RYECROFT CONSERVATION AREA
Historical development of the conservation area
Ryecroft, a small hamlet, comprising dwellings and farmsteads, is situated c.1km to the west of Harden, and immediately north of Ryecroft Road. Located on the higher northern slopes of Harden valley, at around 220m O.D., the settlement sits upon the millstone grit of the Upper Carboniferous period, and was probably formed when clearances of higher valley ground occurred during the medieval period, with further development taking place in the post-medieval period.
Evidence of prehistoric activity in the vicinity is represented by Bronze-Age earthworks, c. 0.5m to the north of Ryecroft on Harden Moor, comprising a scheduled ring barrow which produced finds of pottery, and a probable associated cairn-field. Other earthworks, and a stone circle, observed on this moor in the late-19th/ 20th century, no longer survive as standing features, but indicate exploitation of this area within this period. The date and function of a scheduled ditched and banked rectilinear enclosure known as Catstones Ring to the west of Ryecroft, at SE068380, is unknown. Hypothesised as an Iron Age promontory, or Roman Marching Camp, no evidence has yet been found to substantiate these claims. Known Roman activity around Ryecroft is represented by the north-south Manchester to Ilkley Roman Road (Margary 720a), which partly follows the course of the modern Keighley route c. 100m to the west of Catstones Ring. This route may have been crossed on Harden Moor by the conjectured north-west/south-east Bradford-Keighley Roman Road (Margary 721), which was thought to have passed immediately south of Rycroft, prior to its crossing of the moor.
In the medieval period monastic houses such as Rievaulx Abbey, Drax Priory, and the Esholt and Kirklees Priories, were granted land and other rights near Ryecroft. It has been suggested that Ryecroft formed part of the holdings of the monks of Rievaulx Abbey by 1230 (Bradbury quoting Speight, 1979, 2). In 1312 the monks of Drax Priory were granted tithes in Bingley and its vicinity, including those of Ryecroft, and in the late-12th and early 13th centuries the nuns of Esholt Priory and Kirklees Priory had the rights of common in Harden Wood. An early-13th century grant also allowed the monks of Rievaulx the right of dead wood (garsel) and minerals in Harden Wood, to use at their iron-smelting forges within the wood. A probable monastic iron-working site containing slag debris, and medieval pottery, has been recorded near Harden Hall c. 1m to the south-east of Ryecroft. The majority of woodland was probably destroyed for farming purposes or charcoal burning in this period, but remnants appear to have survived into the 19th century in the form of narrow strips of woodland to the south and west of Harden village (O.S 1852).
Ryecroft, established near the spring-water line of the valley side, probably comprised farmsteads in the medieval period. There is no known evidence of any structures dating from this period, the earliest present housing, including Well House and Ivy House Farm date to the late 17th century, with rebuilding work carried out to both buildings in the late- 18th century. Nineteenth-century Ordnance Survey maps record small groups of cottages and farmsteads to each side of a village street terminating at Ryecroft Farm, at the northern end of the village (O.S. 1852; O.S. 1894). Census figures for this period record a total number of 141 inhabitants residing in 22 dwellings in 1841. Some buildings were probably sub-divided into separate dwellings to accommodate the growth in population. By 1861 the homesteads had increased to 30, but the number had declined in 1871 to 24, with only 114 inhabitants. Occupations in 1841 included a small number of farmers, the majority of the inhabitants being textile workers, this trend continuing until at least 1871 (Bradbury 1979). Textile workers comprised mainly worsted weavers, but also cotton workers, worsted spinners, and woollen weavers. Occupations in 1861 also included a pipe maker known as James Woods, and pipe wasters, found in a field near Ivy House farm in the 1970s, probably related to this trade (Bradbury 1979). Quarrymen, probably working the quarries on Harden Moor, also resided at Ryecroft by 1871.
The hamlet was served by a late 18th-century Primitive Methodist Chapel, one of the earliest in the district, located in a building on the site of Ryecroft Farm. This was replaced in 1852 by a new Primitive Methodist chapel, situated at Pepper Hill, on the south side of Ryecroft Road. Adjoining land was purchased in 1878 for burials. The chapel, after its closure, was used as a holiday centre for young people and other various youth purposes from 1945 until around 1956, when it became a private residence and subsequently extensively refurbished.
A Sale Plan of 1909 reveals the hamlet comprising mainly farmsteads with associated buildings. Ryecroft Farm contained a barn, a stable for 3 horses, and mistal for 7 head of cattle (WYAS Leeds, H&S 636, 1909). An adjacent Malthouse contained 2 growing floors with a cistern, drying room, barley room, two malt chambers and sack room. By 1933 the malthouse was in disuse (O.S. 1933). The hamlet of today reflects a similar layout pattern to the Sale Plan of 1909, and indeed of the earlier 19th-century maps, with only slight variation to the number of buildings (O.S. 1852; 1894; 1933). The hamlet contains a number of Grade II listed buildings and the whole village, with surrounding land, is a designated Conservation Area.
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