* Click here for latest news in Guiseley.

Introduction

We cannot be certain when people first settled in the area we now know as Guiseley. Evidence for early people is scarce. A Middle Bronze Age (1,600 – 1,200 BC) cremation urn was found on Guiseley Moor in the 19th century. More recently a Neolithic Stone Axe (New Stone Age 4,000 -2,200 BC) was found in the churchyard in 1922. There is also a Roman road which runs over Guiseley Moor on its way to Ilkley so it's probable that there were Roman farms in the vicinity. Sadly none of them have been located yet.

* Click here to sign up to free news and sport alerts from Guiseley Today.

Saxon Guiseley

The first mention of Guiseley by name occurs in a document of 976 where it is spelled Gislicleh but the place name may be much older. The first element is a personal name (or perhaps a nickname). The second element is an Old English word (Old English was the language spoken by the Anglo-Saxons) which means 'woodland clearing'. It is a common element in many place names along the Aire Valley (e.g. Bingley, Shipley, Calverley, and Rodley). This suggests that the first Anglo-Saxon settlers in the Aire valley were moving into heavily wooded land which was unoccupied by other people at the time. This could have happened as early as the 7th century AD when the Northumbrians conquered the area. Prior to that time it had been part of the small British kingdom of Elmet.

* Click here for Guiseley Today's Community Directory, where you will find basic information on a wide range of local community groups and organisations.

The Domesday Survey compiled for William the Conqueror in 1086 gives us the first glimpse of what many West Yorkshire communities must have looked like. Unfortunately this is not the case with Guiseley. In 1086 the township was part of an extensive estate belonging to the Archbishops of York. The archbishop's residence was at Otley and all the villages on the estate are assessed under that heading. No separate details are given for Guiseley itself.

However, the Manor of Otley as a whole was not doing well. Domesday describes the majority of the manor as 'waste'. This does not necessarily mean that there was nothing there, merely that it produced nothing of value to the king: Domesday is after all a revenue document not a survey in the way that a modern census is.

* Click here to become a fan of Guiseley Today on Facebook.

The value of the manor had also fallen from £10 in the time of Edward the Confessor in 1066 to £3 in 1086. This is true of many other communities in the area and may reflect the effects of the "Harrying of the North", a series of 'slash and burn expeditions launched by William I to punish rebellious elements in the North of England.

St Oswald's church

Despite the lack of documentary evidence archaeologists think that there may have been a church at Guiseley from an early date. There are three cross fragments in the church which have been dated to the late 9th century. The faces of the fragments are carved with a variety of knotwork panels. When they were erected in the churchyard the crosses would have looked very gaudy to modern eyes. They were lime-washed and painted in bright colours so that the details of the knotwork would stand out clearly.

The walls of St Oswald's church may also be late Saxon or early Norman. However, the 11th century church was much smaller than it is now. Substantial enlargements were made to the building during the medieval period, culminating with the construction of the west tower in the 15th century. The building was further enlarged in the early 20th century.

Medieval Guiseley

St Oswald's parish church is the only building in the town to retain a large proportion of its medieval structure. The current Rectory was built in 1601. It was probably built on or near the site of an earlier building and it is possible that timbers from the earlier building were incorporated in the structure of the Rectory. Its predecessor also had a moat. Much of this has now been filled in leaving only a semi-circular pond to the south of the Rectory.

We know of one other building in medieval Guiseley - a cornmill mentioned in 1290 and again in 1572. Usually there would be only one mill in a medieval township and it would be owned by the lord of the manor. Tenants would be compelled to grind their corn at the lord's mill even if they could get a better deal elsewhere. The manor court imposed heavy fines on those who did not follow the rules.

It is not certain where this cornmill was located but a map of 1720 shows a cloth mill called Guiseley Mills on the south side of the beck which forms the boundary between Guiseley and Yeadon. The name is suggestive of an old manorial mill and it may be that the cloth mill was built on the site of the old cornmill. Mills often stay on the same site for centuries because of the advantage of a particular location on a river.

The layout of the medieval town

Despite this scarcity of structural evidence for medieval Guiseley, some idea of the layout of the town can be gained from clues to be found by looking at old maps, place names and other sources. An example of this is Town Gate, the name of one of the principal thoroughfares in the oldest part of Guiseley. Gate here does not refer to a barrier across the road but is the Viking word for a road. This suggests that the route might have been used from an early date. At the top of Town Gate is a large open area where a market could be held. The present cross with its square shaft is Victorian but the three steps of the base are probably medieval.

There may have been more early settlement further to the north along Town Street. Early maps often show the 'fossilized' layout of medieval towns represented by field and courtyard boundaries. So it is with Guiseley. If you look at the 1838 Tithe Award map of Guiseley, you will see a line of crofts (enclosures) running up the eastern side of Town Street. They probably represent the tenements of the medieval village. Each croft belonged to one of the villagers. There would be a house on the street side and a small garden or allotment to the rear. There may also have been crofts on the west side of Town Street which were planned and laid out like those to the east. However, no evidence for this has survived.

The development of modern Guiseley

There are several 17th and 18th century buildings in Guiseley. These include the Rectory, the Manor House and Manor Cottages. However, these developments did not alter the settlement pattern in Guiseley very greatly. Even on the first six inch to the mile Ordnance Survey map of the 1850s, Guiseley is still a fairly compact "largish" village surrounded by farmland. Its core is still the Town Gate/Town Street area but buildings are beginning to spread out to the north. Guiseley Wells has been created, presumably to replace a water source which once arose in the open fields but which is now inaccessible since the fields were enclosed.

However, the future is indicated by Spring Mill. This is described as a "slubbing and fulling" mill. Slubbing is a method of twisting strands of cotton into a thread. Fulling is part of the finishing process in which cloth was soaked in water and beaten with hammers. This would help clean and felt it. Spring Mills was only one of many that were erected in the region to service the growing textile industry. More were to come in the later 1800s and 1900s. Eventually Guiseley was to lose its rural feel altogether and become a satellite of Leeds and Bradford. Nevertheless the Town Gate area still retains much of its old character. It contains several listed buildings and is now part of a conservation area.


There's lot more information about local places on the WYAAS website at: www.archaeology.wyjs.org.uk

Have a look today. You never know what you might find.