Place:Mytholmroyd, West Riding of Yorkshire, England

Watchers
NameMytholmroyd
Alt namesMytholmroydsource: from redirect
TypeChapelry, Civil parish
Coordinates53.733°N 1.983°W
Located inWest Riding of Yorkshire, England     ( - 1974)
Also located inWest Yorkshire, England     (1974 - )
Yorkshire, England    
See alsoHalifax, West Riding of Yorkshire, Englandancient parish of which it was a chapelry
Hebden Royd, West Riding of Yorkshire, Englandurban district into which Myholmroyd merged in 1937
Calderdale (metropolitan borough), West Yorkshire, Englandmetropolitan borough covering the area since 1974
source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
source: Family History Library Catalog
the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Mytholmroyd has been since 1974 a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale, in West Yorkshire, England. It lies 1.5 miles (2.4 km) east of Hebden Bridge and 6.7 miles (10.8 km) west of Halifax.

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Mytholmroyd from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"MYTHOLMROYD, a village and a chapelry in Halifax parish, [West Riding of] Yorkshire. The village stands on the river Calder, the Rochdale canal, and the Lancashire and Yorkshire railway, 5 miles W of Halifax; and has a station on the railway, and a post-office under Manchester. The chapelry was constituted in 1846. Population in 1861: 3,063. Houses: 683. The property is much subdivided. Wadsworth is the seat of W. Sutcliffe, Esq; and White-lee House, of D. J. Crossley, Esq. There are several cotton mills. The living is a [perpetual] curacy in the diocese of Ripon. Value, £150. Patron, alternately the Crown and the Bishop. The church was built in 1847; is in the early decorated English style; and has a tower and low spire. There are a Wesleyan chapel and a national school."

Historically, Mytholmroyd was a chapelry the ancient and ecclesiastical parish of Halifax in the Morley Division of the wapentake of Agbrigg and Morley. From 1894 until 1937, Mytholmroyd was an urban district in the West Riding of Yorkshire. In 1937 it merged with the neigbouring urban district of Hebden Bridge to become the Hebden Royd Urban District. Since 1974 the whole area is now a part of Calderdale Metropolitan Borough in the new administrative county of West Yorkshire.

Contents

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

A Bronze Age urnfield exists on the moor top, north of Mytholmroyd. It is a burial ground with cremation urns, dating between the 16th and 11th centuries BC of national importance. Evidence of pre-historic farming is apparent because they cleared the upland forests for cattle grazing and created the peat moorlands. Most of the Celtic Iron Age settlements were concentrated on the hillside terraces which avoided the wooded and poorly drained valley floors. Most of the older listed buildings are located on the hillsides away from the valley. A Roman coin hoard has been found to the south of Mytholmroyd. Erringden and Midgeley Moors border the village.

Cragg Vale Coiners

During the late 18th century, the valley to the south, known as Cragg Vale, was home to a gang of counterfeiters known as the Cragg Vale Coiners. The gang's leader, David Hartley, or King David as he was known, was found guilty of the 1769 murder of excise official William Dighton and was hanged at the York Tyburn on 28 April 1770. Two other gang members were also executed for their part in the murder. Recently local resident and writer Benjamin Myers wrote a novel charting their story, "The Gallows Pole" which went on to win the Walter Scott prize for historical fiction in 2018. This publication is now being adapted into a BBC television series.

Historic buildings and structures

Canalside Mill

Built in 1851 as Canal Wharf Mill, it was home to local company Walkley Clogs, and converted into a well known tourist attraction with cafes, shops and an open clog factory on the ground floor. It was destroyed by fire in the 1990s; consequently the top floor was demolished and re-opened under ownership of a property development company. It subsequently closed in 2002 and has since been boarded up. Numerous planning applications to continue its former use or convert it into luxury apartments have been passed but never undertaken. On 1 August 2019 it was once again destroyed by fire, this time so badly that it has now been demolished. A planning application for the site development has yet to be accepted.

St. Michael's Church

The parish church was built in 1847 in Early English style. It was badly damaged in the 2015 floods but has since re-opened. The Sunday school in front of the church was reduced to one storey and is now used as a community hall and meeting spaces available for hire. In 2009 a new car park with monument in the form of an iron spike with a stone seating surround has been constructed park and is now used for village events including the Mytholmroyd Christmas Market organised by Royd Regen (the local development board) and the town council.

