Editing Cleckheaton (section)

==History==

===Early history===
[[File:Cleckheaton Whitechapel.jpg|thumb|left|Whitechapel Church]]
The Spen Valley was once heavily wooded.  Evidence of human habitation in [[Mesolithic]] and [[Neolithic]] times has been found in the area.  Roman remains have been found in the valley and it is thought that roads from [[York]] to [[Chester]], and from settlements in [[Halifax, West Yorkshire|Halifax]] and [[Wakefield]], passed through Cleckheaton.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.kirklees.gov.uk/beta/planning-policy/pdf/site-specific/Whitehall-Road-archaeological-evaluation.pdf|page=4|title=Whitechapel Road Cleckheaton: Archaeological Evaluation|date=1 December 2015|publisher=West Yorkshire Archaeological Services|access-date=8 May 2022}}</ref>

Cleckheaton was in the ancient parish of [[Birstall, West Yorkshire|Birstall]]. A [[chapel of ease]], known as the White Chapel (later Whitechapel) was established.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50882#s6 |title=Cleckheaton |access-date=1 March 2008 |author=Samel Lewis |year=1848 |work=A Topographical Dictionary of England |publisher=British History Online}}</ref>

===Textile working===
The area was very disorganised for a long time after the [[Norman Conquest]] and the richest townships at that time were still the richest 300 years later as the Poll Tax returns of 1379 show.  They also demonstrate the lack of administration as only the richest four of the 227 families living in the Spen Valley were made to pay more than the 4d (approx. 2p) minimum tax. These tax returns also show the recent deviation from the traditional sources of wealth in the area (i.e. farming and allied trades). These were centred on textiles and included dyeing, weaving and fulling (common names in the area nowadays still recall these early trades: Lister- dyer, Webster- weaver, Walker- fuller).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/e179/details.asp?piece_id=23796&doc_id=18439&doc_ref=E179/206/49|title=The Returns for the West Riding of the county of York of the Poll Tax laid in the second year of the reign of King Richard the Second|publisher=National Archives|access-date=8 May 2022}}</ref>

After the [[English Reformation|Reformation]], Kirklees Priory was largely destroyed, many families were driven from the area and new non-aristocratic lords of the manor who were sympathetic to Protestantism were introduced by [[Elizabeth I of England|Elizabeth I]], as was a puritan clergyman who was installed at Birstall Church. By 1570, at the time of the [[Rising of the North|Rising of the Northern Earls]], the last of the old Norman noble families had been swept away. Sir John Neville went into exile and forfeited his estate and Thomas Hussey (heir to the de Tilly family of Oakwell Hall) was imprisoned in the [[Tower of London]] for some time before being pardoned.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/stream/thoresbypt126thoruoft/thoresbypt126thoruoft_djvu.txt|page=30|title=Birstall, Gomersal, and Heckmondwike|publisher=The Publications of the Thoresby Society| access-date=8 May 2022}}</ref>

By the 17th century land-owning farmers were finding it increasingly difficult as were their landlords and some payments were still in kind as farmers had no money to pay their debts.  Meanwhile, the textile workers were becoming more and more prosperous and paid less and less attention to their hard up and increasingly impotent landlords. During the [[English Civil War]] the clothiers were on one side and the landlords on the other. Lords of the area were made Royalist officers and made some progress such as at the [[Battle of Adwalton Moor]] about a mile east of [[Birkenshaw, West Yorkshire|Birkenshaw]] and the [[Sieges of Bradford|siege of Bradford]], before the Parliamentarians took control of the area.<ref>{{cite web |last1=MacKenzie |first1=John |title=Battle of Adwalton Moor |url=https://www.britishbattles.com/english-civil-war/battle-of-adwalton-moor/ |website=BritishBattles.com |access-date=4 August 2020 |date=2020 }}</ref>

===Nonconformity===
[[File:Independent Methodist Chapel Cleckheaton.jpg|thumb|left|Independent Methodist Chapel, Chapel Street]]
After the [[Restoration (England)|restoration of the monarchy]] in 1660, [[Anglicanism]] was reintroduced. However, many people had found [[Puritan]] teachings more to their taste, and it took many years to re-install an Anglican vicar to Whitechapel. Despite the draconian nonconformist laws, there were many [[Nonconformist (Protestantism)|nonconformist]] meeting houses and nonconformity flourished; a fifth of the population of the Birstall Parish was estimated to be nonconformist. [[Quaker]]s were widespread, and even now a number of 17th and 18th century Quaker burial grounds remain in the area. In the 18th century, [[Presbyterianism]] was widespread, but then it lost a large minority of its flock to [[Unitarianism]] and to the [[Baptist]] church. [[Methodism]] also flourished from the 1740s after visits from [[John Wesley]] and [[Charles Wesley]], as did the [[Moravian Church]]. Indeed, John Wesley visited Birstall some 40 times.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://ukwells.org/wells/birstall  |title=Birstall|publisher=UK Wells|access-date=8 May 2022}}</ref>

