Haworth

HAWORTH, a chapelry, in the parish of Bradford, union of Keighley, wapentake of Morley, W. riding of York, 3 miles (S. W.) from Keighley; containing 6303 inhabitants. The chapelry is situated on the brow of a hill, in a high moorland district, extending on the west to the county of Lancaster, and comprises by computation 10,540 acres, of which nearly one-half is uncultivated heath. It comprehends the manors of Haworth, Oxenhope, and Stanbury. The surface is boldly varied, and the lower grounds are watered by rivulets descending from the moorland hills, and flowing through narrow valleys of romantic character. On the banks of these streams are numerous worsted-mills, in which the population is chiefly employed; many persons are engaged in the hand-loom weaving of worsted stuffs, and there is also an extensive cotton-mill. The village is of ancient origin, and has one spacious street, from which several smaller streets diverge. Fairs for cattle are held on Easter-Monday, and the Monday after Old Michaelmasday, and are well attended. The chapel, dedicated to St. Michael, appears to have been founded prior to the year 1317; it was rebuilt in the reign of Henry VII., and enlarged in 1755, and a gallery was added in 1779: it is a neat structure in the later English style, with a square embattled tower rising to the height of sixty feet. The living is a perpetual curacy; net income, £170, with a glebe-house; patrons, the Vicar of Bradford, and certain Trustees. A church district named Oxenhope was endowed in 1845 by the Ecclesiastical Commission; and a church has been erected at Stanbury, which is in the gift of the Incumbent of Haworth. There are places of worship for Baptists, Wesleyans, and Primitive Methodists. The free grammar school was founded by Charles Scott, who in 1638 built a school-house, and assigned lands now producing £90 per annum, for instructing children in the Greek and Latin classics; the trustees, in 1818, enlarged the schoolroom, and built a house for the master. There is also a school, with a house for a master, at Stanbury, built in 1815, by subscription, and endowed with £600 by John Holmes, Esq. On Crow Hill, the loftiest eminence in the chapelry, 1500 feet above the level of the sea, is a cromlech, evidently Druidical, consisting of one flat stone weighing about six tons, placed horizontally upon two huge upright blocks, now half embedded in the heather.