Addingham
Addingham is a village and civil parish in the City of Bradford in West Yorkshire, England. It is situated near the A65, south-east of Skipton, west of Ilkley, north-west of Bradford and around north-west of Leeds. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is located in the valley of the River Wharfe and is only from the Yorkshire Dales National Park. The name is thought to mean "homestead associated with a man called Adda", although in the Domesday Book, the village was referred to as "Ediham", which may have referred to Earl Edwin of Bolton Abbey. The 2001 census numbered Addingham's population at 3,599, increasing to 3,730 at the 2011 Census.
The area around Addingham is thought to have been populated from at least Bronze Age times, indicated by the 'cup and ring' carved stones that can be found on Addingham Moor. Its beginnings may date back to the late Mesolithic period, as evidenced by the scattered remains of early flint tools across Rombald's Moor to the south.
The earliest of the existing houses were built in the 17th century when the village was a farming community, but the real growth began in the late 18th century and early 19th century when the textile industry arrived and five working mills, plus other loomshops and weaving sheds, were established, and the village developed into a busy industrial community. The village grew up around three centres; Church Street in the east; The Green, about a mile away in the west; and the Old School in between. This is thought to be one of the reasons the village used to be known as "Long Addingham".
Since the decline of the textile industry during the 20th century, the village has now become largely a commuter and retirement community. It is home to an award-winning Medical Centre, a public park, four public houses, several retirement homes and a solitary school, Addingham Primary School.
History
Early history
There is evidence of civilisation around Addingham as far back as the late Mesolithic, Neolithic and early Bronze Ages, as indicated by the remains of early man in the form of flint tools on Rombald's Moor, which may date back to around 11,000 BC. The first 'fixed' artefacts are the 'cup and ring' marked stones, several of which can be found on top of Addingham Moor and Ilkley Moor to the east, which are thought to date back to the late Neolithic or early Bronze Age, around 1800 BC.The first evidence of settlements come from the Iron Age – evidence of major tree clearance dating back to 700 BC has been found, as well as quern-stones on Addingham Moorside, which were shaped like small straw beehives and have hence been named 'beehive querns'. While a settlement on the Moorside has never been found, remains of an Iron Age settlement have been found on Addingham Low Moor, today known as Round Dikes. It has been suggested that Round Dikes, along with similar nearby sites Woofa Bank and Nesfield Scar, were summer encampments of the Romans. Little evidence truly remains of the 350 years of Roman occupation, save for the Roman road towards Skipton which, up until the 1800s, was still the primary route between the two settlements.
It is thought that the Craven area, including what now constitutes Addingham, was settled by Anglo-Saxons around 612 AD following the defeat of the local Celtic tribe. Addingham is considered to be one of the earlier Anglo-Saxon settlements because of the ending – inghaem. It is likely that the village was an early Christian centre: Ecgfrith of Northumbria presented the lands in this area to St. Wilfrid in 678 AD, while a letter describing events taking place in 867 AD describes Archbishop Wulfhere of York residing in Addingham during the conflict between the Angles and Danes, which suggests there was already a church and a hall in the village – most likely at the site of St Peter's Church – in the 9th century AD.
Middle Ages
The Domesday Book in 1086 places the village in the region of Burghshire and refers to the village as "Ediham". The Lord in 1066 was Earl Edwin of Bolton Abbey, who was Lord of several other surrounding settlements ranging as far west as Skipton, Hellifield and Anley, and may have given his name to the village.The weir of a medieval corn mill that is located near modern-day High Mill has been dated back to 1315, and is one of the oldest medieval structures in the village. Despite this, the main occupation in the 1370s, when poll tax was levied, was agriculture, iron smelting and blacksmithing.
Early Modern Period: Reformation and early textile mills
During the Reformation, Henry VIII dissolved the monastery in Bolton Abbey, and while most of Addingham accepted the Reformation, Richard Kirkman remained faithful to Catholicism and was subsequently arrested in 1578, tried, and executed in York alongside William Lacy. The Roman Catholic Church "Our Lady and of the English Martyrs", which was built in 1927 on Bolton Road, is dedicated to him and to other Catholics persecuted by Henry VIII.During the English Civil War in 1642, Addingham was probably mainly Royalist, as several villagers are thought to have helped to defend Skipton Castle from the Parliamentarians.
