THORNTON CONSERVATION AREA
Historical development and changing character of the conservation areas
Domesday Book records that in 1066 Thornton had been one of several vills or townships belonging to the manor of Bolton. Along with Chellow, Allerton, Clayton and Wibsey, it had been part of an extensive territorial unit stretching westwards from Bolton and Bradford. The character of settlement at that time is unknown, but likely to have taken the form of small, scattered hamlets. Within the township of Thornton, such hamlets survive at Leventhorp, Hoyle Ing and Headley. Thornton itself may have originated as a hamlet on the site of Thornton Hall, to the east of the conservation areas. Though the Hall is of 17th-century date, it is probably on the site of a medieval predecessor, home to the Thornton family in the 13th century, the Bollings in the 14th and 15th centuries, and residence of Richard Tempest in 1566. The adjacent, ruined chapel, bearing a building inscription of 1612, may also be on the site of an earlier chapel.
The medieval and later village of Thornton, which is entirely within the conservation areas, takes the form of two east-west rows of properties on each side of a street, Market Street. As can be seen on the first edition OS 6 Inch map (surveyed 1847-50) the properties on the south row had long, narrow crofts stretching southwards from them, though these were divorced from the village when the Bradford and Thornton Turnpike Trust road was cut through them in1826. Further crofts extended northwards from the north row, and on both sides of Market Street these have framed the later development of the built environment. The long, narrow crofts and other similar fields, often with slightly curving boundaries, suggest an area of medieval open-field farming around the settlement.
The regularity of its plan suggests that the village was deliberately laid out at a single time, perhaps in the late 12th or early 13th century. Kipping, at the west end of the village and also within the conservation areas, may have been an earlier hamlet, though its name is not recorded until the 17th century. Alternatively, this area may have gained the name 'Kipping' because it was the site of a market, a suggestion based on one possible name derivation (similar to that for 'Chipping', as in Chipping Campden).
The burial entries in the Parish Registers show a diverse number of trades by the first half of the 18th century. These included trades connected with textiles: weavers, linen- weavers, comb makers, clothiers, and a tailor. Others included: glaziers, tanners, colliers, pot makers, husbandmen, labourers and smiths. By the middle of the 18th century new trades could be added including shalloon makers (a type of worsted cloth used for ladies' dresses), wire-drawers, doublers, a clockmaker and a dancing master.
Following the death of the Lord of the Manor, John Cockcroft in 1745, the Manor was sold and divided into lots, substantial parts being purchased by Cockcroft's son-in-law John Stanhope (including Headley Hall) and Sir William Horton (including Thornton Hall). This change of ownership led to the rebuilding of the chapel in 1756-63, the plans being prepared by Joseph Gott; and the enclosure of the Commons within Thornton after an Act of 1770. By 1800 there were only 23 dwellings forming the village centre, three of these being inns .The census returns of 1801 for the Ancient Parish of Thornton (which included Denholme) show of the population of 2,474, some 1,763 persons were employed in trade, manufacture or handicrafts, with 70 persons employed in agriculture. By 1811 the population had risen to 3,016 and to 4,100 by 1821 with 788 houses occupied by 796 families. Over the next ten years the population increased by 32% to 5,968 with 1,105 families occupying 1,071 houses. (From a study of the 1831 census returns T.Franks, 1975 'Urban Growth in Thornton', thesis copy held in Bradford Reference Library - B942 FRA) Some 661 persons were employed in textile or earthenware manufacture. By the middle of the century the population of the township grew to 8,051 in 1851. This steady growth in population is reflected in the surviving architecture of the town with a number of buildings dating from the mid- to late-18th century, but many more from the first half of the 19th century, with the result that there is very little structural evidence for the earlier farmhouses and outbuildings. James, who published his history of Bradford in 1841 recorded that Thornton village 'has almost been rebuilt within the last few years', and both dated and datable buildings support this. More remarkable is that so much of the 19th-century village has survived down to the present day. This is probably a consequence of the turnpike road creating a 'by-pass' in 1826.
Market Street running east to west is the main street with long narrow crofts running off from it to the north and south. These narrow fields were also developed in an uncoordinated manner by individual builders / property developers following the old field boundaries, and different sized plots. Old rights-of-way and former field paths are maintained through the streets and yards, often cutting through a terrace under an archway. The earlier buildings are constructed from thin flaggy-stone obtained locally from the many small quarries locally called 'delfts'. This has given Thornton an individual character much enhanced by the preservation of stone setted streets, stone pavements and a mix of double-fronted houses and terraced rows cheek-by-jowl with the old dry-stone field walls still in evidence. By the early 19th century better stone was available from the larger commercial quarries that were established in the township about this time, permitting the use of ashlar stone for architectural details to doors and windows. By 1870 there were about 30 quarries in the local board area, as well as several collieries and a good seam of fire-clay that led to the establishment of a fire-clay works in the 1880s. Three textile mills stood on the fringes of the village. Only one of the mills, Prospect Mill, stands in the conservation areas. Joshua Craven established it as a worsted-spinning mill in 1831. The Cravens built Ashfield House, on the east side of the mill, as a residence some thirty years later; this, too, is within the conservation areas. These industries supported the growing population in the late-19th century with not only work but also readily available cheap materials and fuel. By the 1860s Thornton became famous for the production of fringed Shawlcloths more usually associated with Paisley in Scotland. Following the invention and patenting of several machines dedicated to their production, by various members of the Craven family, Thornton superseded other areas of production in the country. This was of benefit to the village, which by this date had grown into a small town through increased trade, given a boost by the coming of the railway in 1878.
Thornton's development is also very closely linked to the rise of non-conformist religion. A group of non-conformists seems to have been active in the township by the middle of the 17th century. Following the Act of Uniformity of 1662, which resulted in the persecution of non-conformists, the Thornton congregation is thought to have held illegal meetings in a barn on Lower Kipping Lane. They continued to meet there until 1769, when the Kipping Congregational Chapel was built on the south side of Market Street. It was rebuilt in 1843. The house behind the chapel became a manse, and an associated school was built in 1818 (of which only the foundation plaque survives).
The Church of England chapel, next to Thornton Hall, acquired its most illustrious incumbent in 1815, when Rev'd Patrick Bronte was presented to the living. His parsonage was in the village, a house built in 1802 and now Nos. 72, 74 Market Street. His children Charlotte, Bramwell, Emily, Jane and Anne were all born there.
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