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Cononley
Cononley (/ˈkʊnlə/ KUUN-lə or /ˈkɒnənli/ KON-ən-lee) is a village and civil parish in the county of North Yorkshire, England. Cononley is in the Aire Valley 3 miles (5 km) south of Skipton and with an estimated population of 1,080 (2001 est.), measured at 1,172 at the 2011 census. It is situated 0.9 miles (1.5 km) west of the A629 road with access to Skipton, Keighley. Also joined to the Leeds-Carlisle railway, the village has commuter access to Leeds and Bradford.
Until 1974 it was part of the West Riding of Yorkshire. From 1974 to 2023 it was part of the district of Craven, it is now administered by the unitary North Yorkshire Council.
The village is served by Cononley railway station.
There is evidence that people first settled around Cononley in the Bronze and Iron Ages. The Domesday Book contains only a brief mention of Cononley, but the settlement's name had probably originated several centuries earlier. The ending 'ley' refers to a clearing in the then wooded Aire valley and is shared with other Airedale communities. The first part of the name is derived from either a personal name or a river or beck name. The Cononley local historian, Trevor Hodgson, collected more than 60 different spellings of the name, in use from the 11th century onwards. Early spellings such as 'Conundley' and Cunanlay' may represent older pronunciations of the name.
By the 12th century the present village had been laid out on a deliberate plan which is most obvious on the north side of Main Street where the plots (or 'tofts') ran northwards to Back (now Meadow) Lane. It may not be a coincidence that from the 12th century a significant part of the cultivated land was owned by Bolton Priory. Both Bolton Priory's Compotus (a listing of income and expenditure) and the Priory's records listing around 70 gifts of land in Cononley have survived. The latter record includes recognisable place names such as 'Dedehee' (Dead Eye). A smaller estate was owned by the Knights Hospitallers of St. John. By the time of the dissolution of the monasteries in the late 1530s these farms were all in the hands of tenants. Some 16 former Bolton Priory farms were bought by Henry Clifford, 1st. Earl of Cumberland. In addition, half a dozen former Knights Hospitallers' properties were transferred to the Crown and remained in the hands of the monarch for the remainder of the 16th century. The fortunate survival of many of these records is due to the lordship of the manor of Cononley having been acquired by the Earls of Cumberland. Many manor court rolls have also been preserved and some 40 of these have now been published, giving an insight into many of the concerns of Cononley people from 1518 to 1852.
The financial difficulties of George Clifford, 3rd. Earl of Cumberland benefited prosperous Cononley farmers. A number of these men were able to purchase very long leases and effectively become owners of their farms. This process also left its mark on the village because these better off inhabitants were able to begin to rebuild their houses in stone. Milton House, once called Sawley House, bears the date 1635. However, it and other nearby houses e.g. Bradleys Farm and The New Inn (in which a fragment of a timber cruck frame has been uncovered) may well date, at least in part, from an earlier century. A succession of these successful farming families dominated land ownership in the village in the 17th and 18th centuries. These included the Sawley and Bradley families, the Tillotson family and a number of branches of the Laycock family. Roger Swire became a land owner in Cononley about 1627 and by the later 18th century his family had come to dominate property ownership in the village.
The Swire Family lived at Cononley Hall from the 17th to the 19th centuries. An existent date stone, evidently moved from its original position and possibly recut bears the date 1683. A second date stone for 1680, probably removed when ancillary buildings were demolished about 1930, is now owned by members of the current Swire family. These facts, in addition to the style of the building, suggest that the oldest part of the present Hall was built in the 1680s for Samuel and Elizabeth Swire. Similar houses in the Airedale often have three gables and the same maybe true of the 17th century Cononley Hall. The cellars may survive from an earlier building on the site. According to John William Moorhouse, who could have been present, during alterations to the building in 1903 a 'secret passage' was found near the large fireplace on the ground floor of 'The Old Hall'. The discovery was linked to an earlier story that a Jacobite kinsman of the then owners, another Samuel and Elizabeth Swire, had escaped from the hall through such a passage in 1745 when pursued by George II's forces. The passage, perhaps useable by a desperate man, is likely to be the substantial stone walled water conduit seen by Trevor Hodgson in the late 20th century. Samuel and Elizabeth's second son, John, born in 1737, would be the grandfather of his namesake who established the internationally known business of John Swire & Sons in the early 19th century. Their elder son, Roger, born in 1735, probably lived to oversee the rebuilding of Cononley Hall before his death in 1778. The western wing of the old house was retained but a new taller classically proportioned building was erected beside it. Unfortunately Roger's son and grandson would only enjoy the new building for relatively short periods. In 1837 Cononley Hall was sold and, after a succession of owners and uses, was divided into three houses in 1911.
Roger Swire (1735–78) was the principal beneficiary of the enclosure of Cononley Moor in 1768. The enclosure completed a process which had been underway in Cononley for centuries and which removed the last common land available to smallholders with little land of their own. Another major beneficiary was Richard Wainman of Carr Head in Cowling, who was a descendant of the above-mentioned Bradley family. However, a number of farmers received uneconomical, and often poorly situated, allocations as a result of the enclosure and were forced to sell their land to the larger landowners. This process added to the increasing number of breadwinners who were skilled tradesmen or handloom weavers.
