Barkisland () is a village in

Calderdale Calderdale () is a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, England, which had a population of 211,439. It takes its name from the River Calder, and dale, a word for valley. The name Calderdale usually refers to the borough through which the ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a Metropolitan counties of England, metropolitan and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and east, South Yorkshire and De ...

, England.

Historically History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some theorists categ ...

part of the

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire was one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the riding was an administrative county named County of York, West Riding. The Lord Lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire, lieu ...

, it is east of Ripponden, south of

Sowerby Bridge Sowerby Bridge ( ) is a market town in the Upper Calder Valley in Calderdale in West Yorkshire, England. The Calderdale Council ward population at the 2011 census was 11,703. History The town was originally a fording point over the once mu ...

and south-west of Halifax town centre. The village is in the Ryburn ward of Calderdale. Barkisland has a school, a church, a post office and a cricket club that plays in the Huddersfield Cricket League. There are two pubs in Barkisland, The Fleece Countryside Inn and The Griffin Inn.

History

A ten-thousand-year-old axe was discovered near Ringstone Reservoir, providing evidence of human activity in the area now known as Barkisland dating back to the

Stone Age The Stone Age was a broad prehistory, prehistoric period during which Rock (geology), stone was widely used to make stone tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years and ended b ...

. The origin of the name is in dispute. In a book of place names printed in 1944 it was stated that Barkisland derived from it being a settlement ('land') of a chieftain called 'Barkis'. While much earlier, in 1789, the Rev. John Watson, vicar of Ripponden church between 1754 and 1769, theorised that "Barsey or Barkesey are Anglo-Saxon words meaning low-lying enclosures where birches grow. It also is the Anglo-Saxon for a district where there are wolves."

Industry

Bowers Mill was built in the 18th century as a water-powered

fulling Fulling, also known as tucking or walking ( Scots: ''waukin'', hence often spelt waulking in Scottish English), is a step in woollen clothmaking which involves the cleansing of woven cloth (particularly wool) to eliminate ( lanolin) oils, ...

mill. It has also been used as a

corn mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separat ...

, a

worsted Worsted ( or ) is a high-quality type of wool yarn, the fabric made from this yarn, and a yarn weight category. The name derives from Worstead (from Old English ''Wurðestede'', "enclosure place"), a village in the English county of Norfolk. T ...

mill and a woollen mill. Textiles manufacturer J. & S. Taylor Ltd occupied the mill from 1882 to 1991 before moving production to

. The mill has now been converted for smaller businesses. Barkisland Mill, a six-storey building, was used for textile production in the 19th and 20th centuries. At the start of the 21st century it was converted into residential flats. Bottomley's Mill, a

cotton mill A cotton mill is a building that houses spinning or weaving machinery for the production of yarn or cloth from cotton, an important product during the Industrial Revolution in the development of the factory system. Although some were driven ...

, was recorded when a fire broke out there on 13 January 1871.

Governance

Barkisland is a village in the

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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

Ripponden Ripponden is a village and civil parish on the River Ryburn near Halifax in West Yorkshire, England. Historically it was part of the West Riding of Yorkshire. Its population was 6,412 at the time of the 2001 Census, and 7,421 in 2011. Rippo ...

, which is part of the Ryburn

ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...

, a

metropolitan borough A metropolitan borough (or metropolitan district) is a type of districts of England, local government district in England. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972, metropolitan boroughs are defined in English law as metropolitan distr ...

within the

ceremonial county Ceremonial counties, formally known as ''counties for the purposes of the lieutenancies'', are areas of England to which lord-lieutenant, lord-lieutenants are appointed. A lord-lieutenant is the Monarchy of the United Kingdom, monarch's repres ...

in England. It was a

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

and

chapelry A chapelry was a subdivision of an ecclesiastical parish in England and parts of Lowland Scotland up to the mid 19th century. Status A chapelry had a similar status to a Township (England), township, but was so named as it had a chapel of ease ...

in the parish of Halifax, from 1866 Barkisland was a

. Barkisland was part of the Halifax Registration District from 1 July 1837. In 1931 the parish population was 1552. It was abolished as a parish on 1 April 1937 and merged with the neighbouring parish of

Geography

Barkisland is situated on a hilltop that gently rises from

Greetland Greetland is a village situated within the metropolitan borough of Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England. It falls within the Calderdale Ward of Greetland and Stainland. According to the 2011 Census, this ward had a population of 11,389. Geogra ...

in the north-east and declines westwards to Ripponden and eastwards to

Stainland Stainland is a village in the civil parish of Stainland and District, in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England. The village is part of the Greetland and Stainland ward of Calderdale Council and is approximately west of Elland, south of Halifax, ...

. The hill continues to climb southwards towards Scammonden.

Landmarks

The village

stocks Stocks are feet and hand restraining devices that were used as a form of corporal punishment and public humiliation. The use of stocks is seen as early as Ancient Greece, where they are described as being in use in Solon's law code. The law de ...

are located on Stainland Road roughly 550 yards east of the post office and are a Grade II listed structure. Part of the

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

Diocese of Wakefield The Diocese of Wakefield is a former Church of England diocese based in Wakefield in West Yorkshire, covering Wakefield, Barnsley, Kirklees and Calderdale. The cathedral was Wakefield Cathedral and the bishop was the diocesan Bishop of Wa ...

, Christ Church is Barkisland's only church has links to the nearby school. Barkisland Hall is a grade I listed country house built for John Gledhill in 1638, constructed in stone in three storeys to an F-shaped floor plan. It was bought in 1967 by Lord Kagan to provide accommodation for his textile company, that made Gannex raincoats.

Education

Barkisland Junior and Infant school serves the village. Barkisland School Association (BSA) is a parent-teacher organisation supporting the school by organising events and fundraising.

References

{{authority control Villages in West Yorkshire Former civil parishes in West Yorkshire Ripponden