Bingley Neighbourhood Development Plan

3. History and Character of the Neighbourhood Area Comment

3.0.1 This section of the Neighbourhood Plan provides an introduction to the settlements covered by the plan by describing the history and character of Bingley and the villages of Cottingley, Crossflatts, Eldwick, Gilstead and Micklethwaite. Information for this chapter was obtained from the respective Village Societies. It is understood that the text relating to Eldwick was taken from Bingley. A Yorkshire town through nine centuries (E.E. Dodd, 1985 edition). A fuller account is provided in the supporting document Historical Development of the Villages of Bingley Parish.

3.0.2 Bingley developed from an ancient Saxon township founded by a ford on the River Aire at the site of Ireland Bridge. This crossing gave access to the villages of Harden, Cullingworth and Wilsden on the south side of the river. Bingley is listed as "Bingheleia" in the Domesday Book of 1086.

3.0.3 Bingley became a market town with the grant of a Market Charter in 1212 by King John.

3.0.4 According to the poll tax returns of 1379, Bingley was bigger than the nearby towns of Bradford, Leeds and Halifax.

3.0.5 In 1592, Bingley was shown on a map as a single street with prominent buildings including its parish church, the Grammar School and the Manorial Corn Mill, located at what is now Millgate. The Old White Horse Inn dates from the 17th century.

3.0.6 Bingley remained centred on all subsequent transportation routes through this narrowest point in the lower Aire Valley, and this influenced the growth and development of the town. Main Street became part of the Keighley and Bradford Turnpike road of 1753, following construction of the stone Cottingley Bridge, with assorted inns on the route providing coaching services from Bradford and Leeds to Kendal.

3.0.7 The Bingley section of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal was completed in 1774, linking the town with neighbouring Skipton and Shipley, later with Bradford and Leeds, and eventually with Liverpool.

3.0.8 Local cotton spinning mills relying on water power were located in the valleys of Harden and Morton becks outside of the town, along with a large mill constructed on the river at Castlefields, in 1791. Accessibility to steam power from 1801 led to the building of small cotton and woollen spinning mills on the riverside and alongside the canal at Dubb. A railway line and goods yard were constructed in 1846 bringing further trade, and sustaining Bingley as a hub for communications.

3.0.9 Only a handful of the mills remain with many converted to engineering whilst others have been converted to residential apartments but their architecture remains a reminder of the town's industrial heritage.

3.0.10 By 1801, the population had grown to around 4,100, with half of those being employed primarily on the land. It then rose dramatically to around 17,000 by the 1890s, as Bingley changed to being primarily an industrial town.

3.0.11 Improvement Commissioners, established in 1847, allocated lands to either side of Park Road for further industrial development and as a result a 25-year housing boom began around 1865 to house the mill workers and owners. The Commissioners initiated services such as water, sewerage, gas, drainage and lighting and regulated the development of new streets. Main Street was later redeveloped, including the diversion and widening of the main road through the former church graveyard.

3.0.12 Many schools were built between 1885 and 1910, including a training college for teachers. Additional housing was provided by the Cooperative Society, following its acquisition of much of the former Myrtle Grove Estate, at Poplar House. Its development of 250 assorted terraced houses commenced in 1898 and the area was allocated its own school in 1904. By 1910, two large parks were created, along with a fire station, library, hospital, courthouse, police station and public baths.

3.0.13 After the First World War over 550 council houses were built at Cottingley and Crossflatts. Later the Ferncliffe lands were purchased and developed with over 350 houses. Private developments at this time included housing on former estate lands at Ashfield, Southlands and Ghyll Wood in Cottingley, and Falcon Road and Fairfax Road on the former manorial estate of Gawthorpe.

3.0.14 Later, the hamlets of Priestthorpe and Crownest and the village of Gilstead became conurbated with the main town of Bingley. The village of Eldwick remained separated only by the Prince of Wales Park and Gilstead Moor. The population of Bingley reached a peak of 22,000 at the 1951 census, then stagnated and declined. Nevertheless, the spread of housing continued, with housing developments in Eldwick and Gilstead being built on farmland through the 1960s and onwards.

3.0.15 Much of the older and poorer back-to-back housing in the centre of the town was demolished in the 1950s and 1960s to make way for the provision of flats on York Street, 'sheltered' blocks on Bradford Road and social housing at Crosley Wood.

3.0.16 In the early 1970s, the Bradford and Bingley Building Society headquarters became the town's new landmark structure and a new Theatre and Arts Centre was erected to the north of Myrtle Place with Jubilee Gardens beyond providing an open space in the centre of town.

3.0.17 Several suburban housing estates were built on the estate lands in the Oakwood area during the 1980s, and the former residential blocks of the teacher training college were converted to apartments with the large grounds covered with further housing projects. Just after 2000, the large Swan Avenue housing estate was built, effectively joining the two villages of Eldwick and Gilstead together.

3.0.18 Serious traffic congestion was eased with the Relief Road of 2004 which required remodelling of the top end of town for the connecting Ferncliffe Road. The early textile mills at Dubb were demolished for the new A650, though other worsted mills had already suffered such a fate.

3.0.19 The demise of the Bradford and Bingley Building Society in the financial crisis of 2008 resulted in the loss of several hundred local jobs and the former site has now reverted to retail usage.

3.0.20 Within the Bingley parish, several villages such as Cottingley, Crossflatts and Micklethwaite lie just outside of the main conurbation of Bingley, but with little physically separating them now from the main area of Bingley. Nevertheless, they retain distinct identities based on their own historical development. A more detailed description of the historical development of villages within the parish is provided in a supporting document, Historical Development of the Villages of Bingley Parish.