Roads and bridges

Public rights of way

A key element in the mercantile development of the Calder valley was the distribution of home industry and the essential network of trackways that were built up to connect the various suppliers and traders both in and out of the valley.

Much of this network still remains in the dense concentration of public rights of way in the borough; at around 850 miles of pathway, Calderdale has a longer length of public rights of way (excluding access land) than any other borough in the UK. Some are no more than paths between farmhouses, while others are more substantial ‘causey tracks', so named because of the flat stone flags or causeys with which they were paved. Still others are even more substantial, making their way through the hills in ‘holloways’, or ‘dark lanes’, as they are frequently known locally.

One of the most impressive of these early paths is a zigzag of wide cobbled tracks which climbs up Beacon Hill from below Halifax Parish Church (now known as Halifax Minster). See From Weaver to Web: Halifax from the Beacon Hill .

Beside it at one time, was a holy well, another factor indicating the age and importance of the route. On the other side of Beacon Hill, it descends the Southowram hillside as Dark Lane - the name derives from the shade provided by the high banks on either side, in some places 12ft high.

There are also several instances of ‘London roads’ around the valley, indicating how Calderdale’s trackways linked into a known trade network that covered the country from capital to province.

Wherever they ran, because of the cottage industry nature of the valley’s economy, these paths should be seen as workers’ routes, the precursors of commuter networks. The tracks were walked, or traversed by packhorses – generally the small but sturdy pony known as the Galloway - in caravan.

The furrows worn on the causey stones show how well they were used, and before the motor car the hills would have swarmed with people going about their business on the arterial routes of the clothing trade.