Pudsey, Calverley and Farsley, which between 1937 and 1974 formed the Borough of Pudsey, lie between the two large conurbations of Leeds and Bradford, rising to the south of the Aire valley to a height of 600 feet.
The three main settlements of the old Pudsey Borough share a centuries old tradition of cloth manufacturing and all experienced to a greater or lesser degree the economic expansion of the l9th Century. This is reflected in the dramatic rise in the population. The increase was greatest in Pudsey, the population between 1801 and 1971 rising from 4,422 to 37,835; in Farsley the increase was almost as great, from 954 to 6,158 and in Calverley it rose from 1,127 to 3,655. (The 1971 figures are those from the respective electoral wards.) Today the upward trend is checked by the availability of building plots as much of the undeveloped land is protected as green belt or conservation area.
In fact the district enjoys large tracts of unspoiled countryside and woodland. It is rich in ancient rights of way, with old stone 'causeys' originally used by ladened pack horses. Many are surprised at the abundance of country walks in a district so close to large industrial centres.
For centuries Pudsey and Farsley were part of the ancient parish of Calverley. The parish church of St Wilfrid, which probably originates from Saxon times, still dominates Calverley village. Yet Pudsey was a separate chapelry within the parish at least 500 years ago having its own chapel of ease and later the huge Georgian "utility gothic" Church of St.Lawrence. It was not until 1878 that Pudsey came a parish in its own right, while Farsley acquired parish status about 30 years earlier with the building of St John's Church.
Despite their earlier ecclesiastical unity the townships of Pudsey and Calverley-cum-Farsley have separate histories reaching back at least 900 years by which time Pudsey was already more wealthy than Calverley-cum-Farsley.
In the Domesday Survey of 1086-7 Podeschesaie (Pudsey) had land worth 40 shillings before being laid waste by Normans, while Caverleia and Ferselleia's land was worth only 20 shillings.
For the next 500 years Pudsey, while retaining its identity as a separate township, developed as a sub manor of Calverley, held by the Scott family of Calverley. This family, which soon took the surname 'Calverley', paid dearly for its papist sympathies during the Civil war so that in 1663 Walter Calverley sold the Pudsey manor to Robert Milner to help meet his debts.
The Milners subsequently sold most of their Pudsey estate during the early l9th Century, the remnant of the manor eventually being acquired by a local eccentric destined to die in the workhouse.
The Calverley manor was retained by the Calverleys until 1754 then it was bought by Thomas Thornhill. Today it is owned by Thornhill Estates Co. so that for nearly l,000 years the Calverley manor has had just two owners.
The Calverley-cum-Farsley township became administratively divided in 1866 when Calverley and Farsley each acquired its own Local Board of Health. Later each was granted Urban District Council status which continued until the 1937 merger with Pudsey.
For many centuries land in Pudsey has been mainly freehold. Pudsey therefore was well able to respond to the opportunities of industrialisation and with the coming of steam power in the late l8th Century was said to be the "largest clothing village in the West Riding".
At first mostly woollen cloth was made which, until the 1870s, continued to be woven on handlooms, the steam powered machinery used only for spinning and fulling.
In the later 19th Century, however, the spinning and manufacture of worsteds was introduced so that by 1912 the town had 22 textile mills. Now only one or two remain and the mill chimneys which less than 50 years ago stood thickly against the skyline, have nearly all gone.
Today light industry provides most local jobs although the town is increasingly used as a dormitory for those working in Leeds and Bradford.
There has always been plenty going on in Pudsey.
Two hundred years ago social life centered on local inns where sports such as cock fighting, dog fighting, horse racing and bull baiting, a speciality of Pudsey Feast, drew the crowds.
A hundred years later, as the Puritan ideals of the Victorians dominated, most peoples' leisure was spent in activities associated with church or chapel, the Sunday Schools, Bands of Hope, cricket clubs, brass bands, choirs, Mutual Improvement Societies and soirees.
The Mechanics Institute, too was important. In 1880 it built a handsome new centre (now the Town Hall) to house the varied activities of its 512 members.
Rivalry between the many "places of worship", in 1877 there were no less than 19 in Pudsey, was expressed in the length of the Whitsuntide processions and through the Sunday School Cricket League which proved a rigorous nursery for county and even national cricketers.
In 1949 it could be said that for the previous 60 years there had always been a Pudsey man in the Yorkshire County Cricket Team. Most of the pursuits lasted well into this century helping create the sturdy veterans with which the town is so richly endowed.
In the Calverley-cum-Farsley township virtually all the freehold land was in Farsley so it was here that the main impact of the l9th Century industrialisation was felt. In 1834 it was described as a "populous village - inhabited almost exclusively by clothiers".
Unlike Pudsey relatively large woollen manufacturers emerged in the first half of the l9th Century. Dominant among these were the Hainsworth and Gaunt families who have continued as leading manufacturers in Farsley for nearly 150 years.
Farsley's crowded Baptist graveyard with its handsome and costly monuments is eloquent testimony to the source of much of Farsley's enterprise.
The village is renowned as the birthplace of Samuel Marsden who, having emigrated to Australia as a chaplain, introduced the first Australian wool to England in 1808. He was subsequently introduced to George III who ordered a suit to be made from the wool. Samuel Marsden was born in the Bagley district of Farsley in 1764 but as a small boy, moved to Turners Fold adjoining Farsley Town Street. The property was demolished in 1923 and in 1934 a monument, appropriately incorporating a sheep's head, was erected on the site. It is set in a small garden now affectionately known as Sheepshead Park
Calverley Village and its associated hamlets have always been inhibited in their industrial development because of the extent of the leasehold tenure. Despite some textile development in the l9th Century it is still predominantly rural with the extensive Calverley woods reaching northwards into the rich alluvium pastures of the Aire Valley.
The mediaeval hall, one time home of the Calverley family, has recently been restored. It retains a fine l5th Century roof and is judged the best surviving example of a mediaeval manor house in the West Riding. It was here that, in 1604, Walter Calverley murdered his two sons while in a drunken rage. He was tried, convicted and pressed to death at York. His ghost, seen galloping at night on a headless horse, was said to have been "laid" by a Calverley vicar. Walter was not to reappear while "hol1y grows in Calverley wood". Holly still grows in abundance in the woods.
It comes as a surprise to learn that Calverley once enjoyed a brief reputation as a spa.
The spring said to "smell as disagreeable as a polecat" was in a field to the south of the village.
In 1837 crowds flocked to Calverley " like pilgrims to to the shrine of Our Lady of Lorretto".
The nine day wonder however ended abruptly following the death of one of the pilgrims "through drinking too copiously of the waters".
On the southern boundary of Pudsey stands the Moravian settlement of Fulneck, little changed from when it was built over 200 years ago.
The Moravians originated in Bohemia in the 15th Century, being a pre-Reformation dissent from the Roman Catholic Church.
In 1744 they acquired the Falneck estate in Pudsey as a centre for their work in Yorkshire. The estate, which lies on a steep south-facing hillside, was at first renamed Lambshill by the Moravians but later the old name Falneck was adapted to Fulneck after a town in Moravia.
Within a few years a handsome chapel, large communal houses for the Single Brethren and Single Sisters and for the widows were built, linked by a broad terrace overlooking the valley towards the Tong Hall Estate. Individual family houses, a shop, inn, bakery, various workshops and separate schools for girls and boys soon made up a close-knit settlement.
The schools were originally exclusively for the children of Moravian ministers, although since the late l8th Century fee paying children of non Moravians have been accepted.
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