In spite of the religious strength in the valley, the inhabitants were somewhat unconventional and still went to astrologers, quack doctors and prophets. Local religious leaders included people like Eli Collins, the "Wizard of Wyke", and Alvery Newsome, the "Wise Man of Heckmondwike".<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qpkMAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA273 |title= Spen Valley, Past and Present|first= Frank|last= Peel |year= 1893|publisher=Senior and Company  |page=273}}</ref>

===Industrial Revolution===
[[File:Prospect Mills Cleckheaton.jpg|thumb|right|Prospect Mills in Prospect Road]]
In 1804 the Reverend Hammond Roberson, annoyed that the administration of Liversedge was disorganised, promoted a system of reform (the [[Select vestries|select vestry]]) which quickly spread to Cleckheaton and Heckmondwike. In 1810, after his wife's death, Roberson turned his attention to church building in the area. In 1818 Parliament voted £1 million for the building of new churches in the country, and Roberson was able to secure funding to build Cleckheaton Church: [[William Swinden Barber#Church of St John the Evangelist, Cleckheaton, 1886|St John the Evangelist]] in Church Street.<ref>{{cite book|last=Port |first=M. H. |title=Six Hundred New Churches. A study of the Church Building Commission, 1816–1856 |publisher= Spire Books |year=2006}}</ref>

===Spen Valley===
By the mid 19th century the Spen Valley entered its golden era. In 1800 children were paid starvation wages for putting staples into leather for carding wool, but by 1838 there were eleven carding factories in Cleckheaton and by 1893 the town was recognised as the carding capital of the world.<ref>Gillian Cookson (1998) The Mechanization of Yorkshire Card-Making, Textile History, 29:1, 41–61</ref>

===20th century===
Around 1900, many large and expensive buildings were erected and became symbols of the area's wealth; massive chapels and a new grammar school were built in Cleckheaton, and to mark the new [[Urban district (Great Britain and Ireland)|urban district]] and the fact that it was the centre of it, Cleckheaton built a [[Cleckheaton Town Hall|town hall]] in 1892, paid for in part by public subscription.<ref>{{cite web|title=History of Cleckheaton Town Hall|url=https://www.kirklees.gov.uk/beta/town-halls/pdf/cleckheaton-town-hall-history.pdf|access-date=30 May 2018}}</ref>

In 1903, Lion Confectionery began making "Midget Gems" in Cleckheaton, and 1904 saw the opening of the [[Phelon & Moore]] (Panther) motorcycle factory in the town, soon followed by a car factory.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bradfordtimeline.co.uk/190049.htm |work=Bradford Timeline|title=Belle Vue Grammar School| access-date= 29 January 2008}}</ref> BBA (formerly British Belting & Asbestos), the large asbestos, friction material, and conveyor belting firm, built its headquarters at Moorend, where they manufactured automotive disc brake pads under the Mintex banner. A tourist industry developed to serve visitors to the area aware of its connection to [[Charlotte Brontë]]'s novel ''[[Shirley (novel)|Shirley]]'' and [[Luddite]] attacks. The philanthropic Mowatt family paid for Cleckheaton Library.<ref>{{cite news|url= https://www.dewsburyreporter.co.uk/news/opinion/letters/letter-a-first-for-the-friends-of-cleckheaton-library-2252394 |title=Letter: A first for the Friends of Cleckheaton Library|date=15 December 2014|newspaper=Dewsbury Reporter|access-date=8 May 2022}}</ref>

====Cleckheaton railway station====
{{main|Cleckheaton railway station}}
The [[Cleckheaton railway station|railway station]] closed to passenger traffic in 1965 and to goods four years later. In 1972, a singular case was heard at Wakefield Crown Court. A [[Dewsbury]] man was accused of, as counsel for the prosecution put it, effectively stealing the station. [[British Rail]] had contracted for the clearing of the site; part of the deal was that the contractors would sell and retain the proceeds from disposal of the materials and scrap. On arrival, they discovered that the station and most of the material were already gone. It transpired that the defendant had been contracted by another firm to clear the site, had been advanced a sum for hire of plant, and had spent three weeks clearing the site. Subsequent efforts to trace the second firm failed, and the court found the man not guilty, deciding that he had been duped and left significantly out of pocket.<ref>Body, Geoffrey: ''Railway Oddities'', Tempus, 2007 {{ISBN|978-0-7524-4399-7}}</ref>

====Cleckheaton bus station====
{{main|Cleckheaton bus station}}
[[File:Cleckheaton bus station 001.jpg|thumb|right|[[Cleckheaton bus station]] stands]]
Cleckheaton has a bus station in the town centre. It has six stands, and the main operator is [[Arriva Yorkshire]]. However, there is a regular service to Bradford Interchange with different operators and a school bus also operated here. It is owned and maintained by [[West Yorkshire Metro]], who rebuilt it in April 2005, replacing the previous site owned by Arriva Yorkshire.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Cleckheaton Bus Station|url=https://www.wymetro.com/buses/bus-stations/cleckheaton-bus-station/|url-status=live|access-date=2021-07-28|website=West Yorkshire Metro|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210728153653/https://www.wymetro.com/buses/bus-stations/cleckheaton-bus-station/ |archive-date=28 July 2021 }}</ref>