Place:Staincliffe and Ewcross Wapentake, West Riding of Yorkshire, England

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

"STAINCLIFFE AND EWCROSS, a wapentake on the NW side of [West Riding of] Yorkshire; containing 25 parishes, and parts of 3 others; and cut into two divisions, E and W. Acres: 165,555 and 284,491. Population in 1851: 51,812 and 25,746; in 1861: 75,879. Houses: 15,823.

Do not confuse Staincliffe and Ewcross Wapentake with Staincross Wapentake, (#12 on the map). There is no linkage between them.

The area of Staincliffe and Ewcross is often called "Craven", but there was no specific parish by that name.

In 1974, in the nationwide reorganization of municipalites, the parishes in the former wapentake were transferred to many new districts. The border between Lancashire and Yorkshire was redrawn, so that a number of parishes along the southern edge found themselves in a different county (the old parish of Whalley had always had townships in both counties); Keighley, Kildwick and Addingham joined the Bradford Metropolitan Area of West Yorkshire (although Kildwick transferred out in the early 21st century); the large parish of Settle in the northwest joined with Cumberland and Westmorland and the north of Lancashire to become Cumbria; and the remainder was transferred into the new county of North Yorkshire where they were formed into the Craven District, the first time that the name had been used as a formal name for a geographical area.