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Rodley Village History
Read up on the history of Rodley.
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The first settlers
There is little evidence for the first settlers along this stretch of the Aire Valley. Early people seem to have used the river as a routeway into the Pennines and collections of flints have come from the gravel terraces at Methley and Bingley. They probably represent the sites where these early people camped on their hunting trips along the river.
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The Fairy's Field
No such collection of flints is known for Rodley but there is a field on the opposite site of the river which might suggest that early people were using the area. On an 1845 map of Horsforth, is a field labelled Fairy Field. This is the kind of name that medieval people gave to places where they picked up such things as flint arrowheads. As they had no concept of prehistory medieval people ascribed a supernatural origin to these flint arrowheads, which became known as 'elf-shot'. The name Fairy Field might therefore suggest that many flint implements were once picked up here and that there was once a prehistoric encampment over the river from Rodley. Geophysical work by Bradford University has also located the remains of a buried earthwork enclosure in the vicinity, but without further excavation work, it would be impossible to date it accurately.
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Anglo-Saxon Rodley
There is not much more that can be worked out about Anglo-Saxon settlement in the area either. Usually one can take information from the Domesday Survey compiled for William the Conqueror in 1086 and work backwards. Unfortunately the first mention of Rodley occurs, not in Domesday, but in a document of 1246 where it is spelled Rotheley. The first part of this word might derive from Hrodwulf, an Anglo-Saxon personal name. The ley part of the name is the Old English word (Old English was the language spoken by the Anglo-Saxons). It means 'a forest clearing' and is a common element in Aire Valley place names. Other examples are Bingley, Cottingley, Shipley, Calverley and Fernley. This all suggests that Hrodwulf's forest clearing, or Rodley, as we know it today, was just one of many settlements which were carved out of marginal land not being cultivated by others. This could have happened during the first wave of Anglo-Saxon settlement in the region, perhaps as early as the 7th century AD.
Medieval Rodley
In the medieval period Rodley must have remained a small hamlet. We can get an occasional glimpse of life there from documentary sources. We know, for instance, that Rodley was separated from the neighbouring settlement of Calverley by a ditch and bank with a hedge on top. Such arrangements were common in the medieval period where the boundary between two manors could not be made to follow the lines of a sharply defined landscape feature. There was also a gate where the track from Calverley came into Rodley. Not only did such boundaries prevent livestock from straying, they also provided a visible barrier to tenants wishing to leave the village. The lower classes of medieval society were tied to the land they farmed. They were not supposed to leave their village without the express permission of the lord of the manor. If they did so the lord of the adjacent manor would be expected to force them to return.
The Leeds Liverpool Canal
Prosperity came to Rodley in the 1770s with the construction of the Leeds Liverpool Canal and with the coming of the railway in the 1840s. The two transport networks were not only sources of employment, but also played a part in the growth of the settlement itself. The canal attracted industry into the area. This included the famous Rodley crane works. The first factory on the site was established by Smith, Balmforth and Booth in 1820 to make hoists for use in woollen mills. The partners eventually went their separate ways but cranes were still being built there at the end of the 20th century. On the opposite bank was Airedale Mills, a huge complex constructed in the 1860s to house a number of small textile businesses. The railway also brought commuters to Rodley, all of them anxious to have homes away from the squalor of central Leeds in Victorian times. These symbols of the industrial age have largely disappeared to be replaced by modern housing. The railway is only remembered in the name of a local pub. Yet Rodley has not lost all its character. The nucleus of the village still contains many old buildings and has been declared a conservation area. Rodley is still also a bustling place where hundreds of tourists come on a summer afternoons to enjoy walking on the canal side.
There's lot more information about local places on the WYAAS website at: www.archaeology.wyjs.org.uk/wyjs-archaeology.asp
Have a look today. You never know what you might find.
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Weather for Leeds
Saturday 19 May 2012
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