County Bridge

There has been a river crossing point since 1329 in the centre of the village, at the site of the current 'County Bridge'. A bridge is recorded in this location under the name "Elphaborough Bridge", after the name of Elphaborough Hall on the further side of Cragg Brook. Records of a grant issued to the local township for the purchase of timber stated it was for "repairs to Mitholmroide Bridge", in 1638. Similar records show that the current stone bridge was erected in 1684 by Timothy Wadsworth, at a cost of £50. The current bridge was constructed in two parts (and now consists of four extensions). The original packhorse style bridge in 1638, and on the upstream side, the bridge was widened and two extra arches on the south end were added to ease the gradient, although the two new arches were considerably smaller, the bridge now consists of four arches in total. In the 19th century, with shops being constructed on the north end riverbank, and a new premises being built for the Mytholmroyd Co-Operative Society right up to the water's edge on the south bank, two of the bridge's arches are mostly hidden. However, the premises were built with a large opening underneath the buildings, allowing floodwater to still pass through the two hidden arches underground. Mytholmroyd Bridge was eventually taken over by West Riding County Council, which gives the historic bridge its present name of "County Bridge".

Railway station and viaduct

A prominent viaduct lies above the southern end of Mytholmroyd town centre. It was erected in 1840 by George Stephenson and is still in use as part of the modern day Calder Valley Line. In the 1850s, Mytholmroyd railway station was built, consisting of two platforms built on the Mytholmroyd Viaduct, and a three-storey ticket office, waiting hall and entrance stairwell, leading unto the viaduct. This later closed and the platforms were built a matter of yards up the track on land, and is now accessed by open staircases and long access ramps up the steep banking, where flowers and displays are maintained by the Mytholmroyd Station Partnership. The 19th century listed, 3 floor station building has recently been fully restored back to its former glory both inside and out and is awaiting tenants. In December 2019, the project was awarded the Railway Heritage Trust Conservation Award at the 2019 National Railway Heritage Awards. It was recognised for showcasing a real passion for restoration work and an ability to understand the objectives of the original railway builders and architects. A new, near 200 space station car park is underway at the old loading yard comprising 10 E-car parking spaces, secure cycle lockers and car share facilities. The West Yorkshire Combined Authority are working with the Mytholmroyd Station Partnership to landscape the car park with bee-friendly planters and information boards.

Dusty Miller Inn

This late 18th century pub replaced an earlier inn on the opposite side of the road, where Bridge End cottages now stand. The earlier building was home to the Cragg Coiners in 1769. The current Grade II-listed inn comprises a hotel, bar and restaurant. The premises were severely damaged in the 2012 and 2015 flooding, causing the business to close for repairs. The bar re-opened in April 2016 and was awarded the "pub of the season award" for summer 2016 by the local CAMRA branch. the hotel and restaurant are yet to re-open.

Gallery

Research Tips

  • GENUKI on Mytholmroyd. The GENUKI page gives numerous references to local bodies providing genealogical assistance.
  • The FamilySearch wiki on the ecclesiastical parish of Kilnwick on the Wolds provides a list of useful resources for the local area.
  • A Vision of Britain through Time on Mytholmroyd.
  • A Vision of Britain through Time also provides links to three maps for what is now South Yorkshire, produced by the United Kingdom Ordnance Survey, illustrating the boundaries between the civil parishes and the rural districts at various dates. These maps all blow up to a scale that will illustrate small villages and large farms or estates.
  • Ordnance Survey West Riding 1888. The "Sanitary Districts (which preceded the rural districts) for the whole of the West Riding.
  • Ordnance Survey West Riding South 1900. The rural and urban districts, not long after their introduction. (the southern part of Bradford, the southern part of Leeds, the southern part of Tadcaster Rural District, the southern part of Selby, Goole Rural District, and all the divisions of Halifax, Huddersfield, Wakefield, Doncaster, Barnsley, Rotherham and Sheffield)
  • Ordnance Survey West Riding 1944. The urban and rural districts of the whole of the West Riding after the revisions of 1935.
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