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Cononley AI simulator
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Cononley
Cononley (/ˈkʊnlə/ KUUN-lə or /ˈkɒnənli/ KON-ən-lee) is a village and civil parish in the county of North Yorkshire, England. Cononley is in the Aire Valley 3 miles (5 km) south of Skipton and with an estimated population of 1,080 (2001 est.), measured at 1,172 at the 2011 census. It is situated 0.9 miles (1.5 km) west of the A629 road with access to Skipton, Keighley. Also joined to the Leeds-Carlisle railway, the village has commuter access to Leeds and Bradford.
Until 1974 it was part of the West Riding of Yorkshire. From 1974 to 2023 it was part of the district of Craven, it is now administered by the unitary North Yorkshire Council.
The village is served by Cononley railway station.
There is evidence that people first settled around Cononley in the Bronze and Iron Ages. The Domesday Book contains only a brief mention of Cononley, but the settlement's name had probably originated several centuries earlier. The ending 'ley' refers to a clearing in the then wooded Aire valley and is shared with other Airedale communities. The first part of the name is derived from either a personal name or a river or beck name. The Cononley local historian, Trevor Hodgson, collected more than 60 different spellings of the name, in use from the 11th century onwards. Early spellings such as 'Conundley' and Cunanlay' may represent older pronunciations of the name.
By the 12th century the present village had been laid out on a deliberate plan which is most obvious on the north side of Main Street where the plots (or 'tofts') ran northwards to Back (now Meadow) Lane. It may not be a coincidence that from the 12th century a significant part of the cultivated land was owned by Bolton Priory. Both Bolton Priory's Compotus (a listing of income and expenditure) and the Priory's records listing around 70 gifts of land in Cononley have survived. The latter record includes recognisable place names such as 'Dedehee' (Dead Eye). A smaller estate was owned by the Knights Hospitallers of St. John. By the time of the dissolution of the monasteries in the late 1530s these farms were all in the hands of tenants. Some 16 former Bolton Priory farms were bought by Henry Clifford, 1st. Earl of Cumberland. In addition, half a dozen former Knights Hospitallers' properties were transferred to the Crown and remained in the hands of the monarch for the remainder of the 16th century. The fortunate survival of many of these records is due to the lordship of the manor of Cononley having been acquired by the Earls of Cumberland. Many manor court rolls have also been preserved and some 40 of these have now been published, giving an insight into many of the concerns of Cononley people from 1518 to 1852.
The financial difficulties of George Clifford, 3rd. Earl of Cumberland benefited prosperous Cononley farmers. A number of these men were able to purchase very long leases and effectively become owners of their farms. This process also left its mark on the village because these better off inhabitants were able to begin to rebuild their houses in stone. Milton House, once called Sawley House, bears the date 1635. However, it and other nearby houses e.g. Bradleys Farm and The New Inn (in which a fragment of a timber cruck frame has been uncovered) may well date, at least in part, from an earlier century. A succession of these successful farming families dominated land ownership in the village in the 17th and 18th centuries. These included the Sawley and Bradley families, the Tillotson family and a number of branches of the Laycock family. Roger Swire became a land owner in Cononley about 1627 and by the later 18th century his family had come to dominate property ownership in the village.
The Swire Family lived at Cononley Hall from the 17th to the 19th centuries. An existent date stone, evidently moved from its original position and possibly recut bears the date 1683. A second date stone for 1680, probably removed when ancillary buildings were demolished about 1930, is now owned by members of the current Swire family. These facts, in addition to the style of the building, suggest that the oldest part of the present Hall was built in the 1680s for Samuel and Elizabeth Swire. Similar houses in the Airedale often have three gables and the same maybe true of the 17th century Cononley Hall. The cellars may survive from an earlier building on the site. According to John William Moorhouse, who could have been present, during alterations to the building in 1903 a 'secret passage' was found near the large fireplace on the ground floor of 'The Old Hall'. The discovery was linked to an earlier story that a Jacobite kinsman of the then owners, another Samuel and Elizabeth Swire, had escaped from the hall through such a passage in 1745 when pursued by George II's forces. The passage, perhaps useable by a desperate man, is likely to be the substantial stone walled water conduit seen by Trevor Hodgson in the late 20th century. Samuel and Elizabeth's second son, John, born in 1737, would be the grandfather of his namesake who established the internationally known business of John Swire & Sons in the early 19th century. Their elder son, Roger, born in 1735, probably lived to oversee the rebuilding of Cononley Hall before his death in 1778. The western wing of the old house was retained but a new taller classically proportioned building was erected beside it. Unfortunately Roger's son and grandson would only enjoy the new building for relatively short periods. In 1837 Cononley Hall was sold and, after a succession of owners and uses, was divided into three houses in 1911.
Roger Swire (1735–78) was the principal beneficiary of the enclosure of Cononley Moor in 1768. The enclosure completed a process which had been underway in Cononley for centuries and which removed the last common land available to smallholders with little land of their own. Another major beneficiary was Richard Wainman of Carr Head in Cowling, who was a descendant of the above-mentioned Bradley family. However, a number of farmers received uneconomical, and often poorly situated, allocations as a result of the enclosure and were forced to sell their land to the larger landowners. This process added to the increasing number of breadwinners who were skilled tradesmen or handloom weavers.