Conservation Report - Key Buildings

Key Buildings

The Lord Nelson Inn (listed grade II)

Like Box House, a very early house was present on this site and was shown on a map of 1599 by Christopher Saxton, the eminent mapmaker. The present building is dated 1634 GCP (Gregory Patchett). It is constructed of rendered stone, with a stone slate roof and an L-shaped plan with rear wing. It is particularly of note because of its association with Branwell Brontë, who used to frequent it when working as a booking clerk at Luddendenfoot station, because of the very early library there, which existed from 1776 until 1917.

St. Mary’s Church (listed grade II)

A Church has existed on the site since the mid C16, and the present building was erected in 1816. The original C16 font and a churchyard cross were broken by parliamentary forces during the civil war, but were discovered in a nearby garden at the beginning of C20 which had belonged to one of the churchwardens at the time they were broken. The font is now in the church, and the octagonal stone post in the churchyard. The font now in use replaced the previous one in 1662. A chest tomb in the churchyard bears the relics of Thomas Murgatroyd of Murgatroyd and East Riddlesden Hall, Keighley, who died in the mid C17. There is also a listed bridge made of ashlar stone, constructed in 1859, leading into the municipal cemetery.

The Coach House (formerly 10, 11 and 12 High Street) (listed grade II)

Like the Lord Nelson, a building was shown here on the Saxton map of 1599. The present building dates partly from the mid C18 and early C19, and was originally a coach house and stables. The building has an L-shape plan. No. 10, originally the coach house, is on the right of the picture shown, and has a coach house door at the rear. Both 10 and 11 have 4 light windows downstairs and 3-light windows upstairs. No. 12 was originally a cottage and is at right angles to the photograph, connected to number 11.

Number 10 is the oldest part, and contains a wonderful example of cruck beams.

16 High Street (listed grade II)

This house was formerly two buildings, No. 17 facing on to High Street, and No. 16 an underdwelling. No. 17 is a 2-storey building, constructed of coursed, squared stone, with watershot pointing and a stone slate roof. The windows facing High Street have flat-faced mullions with 2-light windows on each floor. The windows facing east, like the underdwelling, have a 4-light window to the left and two 2- light windows to the right.

Bridge House (34 High Street) (listed grade II)

Bridge House was formerly two houses, which have now been made into one. It is constructed of thin coursed squared stone, with a stone slate roof. There are 3 storeys and a basement (just visible on the photograph). The basement is of C17 origin.

The Former Church of England Junior School (listed grade II)

A National School, built in 1825, further enlarged in 1856 and restored and extended in 1928, with date plaques showing each of these three stages. In the basement, the right hand bay has 3 doorways, one blocked, the other 2 with old board doors and the lintels inscribed 'MIDGLEY' and 'WARLEY' (these gave access to two lock-ups for the use of the respective townships, the boundary of which was Luddenden Brook).

23, 24 and 25 High Street (listed grade II)

These consist of a row of 3 cottages with a shop which has now been incorporated into No. 25. They are of mid-late C18.

Built of thin coursed stone, they are of two storeys. Each cottage has a C20 door on left, a 3-light window on right, a 5-light window above and a stack at right end. Shop has door on left, a 2-light window to each floor and no stack (unheated).

Church Hill (listed grade II)

This is a terrace of nine houses shown, plus three houses fronting onto Old Lane. Built early C19, they are typical weavers’ cottages with four lights to the ground floor and five to the first storey. They are split into a group of six houses and a group of three, with a tunnel through between the end of the first six and the group of three. The end three have 2-storey under dwellings which have now been converted into garages.

Luddenden Methodist Chapel

Unlike the previous buildings, this is not listed, but adds greatly to the architecture of the village. Built in 1902, and closed as a place of worship in 2011, the building was the third methodist chapel built in the village. Originally a Free Methodist Chapel, much of the building work was done by male members of the congregation, who dug out the foundations and assisted wherever possible.

The Chapel was on the top and a school building underneath. For most of the twentieth century, much of the social life of the village was centred on this building.

Free Methodist Chapel

Built as a Free Methodist Church in 1837, following a split away from the Wesleyan Methodist Church, which was originally across the road at the bottom of Halifax Lane. The building is not listed, and has now been converted into apartments, having served also as the Luddenden Working Men’s Club. The date stone can just be made out above the main door. The Free Methodist Church was a much more democratic institution than the Wesleyan Methodist Church, and the building is important as it serves as a reminder of the important part played by the Methodist Church in Pennine textile communities such as Luddenden. It was decided that the building was not large enough in 1897, and this led to the building of the Luddenden Methodist Chapel (above) across the other side of the valley.

