Hellifield Milestone on A65 Keighley & Kendal Road

Hellifield is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of Parish (administrative division), administrative parish used for Local government in England, local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below district ...

in the

Craven Craven may refer to: * Craven in the Domesday Book, an area of Yorkshire, England, larger area than the district ** Craven District, a local government district of North Yorkshire formed in 1974 Places * Craven, New South Wales, Australia, see ...

district of

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by national parks, including most of the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors. It is one of four cou ...

, England ().

Historically History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

part of the

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county County of York, West Riding (the area under the control of West Riding County Council), abbreviated County ...

, the village was once an important

railway junction A junction, in the context of rail transport, is a place at which two or more rail routes converge or diverge. This implies a physical connection between the tracks of the two routes (assuming they are of the same gauge), provided by ''points'' ( ...

on the Settle-Carlisle Railway between the

Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had its headquarters. It ama ...

and the

Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR) was a major British railway company before the 1923 Grouping. It was incorporated in 1847 from an amalgamation of several existing railways. It was the third-largest railway system based in northern ...

, but Hellifield railway station is now a shadow of its former glory. It is situated on the A65, between

Skipton Skipton (also known as Skipton-in-Craven) is a market town and civil parish in the Craven district of North Yorkshire, England. Historically in the East Division of Staincliffe Wapentake in the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is on the River A ...

and Settle. Hellifield had a population of 1,060 residents at the 2001 census, increasing to 1,426 at the 2011 census.

History

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 manusc ...

of 1086, Hellifield is mentioned as Helgeflet; meaning 'Holy Marsh or Stream', translated from

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

, the village also could have been dedicated to the Anglo-Saxon Goddess ' Hel'. There is also the possibility that the name derives from the

Norse Norse is a demonym for Norsemen, a medieval North Germanic ethnolinguistic group ancestral to modern Scandinavians, defined as speakers of Old Norse from about the 9th to the 13th centuries. Norse may also refer to: Culture and religion * Nor ...

'The Farm of Helgi'. The village name changed over the years; in the 12th century, Hellifield was referred to as "Nether Hellifield" and in the 17th and 18th centuries the village was named "Hellifield Pele" and slightly later "Hellifield Cochins". The modern spelling of Hellifield appears in the mid-19th century, on maps and drawings. In medieval times it seems that the area between Hellifield and

Long Preston Long Preston is a village and civil parish in the Craven district of North Yorkshire, England, in the Yorkshire Dales. It lies along the A65 road, and is from Skipton and from Settle. The population of Long Preston in 2001 was 680, increas ...

was hunted by wolves, so men were employed to guide travellers between the two settlements. Livestock suffered until the extinction in Britain of the

grey wolf The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly u ...

. Hellifield 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 ...

in the ancient parish of Long Preston in the

. It became a separate

in 1866. In the mid-19th century, the village was nothing more than a hamlet. The local workforce mainly concentrated within agriculture and associated trades. Cotton weaving did take place in the village and several weaving sheds were constructed in the area. During the 19th century, the railway revolution reached the village, which dramatically changed the growth and population changes of the small hamlet. The original railway station was located on Haw Lane, but in 1880 a new station replaced the old one. This coincided with the opening of the

Company's new line from

Blackburn Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the Ribble Valley, east of Preston and nort ...

to Hellifield. This line and the Midland Railway's Settle to

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from xcb, Caer Luel) is a city that lies within the Northern English county of Cumbria, south of the Scottish border at the confluence of the rivers Eden, Caldew and Petteril. It is the administrative centre of the City ...

Railway (opened 1876), turned Hellifield into a major passenger and freight interchange. Consequently, many houses and streets were built in the early 20th century to house a large railway population. The Methodist Church in Haw Grove was opened in 1893. Part of the church, known as the Wesley Centre, now serves as a community centre. Regular passenger services to Blackburn were cut in 1962, and the Motive Power Depot closed in 1963. New houses were constructed on top of previous railway land and the auction mart. Hellifield was transferred to the new county of North Yorkshire in 1974. In 2014 the small former civil parishes of Nappa and

Swinden Swinden is a small village in the Craven district of North Yorkshire, England. It is near Halton West and Nappa and about 7 miles north of Barnoldswick. The population was estimated at 20 in 2010. Swinden was historically a township in the ...

were added to the parish.

Governance

Hellifield is a major part of the electoral ward called Hellifield and Long Preston. Its population at the 2011 census was 2,168.

Hellifield today

The Hellifield Flashes (Yorkshire dialect for a pond in a field) are part of the village life and history. There are three flashes. The largest is Hellifield Flash or Gallaber Lake, the second Dunbars and the smallest is known as either Little Dunbars or Dunbars 2. The Flashes provide habitat for wildfowl and migratory birds. This important area provides a sanctuary for 12 species on the

RSPB The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a charitable organisation registered in England and Wales and in Scotland. It was founded in 1889. It works to promote conservation and protection of birds and the wider environment throu ...

"red list'. Where once wolves roamed, now a wildlife habitat reigns. However, the land is under threat from development and villagers desperate to preserve their countryside are fighting hard to prevent any further development. The birdlife is monitored regularly by the RSPB and features high on the 'must visit' list of ornithologists. Hellifield nestles on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales National Park and is surrounded by rolling hills,

dry stone wall Dry stone, sometimes called drystack or, in Scotland, drystane, is a building method by which structures are constructed from stones without any mortar to bind them together. Dry stone structures are stable because of their construction me ...

s and agricultural land. A proposal to build a bypass for the A65 around Hellifield and Long Preston has been in discussion since the end of the Second World War. The project was the subject of an inquiry in 1992 – 1993 and an archaeological survey. A decision to de-trunk the route in 2006 means that if the bypass were to go ahead, it would have to be funded by the county council.

References

External links

Hellifield Homepage

Hellifield Community Primary School Website

Craven District Website
{{authority control Villages in North Yorkshire Civil parishes in North Yorkshire Ribblesdale