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Cottingley, Bradford

Coordinates:53°49′46″N1°49′51″W/ 53.829504°N 1.830787°W/53.829504; -1.830787
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Cottingley
Cottingley is located in West Yorkshire
Cottingley
Cottingley
Location withinWest Yorkshire
OS grid referenceSE112370
Metropolitan borough
Metropolitan county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townBINGLEY
Postcode districtBD16
Dialling code01274
PoliceWest Yorkshire
FireWest Yorkshire
AmbulanceYorkshire
UK Parliament
List of places
UK
England
Yorkshire
53°49′46″N1°49′51″W/ 53.829504°N 1.830787°W/53.829504; -1.830787

Cottingleyis asuburbanvillage within theCity of Bradforddistrict inWest Yorkshire,England betweenShipleyandBingley.It is known for theCottingley Fairies,which appeared in a series of photographs taken there during the early 20th century.

Etymology[edit]

The village is first mentioned in theDomesday Bookof 1086 asCotingelaiin the wapentake ofSkyrackand the lands of Erneis of Buron.[1]The first element is thepersonal nameCotta(the origin of which is unknown), and the second the suffix-ingasdenoting a group of associated people. Thus theCottingaswere a group descended from or otherwise associated with someone called Cotta. This group name was then compounded with the Old English wordlēah('open land in a wood'). Thus the name once meant 'the clearing of the descendants of Cola'.[2][3]

History[edit]

The village was clustered around the original St Michael's Church,Cottingley Town Halland the Sun Inn. This village was 2.5 miles (4 km) from Bingley, with Cottingley Bridge a mile closer.[4][5][6]

In 1917, two girls, 15-year old Elsie Wright and nine-year old Frances Griffiths, claimed to have photographed fairies in the dell (Cottingley Beck) at the bottom of their garden. This led to theCottingley Fairieshoax, which still resonates in the village into the modern day.[7]The village has a festival to celebrate the story (Cottingley Fairy Fest), and in 1997, parts of a film inspired by the story,FairyTale: A True Story,were filmed in the village.[8][9]

Governance[edit]

Cottingley is part of Bingley Rural Ward on Bradford City Council and part of theParliamentary constituency of Shipley,represented since 2005 by the ConservativePhilip Davies.At the 2011 Census,Bingley Rural Ward,which includesCullingworth,Denholme,HardenandWilsden,had a population of 17,895.[10]

Geography[edit]

Fairies signpost in Cottingley

The village is in the Aire Valley betweenShipleyandBingleyapproximately 330 feet (100 m) above sea level with theRiver Aireto the north.[11]The road through the village has been changed at least twice. Originally, to exit south from Bingley, travellers had to crossIreland BridgethenBeckfoot Bridgeand approach Cottingley on the south side of the river.[12]The bridge across the River Aire leading towards Bingley was built by 1649, when it appears in theBook of Bridges in the Session Rolls of Wakefield.It was recorded in 1664 that "a great floode hath taken away the foundations so that the whole bridge is shrunke."[13]Cottingley Bridge was rebuilt and in the early 19th century, it was a hamlet independent of Cottingley.[14][15]

TheA650 roadis now to the north of Cottingley after a bypass was built and opened in 2003.[16]The land to the east of theB6269is mainly flat and to the west rises to a height of 560 feet (170 m) at March Cote Farm.[11][17]Cottingleybeckcuts a deep, narrow, rocky channel flowing north to the River Aire.[18]

Although the road, railway and theLeeds and Liverpool Canalare on the opposite side of the Aire Valley to Cottingley, Parliament was asked to consider making the Aire Navigable from Cottingley to Shipley.[19]

The village lies onMillstone Gritand there are coal deposits, some bands and seams up to 75 feet (23 m) thick.[20]Old mine shafts litter the fields either side of Cottingley Cliffe Road shown as either Old Coal Pits or Coal pits on the 1852 map, and one is listed asCottingley Moor Bottomas having closed in 1860.[21]

Amenities[edit]

There are two churches in the village; St Mary and St Monica is the Catholic church and the Church of St Michael and All Angels is the Anglican Church.[22]St Michaels and All Angels was part of a regeneration project that spent £4.5 million, which included meeting rooms, a doctor's surgery, nursery and youth facilities and 50 new homes. The project started because a 1960s war memorial had been vandalised, and reports in the press caught the eye of Prince Charles, who came to speak at the grand unveiling.[23][24]

The village has a primary school on Cottingley Moor Road, ratedGoodby OFSTED,[25]and a secondary school,Dixons Cottingley Academy.[26]Cottingley Town Hall, which is nowgrade II listed,celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2015.[27][28]

Notable residents[edit]

  • Dominic Brunt– lived in the house of the Cottingley Fairy hoax in the early 2000s[29]
  • Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths (Cottingley Fairies girls)[30]
  • ProfessorDeborah Dunn-Walters,an immunologist and Professor of Immunology who provided the government with advice during theCOVID-19 pandemic.

