Aisled Houses in the Halifax Area

Abstract

The houses with which this paper is concerned belong to the small segment of the eastern slopes of the Pennines known as the ‘Ancient Parish of Halifax’. It is not known when the ‘Ancient Parish’ was formed but the first recorded vicar of Halifax was inducted in 1274 and in that same year the Wakefield Manor Courts ceased to meet in Sowerby Town and made Halifax their centre.The Ancient Parish covers ten miles of the valley of the river Calder and its tributaries, Halifax itself lying on the Hebble. The area is bleak; it lies, all except the extreme eastern part, on Millstone Grit and rises from a height of some 200 feet above sea level in the valley to an altitude of 1,400 feet. The old settlements mostly lie on the sloping hillsides at an average height of 700 feet.