The Former Church of England Infants’ School and Headmaster’s House

Situated at the junction of High Street and New Road, the old Infants’ School was opened in 1872. The 1844 Factory Act had fixed the minimum age for starting work as 8, and children under 13 years of age were half-timers, spending either morning or afternoon in school, and the other half day at work. This so increased the demand for school places that the earlier school was unable to cope. This second school was therefore eventually opened and took the younger children, whilst the previous one took older children through to school leaving. The schools continued in this way with junior and infant children until a new combined junior and infant’s school was built on the Kershaw estate in 1993. The school has now been converted into a house.

The former Luddenden Vicarage

The original vicarage was built on Stocks Lane in 1842, and was designed by Charles Child, a Halifax architect. Not listed, like many of the buildings on the Warley side of Luddenden, it is in many ways a typical Church of England vicarage of its time, and designed for a large family with rooms for servants. Built on four floors, including cellars and attics, it finally became too large and expensive for the present church purposes, and was sold in the early 1980s, when a new vicarage was built on the Carr Field estate.

Laurel Bank

Laurel Bank, on Stocks Lane, is an early Victorian House which was built for a local doctor. It has now been split into two separate dwellings but is a splendid example of the type of house which was built locally for the gentry and mill owners.

The Old Slaughterhouse

This building was used as a butcher’s shop (fronting on to St. Anne’s Square, High Street) with the associated slaughterhouse above, entered from Stocks Lane. It is said that when a beast was being slaughtered, the building was so narrow that its head would stick out of one of the windows fronting on to High Street.

Box House

Situated on Old Lane, Box House is one of the oldest buildings in Luddenden. The barn has now also been converted to residential use, but during alterations there, timber framing was found in a number of the walls. An inscription on the outside records that the barn was rebuilt by M Wadsworth in 1791.

21 Richmond Terrace

The main feature of interest of this house is the cellar dwelling that can be seen through the gate and down the steps underneath the main house. In Victorian times, cellar dwellings were quite common, and this contained one small room and tiny scullery at the rear built into the earth. At one time, six people were resident in it.

As standards of housing improved in the twentieth century, cellar dwellings were incorporated into the main house, as happened here, or in most cases, were demolished.

Church House

This building in the centre of the village at the junction of Stocks Lane and High Street was formerly a public house, the Murgatroyd Arms. During the mid-1930s, the licence was transferred to an establishment in Skircoat Green, Halifax, which kept the same name, and the building was purchased by St. Mary’s Church. It was sold and converted into a private house in the 1980s.

Apple House Terrace and Riding Head Lane

Apple House Terrace and Riding Head Lane, on Stocks Lane, are two terraces of houses built during the early/mid C19 to provide accommodation for the increasing number of workers engaged in the expanding textile industry. The houses were all renovated and brought up to modern standards during the 1970s, but provide a picturesque and wonderful example of Victorian workers’ housing.

The Bridge over the Luddenden Brook

Originally a wooden bridge, by the early C16 it was in a poor state. A Halifax man, Richard Stanclyffe, bequeathed “to the byldyng of Luddyngden brige xL (i.e. £10) if so be they take in hand to bylde the brigge of stone”. Needless to say, in 1518 they did! The height of the bridge has been raised from its original height.

Horse Trough at the bottom of Stocks Lane

Provided in 1861 by Wm. Patchett for the refreshment of horses coming along the pack horse routes from Bradford and Halifax, towards Lancashire. The bottom of Stocks Lane was the junction where the two routes met.

Other Buildings

Other buildings and structures which contribute to the environment in Luddenden include 8/9 High Street, 13 and 14 High Street and the old chapel in the graveyard.

Current Condition and Uses

Almost all the buildings in this area are in good condition, and the only ones not in use currently are

• the old butcher’s shop fronting on to St. Anne’s Square, High Street,
• the associated slaughterhouse at the bottom of Stocks Lane, and
• the old chapel in the graveyard. (In less than good condition, the old chapel is owned by the local authority which is currently trying to find a use for it.)

Some of the properties have lost their original window detailing, with the loss of mullions the most common.

Open Spaces and Trees

There are many open spaces in this area along both sides of the river, and to the eastern side of the top half of High Street, below the Luddenden Methodist Church.

The views through these spaces are part of the essence of Luddenden, and must not be allowed to disappear. There are many mature trees, some of which are protected, and these add to the aesthetic quality of the area

New Road and Duke Street

For about 15 years after the Napoleonic wars, there was much distress and a very high poor rate. The packhorse route up Old Lane out of Luddenden to Midgley had always been difficult to traverse, particularly in icy weather. The local Overseer of the Poor, therefore, between 1823 and 1825 set men receiving relief to work on cutting out a new road between Carr Field and Duke Street to avoid this climb. During the first half of C19, there had been much criticism of the quality of housing. Rapid expansion of the textile industry led to a greater demand for houses in Luddenden.

During the last quarter of the century, a ribbon of development has taken place on New Road and along Duke Street. A number of terraced houses and one or two houses for the gentry were all constructed, of a much higher standard than those existing previously.