User:Hideaway Bob/sandbox

Location
Warland is a hamlet in the civil parish of Todmorden in the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England, though historically in Lancashire and straddling the modern boundary with Greater Manchester. It lies along the A6033 Keighley to Littleborough road in the Walsden Valley, a branch of the Upper Calder Valley, and is 3.1 mi south of Todmorden and 2.6 mi north of Littleborough. The Rochdale Canal passes through Warland, with Sustrans national route 66 running along its towpath. At 600 feet (200m) above sea level, Summit Pound in Warland is England's highest broad canal reach.

History
Walsden Valley was created at the end of the last Ice Age by melt waters rushing from the Lake District eastward. The large sand cliff at Chelburn, just south, shows a section through the glacial deposits. Warland has been settled since the Stone Age and a camp site from that time has been found and verified by Manchester University. At that time, the area was a forest, as shown by the birch and oak trees preserved in the moorland’s peat bogs.

Prime sites along the valley sides, such as Warland Farm, have been continually occupied since then. Perched on bedrock ledges below the windy moor and above the impassable valley-bottom swamp, farmers worked with the land for centuries. These “trans-humance” farms moved their stock up onto the moor in summer, mowed the water meadows for winter feed and worked their coppices and borrow-pits for materials. Exotic goods arrived on pack horses over the moorland tracks, many of which are still paved. The valley has always been important to trans-Pennine trade because it is the most sheltered route in the winter.

New inventions like staircases and fireplaces arrived five hundred years ago, when timber house frames were replaced with the stone walls seen today. Cottages were added as the families grew but farming methods changed little. (Warland Water Meadow was last mown around 1985, using a horse-drawn mower and a hand baling machine!) During the Wars of the Roses, this valley saw many skirmishes between the Roundheads and the Royalists. Allegedly, Cromwell sent a caravan of seven mules loaded with treasure up from Littleborough to pay his troops. After an ambush at Warland, only six mules were retrieved. Canon balls and pike heads have already been unearthed.

The industrial revolution changed everything, of course. The Rochdale Canal made the valley accessible and passable. Warland Quarry sent out stone to the great cities; the farmers could grow wealthy supplying products like milk and pork to the new and growing populations nearby. Walsden Water was harnessed to drive the fustian mill behind Warland House and the stone saw in the quarry. A contract between the residents and the canal company was needed to make sure the water power was evenly shared. Multi-storey terraces like Claremont and Woodbank had to be built to house workers arriving from all over the country. George Stephenson’s railway engineers dug the (then) longest and highest tunnel in the world past Warland, leaving their mark in the ambitious, castellated walling nearby and hills bare of trees. The pack horse tracks fell into disuse when the road pushed through the valley floor; the old inns had to move down, too, to keep their trade alive at Summit and Warland. It’s hard to imagine the upheaval of local lives and the visual changes these activities brought.

The Twentieth Century saw the decline of Warland as a place of industry to become mainly a commuter dormitory. The land could not support the modern population in their new lifestyles so other businesses have to bring in cash as the farming contributions have dwindled. The mill has returned to nature; the tar works and chemical works have been dismantled; the reservoir road has been abandoned by the water companies and the poor old pub has closed its doors to become a dwelling. Today, as the scars of industry fade, Warland has been defended from the developers and is once again a handsome place. It sits in an area with world-class facilities for outdoor activities including walking, rock-climbing, on- and off-road cycling and horse-riding. We have excellent transport services and there are several interesting, innovative towns nearby where interest in local culture and good food are growing.

Etymology
The origins of the name "Warland" are not clear. Skirmishes along the valley during the Wars of the Roses give rise to the most popular theory. However, the term warland was used in the Domesday Book to indicate land outside a lord's demesne. Thus Warland may have a similar meaning to that attributed to nearby Walsden—the land of the outsiders or foreigners.