The earliest indications of the textile industry in the village can be found in the will of William Atkinson in 1568, in which it states that he left a solitary loom to his son-in-law. The cloth making industry remained stagnant, however, until the 18th century, when revolutionary weaving inventions such as John Kay's Flying shuttle and, later, water-powered machines such as Crompton's Spinning mule, allowed the textile industry in Addingham to leap forward as it entered the 19th century.
John Cunliffe, a cloth manufacturer, and John Cockshott, a glazier and woolstapler, took advantage of the new developments in technology and leased land on the side of the River Wharfe in 1787 at the site now known as Low Mill. They built a spinning mill which enabled yarn to be spun more quickly than by hand and thus increased the production of cloth. A weir was constructed on the river and a wheel installed to provide the power. It was the first successful worsted mill in the world.
19th century: Thriving textile industry
The start of the 19th century saw the textile industry begin to thrive in the village – existing mills, such as the one at High Mill which had been built in 1787 to produce corn, were converted and extended and used for linen, cotton, worsted and finally silk spinning, while other new mills were built, such as Town Head Mill and Fentimans, the latter of which was built in 1802 originally to spin cotton and was later converted into a sawmill in the 1860s. Several small workshops were also built, as well as three-storey high workers' houses, in which the lower two floors would be for domestic use, and the top floor would house the looms, with inter-connecting doors along the row of houses. These buildings still exist today, and examples can be seen on Stockinger Lane.In 1826, Low Mill, now under the tenancy of Jeremiah Horsfall, was the scene of a Luddite uprising.
In the census reports between 1831 and 1861, it was reported that there was a dramatic decline in the population of the village, and the 1841 census stated that this was due to the closure of Low Mill. In the 1851 census, so many of the houses at Low Mill were reported as empty that it is assumed that the mill remained closed until then. By 1861, hand loom weavers had practically disappeared. However, shortly afterwards, Samuel Cunliffe Lister re-opened Low Mill, with commercial operations being handled at Piece Hall at 19 Main Street.
In 1875, the Lord of the Manor, Richard Smith of London, proposed the construction of 20 streets, each with 40 to 50 houses. Small shops lined the Main Street, such as grocers, greengrocers and butchers. An Addingham co-operative society was formed; it prospered sufficiently to buy land on Bolton Road and build new premises and a row of cottages. The old ferry which brought parishioners from Beamsley was replaced by a foot bridge, and around about the same time a horse-drawn bus service to Ilkley was introduced.
By the end of the 19th century, there were five operating mills in the village, three of them owned by Lister, and the village was thriving again.
20th century: Second World War and industrial decline
The village continued to produce textiles until the start of the First World War, and despite high levels of production during the war, the textile industry never really recovered. However, after the bombing of the SU Carburetter factory in Coventry during the Second World War in 1941, production switched to Addingham, at which time up to 1,000 people worked there and prefabricated homes were erected in Ilkley to cater for the sudden increase in employees. The other textiles factories were busy during the war, and the Listers, having produced silk between wars with a German company, were able to use their expertise to produce silk parachutes.After the war, Carburetter production ceased and Low Mill returned to textiles. For a short time the mills were working hard, as textiles were in short supply. However, the machinery was out of date, and there was a major closure of textile mills throughout the country. In Addingham, the last mill to close was at Low Mill in 1976.
In the meantime, the demand for small, cheap housing increased, and this saw new council houses being built at Moor Lane after the First World War, and at School Lane, Burns Hill and Green Lane after the Second World War. After the closure of the railway line in 1969, a modern housing estate was built where the line used to run, and has since been expanded.
In 1998, textiles briefly returned to Addingham and Low Mill in the form of a Norwegian-based company, Straum, who started production of scoured wool, but this business closed in 2002.
Today, the village is mainly a retirement and commuter community, with several people commuting every day to nearby towns such as Skipton and Ilkley and also to larger cities like Leeds and Bradford.