Cowling ( ) is a village and

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 ...

in the county of

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in Northern England.The Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority areas of City of York, York and North Yorkshire (district), North Yorkshire are in Yorkshire and t ...

, England, bordering

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 ...

and

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

. Until 1974 it was 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 ...

. From 1974 to 2023 it was part of the district of Craven, it is now administered by the unitary

North Yorkshire Council North Yorkshire Council, known between 1974 and 2023 as North Yorkshire County Council, is the local authority for the non-metropolitan county of North Yorkshire, England. Since 2023 the council has been a unitary authority, being a county coun ...

. The parish had a population of 2,355 in 2011.

History

The village is

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

in origin and is recorded 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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

'' as 'Collinge'. The name means Coll's people or tribe. At the time of 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 Normans, Norman, French people, French, Flemish people, Flemish, and Bretons, Breton troops, all led by the Du ...

the main landowner was Gamel who had very large land holdings in

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

. His name survives in Gamsgill on the northern edge of the village. Several old farm buildings survive in the area around the village, most notably the

grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

Long Croft. There is also a small country house from the 1750s, Carr Head Hall. Originally the village comprised three separate hamlets namely Ickornshaw, Middleton, Gill and Cowling Hill. It was only following the construction of the main

Keighley Keighley ( ) is a market town and a civil parishes in England, civil parish in the City of Bradford Borough of West Yorkshire, England. It is the second-largest settlement in the borough, after Bradford. Keighley is north-west of Bradford, n ...

Colne Colne () is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Borough of Pendle in Lancashire, England. The town is northeast of Nelson, Lancashire, Nelson, northeast of Burnley and east of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. The ...

road (A6068) and the building of large mills alongside the road that what is now regarded as the main village was constructed providing terraced cottage homes for the mill workers. The first mill was

Ickornshaw Mill Ickornshaw Mill is a historic watermill in Cowling, a village in North Yorkshire, in England. The cotton mill was constructed in 1791 by John Dehane, a local clergyman, who had received a large inheritance. There was a pond at the rear which f ...

, completed in 1791. The older parts of the village faded in importance and as a result Holy Trinity Church and the primary school are located on what appears to be the outskirts of the village between Ickornshaw and Middleton, the centre of the village having moved since their construction. The mills continued to operate and to provide the main source of local employment until the end of the 20th century but are now all closed down and their sites largely redeveloped for housing and the village hall. The village is now very much a dormitory village for those working in the surrounding towns of

and East

. It is the base for a licensed

community radio Community radio is a radio service offering a third model of radio broadcasting in addition to commercial broadcasting, commercial and public broadcasting. Community broadcasting, Community stations serve geographic communities and communities o ...

station, Drystone Radio.

Famous people from Cowling

Philip Snowden Philip Snowden, 1st Viscount Snowden, PC (; 18 July 1864 – 15 May 1937) was a British politician. A strong speaker, he became popular in trade union circles for his denunciation of capitalism as unethical and his promise of a socialist utop ...

, who served as

Chancellor of the Exchequer The chancellor of the exchequer, often abbreviated to chancellor, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom, and the head of HM Treasury, His Majesty's Treasury. As one of the four Great Offices of State, t ...

in the first two Labour governments, was born in the village; when awarded a

viscount A viscount ( , for male) or viscountess (, for female) is a title used in certain European countries for a noble of varying status. The status and any domain held by a viscount is a viscounty. In the case of French viscounts, the title is ...

cy in 1931, his full title was "Viscount Snowden, of Ickornshaw in the

". In the early 1930s, Snowden spoke in the local dialect of Cowling on a 78rpm gramophone produced by the

Yorkshire Dialect Society Yorkshire dialect, also known as Yorkshire English, Broad Yorkshire, Tyke, or Yorkie, is a grouping of several regionally neighbouring dialects of English spoken in Yorkshire. Yorkshire experienced drastic dialect levelling in the 20th cent ...

. Snowden's ashes were scattered on Ickornshaw Moor and there is a memorial cairn to Snowden to mark the fact that he "died in the love of his native land".

Gallery

File:The former butcher's shop in Cowling - geograph.org.uk - 844085.jpg, Former butcher's shop, Keighley Road, Cowling File:Foresters building, Cowling - geograph.org.uk - 1745204.jpg, Cowling File:Village festivals - Cowling Gala - geograph.org.uk - 844097.jpg, Cowling Gala, 2007 File:Wainman's Pinnacle - geograph.org.uk - 1746937.jpg, Wainman's Pinnacle, a stone obelisk near Cowling, often referred to as Cowling Pinnacle File:Lund's Tower 1 (4015529598).jpg, Lund's Tower, near Cowling

References

External links

Cowling News, local newsletterCowling Village Hall, facebookHarlequin Bistro, Cowling
{{authority control Villages in North Yorkshire Civil parishes in North Yorkshire Craven District

History

Famous people from Cowling

See also

Gallery

References

External links