Airedale is a geographic area in Yorkshire, England, corresponding to the river valley or dale of the River Aire.
The valley stretches from the river's origin in Aire Head Springs, Malham which is in the Yorkshire Dales, down past Skipton on to Keighley, Bingley and Shipley through to Leeds and Castleford and on to join the River Ouse at Airmyn.
This valley is of great topographic significance as it provides low-altitude passes through the mid Pennines to the west coast known as the Aire Gap.
The upper Aire valley was formed 12,000 years ago by a retreating glacier. A moraine formed in the Cononley area and the lake stretched as far north as Gargrave. Colonisation by man developed later on, especially during the Iron Age. The peoples that occupied the Aire Valley (and much of north eastern England) were called Brigantes by the Romans.
Transport improved in the 18th and 19th centuries with the building of the Aire and Calder Navigation and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. The railways arrived from the 1830s onwards and during the twentieth century the roads were vastly improved in the valley.
Airedale was formerly wholly within the West Riding of Yorkshire, right from Malhamdale, the source of the river, to Airmyn, where the river joins the Ouse. After the Boundary changes of 1974, Airedale starts off in what is now North Yorkshire. Airmyn is now in the East Riding of Yorkshire.
The upper valley is characterised by the beautiful landscape of the Yorkshire Dales (Malhamdale is just inside the Yorkshire Dales National Park). The part of the dale from Skipton to Knottingley is heavily industrialised and continues in that vein today despite many mill closures. The East Yorkshire section of the dale is flatter and more agricultural than the upper sections. From Aire Springs the river flows past Skipton and Keighley, through Bingley, Saltaire, Shipley and into Leeds. Up until this point the river is essentially swift flowing and fed by streams and becks. Thereafter, the flow through Castleford and Knottingley out to Airmyn is a meandering course through a broad floodplain.
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The City of Bradford Metropolitan District (ˈbrædfərd), commonly called the Bradford, is a local government district of West Yorkshire, England, with the status of a city and metropolitan borough. It is named after its largest settlement, Bradford, but covers a large area which includes the towns and villages of Keighley, Shipley, Bingley, Ilkley, Haworth, Silsden, Queensbury, Thornton and Denholme. Bradford has a population of 528,155, making it the fourth-most populous metropolitan district and the sixth-most populous local authority district in England.
Bingley is a market town and civil parish in the metropolitan borough of the City of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, on the River Aire and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, which had a population of 18,294 at the 2011 Census. Bingley railway station is in the town centre and Leeds Bradford International Airport is away. The B6265 connects Bingley to Keighley. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, Bingley appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Bingheleia". Bingley was probably founded by the Saxons, by a ford on the River Aire.
Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is governed by a metropolitan borough named after the city, the wider county having devolved powers. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. The city was a small manorial borough in the 13th century and a market town in the 16th century. It expanded by becoming a major production centre, including of carbonated water where it was invented in the 1760s, and trading centre (mainly with wool) for the 17th and 18th centuries.