Elland is a

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rural ...

in Calderdale, in the county of

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

, England. It is situated south of Halifax, by the River Calder and the

Calder and Hebble Navigation The Calder and Hebble Navigation is a broad inland waterway, with locks and bridgeholes that are suitable for boats, in West Yorkshire, England. Construction to improve the River Calder and the River Hebble began in 1759, and the initial sch ...

. Elland was recorded as ''Elant'' in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...

of 1086. It had a population in 2001 of 14,554, with the ward being measured at 11,676 in the 2011 Census.

Etymology

The name of Elland is attested in the 1086

as ''Elant''. The name comes from the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...

words ''ēa'' ('river') and ''land'' ('land'); the name relates to the settlement's location on the south bank of the Calder.Harry Parkin, ''Your City's Place-Names: Leeds'', English Place-Name Society City-Names Series, 3 (Nottingham: English Place-Names Society, 2017).

History

Elland retained continuity of tenure from before the

Norman Conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Con ...

into the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

, as the Elland family were descended from Anglo-Saxon

thegn In Anglo-Saxon England, thegns were aristocratic landowners of the second rank, below the ealdormen who governed large areas of England. The term was also used in early medieval Scandinavia for a class of retainers. In medieval Scotland, there ...

s. The Manor of Elland, with

Greetland Greetland is a small village in the metropolitan borough of Calderdale in West Yorkshire, England. The appropriate Calderdale Ward is called Greetland and Stainland. The population of this ward at the 2011 Census was 11,389. It is located w ...

and

Southowram Southowram () is a village in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England that stands on the hill top to the east of Halifax, on the south side of Shibden valley. The village falls within the Town ward of Calderdale Council. It is a small Pennine v ...

, formed an exclave of the

Honour of Pontefract The honour of Pontefract, also known as the feudal barony of Pontefract, was an English feudal barony. Its origins lie in the grant of a large, compact set of landholdings in Yorkshire, made between the Norman conquest of England in 1066 and the co ...

in the surrounding Manor of

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 99,251 in the 2011 census.https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/ks101ew Census 2011 table KS101EW Usual resident population, ...

. In 1350

Sir John de Eland ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as p ...

was murdered, as were his son and grandson in the following year, which extinguished the male line of the family and the manor passed to the Savile family. From this period, the

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...

ceased to be the principal dwelling of a gentry family, as the Saviles had their seat at the moated manor of Thornhill. Elland manor house was never completely reconstructed and, when dismantled and excavated in 1975 by the West Yorkshire Archaeology Unit, it was found to incorporate a 13th-century solar wing – one of the earliest

secular Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin ''saeculum'', "worldly" or "of a generation"), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. Anything that does not have an explicit reference to religion, either negativ ...

buildings in the county. The manor house stood on a knoll aligned with the bridge over the River Calder and was destroyed during the construction of Calderdale Way bypass. The farm buildings survive. At the request of

John de Warenne, 7th Earl of Surrey John de Warenne (24/30 June 1286 - June 1347), 7th Earl of Surrey, was the last Warenne earl of Surrey. Life John was born on either 24 or 30 June 1286 and baptised on 7 November of that year.He was the son of William de Warenne, the only son o ...

, Edward II granted a charter, to John de Eland, for a

free market In economics, a free market is an economic system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of government or any ot ...

on Tuesday at his Manor of Elland, and two fairs. The town became a centre of wool production. The decline of the woollen industry had a significant effect on the town and many mills were demolished or converted to residences. Durable

flagstone Flagstone (flag) is a generic flat stone, sometimes cut in regular rectangular or square shape and usually used for paving slabs or walkways, patios, flooring, fences and roofing. It may be used for memorials, headstones, facades and other co ...

s, Elland flags, were quarried near the town and after the canal was constructed, they could be transported economically all over the county. Elland housed the main factory of the manufacturer of

Gannex Gannex is a waterproof fabric composed of an outer layer of nylon and an inner layer of wool with air between them. It was invented in 1951 by Joseph Kagan, a United Kingdom, UK industrialist and the founder of Kagan Textiles Ltd., of Elland, whi ...

products and is the home of the Dobsons sweet factory, which produces traditional boiled sweets. Since 2001, Elland has been home to

Suma Wholefoods Suma is the trading name of the Triangle Wholefoods Collective Limited, a worker co-operative wholefoods wholesaler. It was founded in Leeds in 1977 and is now based in Elland, West Yorkshire. It is the largest independent wholefood wholesaler ...

, the largest

workers' co-operative A worker cooperative is a cooperative owned and self-managed by its workers. This control may mean a firm where every worker-owner participates in decision-making in a democratic fashion, or it may refer to one in which management is elected by ...

in the United Kingdom.

Governance

Elland was historically a

township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, C ...

, with

, in the large ancient parish of Halifax. The township became a

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

in 1866, but in 1894 Elland was separated from Greetland and became Elland Urban District (and civil parish). In 1937 Greetland and Stainland were added to the Urban District. In 1974 the urban district and civil parish were abolished and merged into Calderdale Metropolitan Borough.

Landmarks

Buildings of interest include the parish church of St Mary the Virgin, the former Rose and Crown Inn in Northgate,

Elland Town Hall Elland Town Hall is a municipal building in Southgate, Elland, West Yorkshire, England. The structure, which was primarily used as an events venue, is a Grade II listed building. History The first municipal building in the town was a small squa ...

, Southgate Methodist Church, the reputedly haunted Fleece Inn at the top of Westgate, the Rex Cinema and Waxman ceramics on Elland Lane. The remains of the

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

stocks can be found at the junction of Southgate and Elizabeth Street. The stocks, which are grade II listed, date from the late 17th, or early 18th century.

Elland Power Station

Elland Power Station was a coal-fired power station by the River Calder. It was decommissioned and closed in 1991, in keeping with the trend of generating power at fewer but larger power stations away from towns, and demolished in 1996.

Transport

The

opened in the late-18th century to serve the growing industrialisation of the Calder Valley.

Elland railway station Elland railway station served the town of Elland in West Yorkshire, England until 1962. History The station was originally opened on 5 October 1840 by the Manchester and Leeds Railway. It was resited east on 1 August 1865, by which time the li ...

closed in 1962 but the line is still in use as a passenger service for the

Caldervale Line The Calder Valley line (also previously known as the Caldervale line) is a railway route in Northern England between the cities of Leeds and Manchester as well as the seaside resort of Blackpool. It is the slower of the two main rail rou ...

. The station has been proposed for re-opening with direct services to , Bradford, Halifax and . The A643 road begins in

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...

and ended in Elland. It passes Leeds United AFC's football ground, Elland Road. It now ends at junction 23 of the

M62 motorway The M62 is a west–east trans-Pennine motorway in Northern England, connecting Liverpool and Hull via Manchester, Bradford, Leeds and Wakefield; of the route is shared with the M60 orbital motorway around Manchester. The road is part of th ...

Notable people

* Thomas Thornton (1922–1987), first-class cricketer

References

{{authority control Towns in West Yorkshire Market towns in West Yorkshire Unparished areas in West Yorkshire Former civil parishes in West Yorkshire Geography of Calderdale Wards of Calderdale