Other notes[edit]

  • Cottingley Hallis shown on the 1908 map near the site of Cottingley Manor Park. On the 1852 map it is Cottingley House. (As Cottingley Hall bore the date 1659 RAF (Robert & Anne Ferrand) together with the Knights double cross, Cottingley House and Cottingley Hall are different names for the same property.)[31][18]
  • Cottingley also had a reservoir managed by Cottingley Water Works Co. This is shown above Manor Farm (now March Cote Lane) on the local map of 1908.[6]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^"Cottingley | Domesday Book".opendomesday.org.Retrieved2 March2020.
  2. ^Harry Parkin,Your City's Place-Names: Leeds,English Place-Name Society City-Names Series, 3 (Nottingham: English Place-Name Society, 2017), 39.
  3. ^Ekwall, Eilert (1947).The concise Oxford dictionary of English place-names(3 ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp. 119, 278.OCLC12542596.
  4. ^Langdale, Thomas (1822).A topographical dictionary of Yorkshire: containing the names of all the towns, villages, hamlets, gentlemen's seats, &c. in the county of York.Northallerton: J Langdale. p.262.OCLC963312803.
  5. ^"History of Cottingley, in Bradford and West Riding | Map and description".www.visionofbritain.org.uk.Retrieved2 March2020.
  6. ^ab"Explore georeferenced maps - Map images - National Library of Scotland".maps.nls.uk.Retrieved2 March2020.
  7. ^Clayton, Emma (13 January 2017)."Dark side of Cottingley Fairy hoax - by family of the man who exposed it".Ilkley Gazette.Retrieved2 March2020.
  8. ^Barnett, David (17 July 2017)."Why do so many people still believe in the Cottingley Fairies?".The Telegraph.Retrieved2 March2020.
  9. ^"Fairy Tale: A True Story".bradfordfilmheritage.com.Retrieved2 March2020.
  10. ^UK Census(2011)."Local Area Report – Bingley Rural Ward (as of 2011) (E05001343)".Nomis.Office for National Statistics.Retrieved2 March2020.
  11. ^ab"288" (Map).Bradford & Huddersfield.1:25,000. Explorer. Ordnance Survey. 2015.ISBN9780319244852.
  12. ^Speight 1898,p. 75.
  13. ^Turner 1897,p. 186.
  14. ^"Cottingley bridge - Cottingley; River Aire".discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk.Retrieved2 March2020.
  15. ^"Genuki: In 1822, the following places were in the Parish of Bingley:, Yorkshire (West Riding)".www.genuki.org.uk.Retrieved2 March2020.
  16. ^"Relief road wins top design award".BBC News.29 October 2004.Retrieved2 March2020.
  17. ^Speight 1898,p. 96.
  18. ^abSpeight 1898,p. 345.
  19. ^Journals of the House of Commons 1741 – 1745.London: House Of Commons. 1803. p. 573.
  20. ^Turner 1897,p. 75.
  21. ^"Coal Mines in Yorkshire 1854".www.nmrs.org.uk.Retrieved2 March2020.
  22. ^"St Mary and St Monica (Parish of Our Lady and St Joseph in the Aire Valley) - Cottingley".Diocese of Leeds.Retrieved2 March2020.
  23. ^Wilkinson, Paul (18 September 2008)."Cottingley 'a shining example'".www.churchtimes.co.uk.Retrieved2 March2020.
  24. ^"Prince to rededicate war memorial".BBC News.28 September 2002.Retrieved2 March2020.
  25. ^"Cottingley Village Primary School".ofsted.gov.uk.Retrieved2 March2020.
  26. ^Lowson, Rob (3 July 2018)."Academy chain launches new school and confirms sixth form site".Bradford Telegraph and Argus.Retrieved2 March2020.
  27. ^Historic England."Town Hall (Grade II) (1314305)".National Heritage List for England.Retrieved2 March2020.
  28. ^Tate, Chris (13 March 2015)."Celebrations for 150th anniversary of Cottingley Town Hall".Bradford Telegraph and Argus.Retrieved2 March2020.
  29. ^Clayton, Emma (17 September 2009)."A true story".Bradford Telegraph and Argus.Retrieved2 March2020.
  30. ^Harding, Colin. "Griffiths, Frances".Oxford Dictionary of National Biography(online ed.). Oxford University Press.doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/58057.(Subscription orUK public library membershiprequired.)
  31. ^Turner 1897,pp. 202, 309.

Sources[edit]

External links[edit]

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