Hullen Edge
As you travel down Blackley Road you’ll notice the carved cornerstone ‘Hullen Edge 1859’ at the corner of Mucky Lane. It’s something of a mystery. Who put it there and why? Unfortunately the local papers for 1859 shed no light. There’s much discussion throughout the year about repairs to St. Mary’s clock; a new telegraph at Elland Railway Station; the August Fair; an outbreak of smallpox; the Local Board’s lack of funds to provide adequate drainage for parts of the town; and three children who disappeared overnight and were found unharmed in a field at Ainley Top.
Luckily from other records it transpires that Abraham Hirst, who lived at Hullen Edge Hall, commissioned the inscription. It does seem a strange place for an ornate stone and not located in an area that we would consider to be Hullen Edge; however other stones were sited at Rawroyds, Holywell Brook & Ravenstone but these were dated 1854 and all marked the boundary of Mr. Hirst’s estate. There’s a poem that ends:-
‘The name of HIRST to it will justly cling,
For wealth with liberal hand he there bestows,
And this fair spot to him its beauty owes.’
When Abraham Hirst died in 1866 his family dedicated a window to him at St. Mary’s Church.
The name Hullen Edge has evolved from Hollingegge (14th century) to Hollyngage (16th century) then Holinedge. It translates to ‘the edge where holly grows’. The oldest property in the area is, of course. Hullen Edge Hall. According to Albert Rinder there is a deed dated 1316 that mentions Hugh de Hollingegge. The hall was rebuilt by Thomas Savile (1395-1457) and occupied by five generations of his family. The land went up for auction in 1844 – 76 acres, 1 rood & 21 perches – and the lot included recognisable names as Broomfield, Ravenstone and Hammerstone Leach Lane. The present hall was rebuilt in 1890 and the Elizabethan wing was torn down, which some considered vandalism. The Saviles continued to own land in the area because they donated the park to the people of Elland in the 1887 and Elland Cricket Club bought the freehold of their ground from the Savile Estate in 1932.
The old maps indicate that Hammerstones Road was originally called Workhouse Lane. There’s still a Workhouse Lane further down at Nab End. Not surprisingly the workhouse was sited there until it closed in 1840.
Just off Hullen Road there’s the ginnel that runs down to Recreation Lane. This ginnel was originally the shortcut for folk travelling from Stainland to Elland. It was known as the Stainland Stile, which ran from what we know as Hammerstones Road then down through The Rec then diagonally through what is now The Park finishing at a stile towards Long Wall. This is well before Victoria Road/ Townfields Lane and the only routes available to Elland from Stainland were via Blackley and South Lane (very circuitous) or down Workhouse Lane and along Nab End to Long Wall so it makes perfect sense to cut a path.
David J. Glanfield
Greater Elland Historical Society
