Laycock, West Yorkshire

Laycock is a small village in the Bradford District of West Yorkshire that overlooks the hamlet of Goose Eye. The village is 1.9 miles (3 km) west of the town of Keighley and 1.2 miles (2 km) north of Oakworth village.[1] The village is in the council ward of Keighley West.[2]

Laycock

Looking eastwards with Laycock Lane on the left and Green Scar Lane on the right
Laycock
Location within West Yorkshire
OS grid referenceSE0340
Metropolitan borough
Metropolitan county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townKeighley
Postcode districtBD22
Dialling code01535
PoliceWest Yorkshire
FireWest Yorkshire
AmbulanceYorkshire

History

Laycock is mentioned in the Domesday Book as having two Carucates of land and was originally part of the Oakworth township, before becoming part of Keighley in the 13th century.[3] The name Laycock is the same as Lacock, which derives from the Old English meaning, stream or watercourse; Laycock village is on Laycock Beck, which feeds into North Beck a tributary of the River Worth.[4]

The village is the setting for William Sharp (also known as Old Three Laps) who was jilted by his bride in 1807. He apparently took to his bed in Whorles Farm near to Laycock for the rest of his life, which ended 49 years later in 1856.[5] One local historian said that Sharp was a victim of an age when mental illness and its treatment was not well understood.[6]

In his book Through Airedale from Goole to Malham, Speight mentions that Laycock is one of the handful of locations throughout Airedale where the village had a Maypole. The rite of dancing around the Maypole was rescinded in an act put through Parliament by Charles I in 1644, where it was labeled as "a heathenish vanity."[7]

Laycock overlooks the hamlet of Goose Eye, which is just south of the village.[8] Goose Eye is famous for its independent brewery and pub.[9] Like many places in this region (Bingley, Haworth for example) the two villages have a selection of cobbled (or "setted") roads.[10]

TLC buses operate a circular service from Keighley through to Stanbury and Haworth which passes through Laycock. This runs to just four services per day Monday to Saturday with no service on Sundays.[11]

Laycock has a primary school on Laycock Lane (the main road through the village) which was rated as 'Good' by Ofsted in 2014.[12] There are just under 100 pupils at the school with an age range of 4-11.[13] The village hall was built in 1927 and regularly hosted the Bronte Blues Club events[14] between 2007 and 2015. The Blues club events attracted many famous names over the years such as Andy Fairweather-Low, Doug MacLeod, Hamilton Loomis and Sherman Robinson.[15]

See also

References
  1. "104" (Map). Leeds & Bradford. 1:50,000. Landranger. Ordnance Survey. 2016. ISBN 978-0-319-26202-3.
  2. Sillitoe, Neil (14 April 2008). "Detect browser settings". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 12 January 2017.
  3. Blythe, Kathryn (November 2008). "Land at Braithwaite, Keighley, West Yorkshire" (PDF). thehumanjourney.net. Oxford Archaeology North. p. 10. Retrieved 11 January 2017.
  4. Ekwall, Eilert (1960). The concise Oxford dictionary of English place-names (4 ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 283, 284, 290. OCLC 400936.
  5. "Spurned Bridegroom Who Took to his Bed for 49 Years". Northern Life Magazine. 5 September 2015. Retrieved 11 January 2017.
  6. Knights, David (24 April 2015). "Truth about Keighley eccentric Old Three Laps revealed by his descendant". Keighley News. Retrieved 11 January 2017.
  7. Speight, Harry (1891). "Folk-Lore". Through Airedale from Goole to Malham. Leeds: Walker & Laycock. p. liii. OCLC 5824116.
  8. "Goose Eye & Laycock conservation area assessment" (PDF). bradford.gov.uk. Bradford Council. October 2005. p. 4. Retrieved 12 January 2017.
  9. "Laycock, near Haworth, West Yorkshire". www.bronte-country.com. Retrieved 11 January 2017.
  10. "Goose Eye & Laycock conservation area assessment" (PDF). bradford.gov.uk. Bradford Council. October 2005. pp. 15–17. Retrieved 12 January 2017.
  11. "916 Keighley to Stanbury cirular clockwise & anticlockwise" (PDF). wymetro.com. Metro. 1 September 2013. Retrieved 11 January 2017.
  12. "laycock Primary School". reports.ofsted.gov.uk. Ofsted. 5 November 2010. Retrieved 11 January 2017.
  13. Yates, Geoff (25 June 2014). "Laycock Primary School" (PDF). ofsted.gov.uk. Ofsted. p. 8. Retrieved 11 January 2017.
  14. "Laycock village hall gets facelift". Keighley News. 17 January 2008. Retrieved 11 January 2017.
  15. Knights, David (9 July 2015). "Brontë Blues Club bows out after eight years bringing international stars to Keighley". Keighley News. Retrieved 11 January 2017.
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