Clifton, West Yorkshire
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Clifton is a small village in the borough of Calderdale, Yorkshire, England, near the town of Brighouse. It was mentioned in the Domesday book of 1086.
Clifton village has a Junior and Infant school built in the 1870s (a Sunday Times top performing school), an Anglican Church within the diocese of Wakefield, and a Methodist church. Patrick Brontë, father of the novelist sisters, was Minister at the nearby Hartshead-cum-Clifton church. In addition, there are two public houses situated at either end of the main street (Towngate). A third public house ceased to exist in the mid-1900s, and has since become a private residence. The remains of the village well can be seen opposite the school. Clifton used to have two shops; one at the Clifton Common end of Towngate closed in the mid-1980s, while the shop/post office opposite the vicarage closed in early 2006, becoming a private residence.
Adjacent to the village is Willow Valley Golf Club. Each June, the club hosts the annual Yorkshire PGA Championship.
At the easterly edge of the village is Kirklees Hall, whose grounds contain the reputed grave of Robin Hood. At the northerly end, there remains evidence of strip farming. Originally there were thirty-two strips of land and families would work two or three of these. Beyond were fields known as the Doles; these were common grazing land. Doles Lane, a bridleway, still exists and starts opposite the Black Horse Inn. This inn was a meeting place for Luddites, the machine wreckers, in the early 19th century. Highley Hall, near the war memorial, was a farm until the 1990s. Originally the family home of Richard de Hileagh, constable of the village in the mid 1300s; it is once again a private residence.
There are many local historical references connected to drift mining. It was first recorded in 1307 and also mentioned by Daniel Defoe, author of Robinson Crusoe, in 1727. On the western flank of the village is a long straight ridge, which constitutes the remains of a gravity railway that was used to transport coal to the canal at Brighouse. There are also intriguing historical connections such as America Lane, the fever hospital and Clifton 'airport' used by Sir Alan Cobham's Air Circus between the two world wars.
