characterisation of the historic landscape in the South Pennines, BAR British Series No.604, Oxford, Archaeopress, 2014.