Early History of Elland.
The Calder Valley leading into the western hills provided one of the moest direct routes through the Pennines, over Blackstone Edge from Elland to Rochdale, providing the Romans with the links between York (Eboracum), Manchester (Mamucium) and Chester (Deva) as one of the lifelines of their military occupation. There was, of course, a further Roman route lying to the south over Old Lindley Moor which linked Outland Slack and Castleshaw Forts over Standedge, and from there passed just north of Ashton-under-Lyne and on to Manchester - see map. An altar, discovered at Greetland in 1951 and dated about AD 205, provides evidence of Roman activity in the locality of Elland.
The Pennines within the area enclosed between these routes, however, shows signs of the movements and settlements of ancient Britons before the Roman occupation emphasising the importance of the strategic routes through the hills for defence, in the traffic in salt and flints, and much later, after the departure of the Romans, in the travels of itinerant missionaries and shepherds and others going to market. One important mediaeval route developed from Elland Old Hall over Denshaw to Oldham and Ashton past Delph. These three Pennine crossings - Blackstone Edge, Denshaw and Standedge remain the important road routes up to the present time.
One of the latest accounts of Elland's earliest history can be found in the Doomsday Book, where we can learn that the English thane to whom the manor of Elland belonged was one Gamel. It is likely that this same Gamel held twelve manors in Yorkshire, and among them that of Bradford, where, no doubt, he had his chief estate. Among his other lands were Thornhill, Quarmby and Gomersal. It is thought that Gamel may have continued to hold Elland at least after the Norman conquest, as a sub-tenant of the Norman owner, as a Gamel, son of Ukil, gave lands there to Fountains Abbey; a grant which was afterwards confirmed by the family of de Eland, who co-jointly with the Lacey's of Cromwell Bottom, as if representing co-heiresses, held the manor of Rochdale, which at the time of the Doomsday survey was still in the possession of Gamel of Thane. Besides continuing to hold land as a vassel in Elland, which he had formerly held as Thane, Gamel also retained in a similar manner two carucates of land in Rochdale under the Norman seigneur who had superceded him there - Roger de Poitou. In Saxon times there were three kinds of Thanes, distinguished by the manner in which they held their lands. Those of the highest importance held their names direct from the King, as was the case with Gamel. It is interesting to note that in the 12th century the Eland family appears in the district as Lords of Elland and Rochdale, and that they are thought to have been descendants of Gamel.
In 1068, after the insurrection of Cospatric, Earl of Northumberland, and the people of the north, assisted by Edgar Atheling, who was received by them at York, William the Conquerer marched northwards, devastating the country, and his soldiers laid waste, amongst numerous other places, the townships of Elland and Southowram. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 'St.Peter's Minster (York) he made a profantion, and all other places he despoiled and trampled on'. He passed the winter in the north, and "he ordered the towns and fields of the whole district to be laid waste; the fruits and grains to be destroyed by fire or water ... thus the resources of a once flourishing province were cut cut off by fire, slaughter and devastation, and the ground for more than sixty miles, totally uncultivated and unproductive, remains bare to the present day". The entry in the Doomsday Book is as follows:
"In Eland Gamel had three and a half carucates of land for geld, where two ploughs may be. Ilbert has it now and it is waste. The land in the time of King Edward was worth 20 shillings. Wood, pasturable, half a league in length, and four quarenteons in breadth, and four acres of meadow."
If as was the case in Northowram, the carucate equaled 112 acres, there were 382 statute acres across arable land in Elland prior to the Norman conquest. The value of the ploughed land is given as worth 20 shillings, which indicates that the geld or tax payable to King Edward the Confessor would have been quite a considerable sum by present-day standards and tends to highlight the terrible destruction wrought by William and his soldiers in 1068.
The Ilbert mentioned in the Doomsday entry was that powerful cheif Ilbert de Lacy, whose services to the Norman Conquerer must have been of a most valuable kind seeing they were repaid by the grant of so great a domain as that which afterwards constituted the Honour of Pontefract, wherin Elland was included. It would seem that this gift was made in 1067, as appears by a charter of his son Robert. The great domain given in Yorkshire consisted of 204 manors. Having acquired this wide territory he soon fixed upon an elevated site convenient to Watling Street - the great north road - and not far (3 miles) from where it crossed the Aire, for his castle, and named it Pomfret.
The date at which the successors of Ilbert de Lacy granted the Manor of Elland to the Elands has not been ascertained. One of the first of this family of whom there is record is Henry de Eland, of the time of King John (1202), when by the leagal process known as fine, Alice, who was the wife of Henry de Eland, claimed her dower against Robert de Sandal and others, and a grant was made to her of two oxgangs of land (about 32 acres) in Eland, which Orms de Eland and Henry the Greave held. The Elands, like other feudal landowners of those days, were from time to time benefactors to the monastries. henry de Eland also gave to the Monks of Fountains the right of pasture sufficient for feeding 200 sheep in Uveren (Southowram) and Exley.
In 1293, when Edward I ruled this land, another Hugh de Eland gave his daughter Margaret in marriage to John Lacey, and gave with her as dowry the manor of Southowram, which became detached from Elland. Hugh, however, reserved Exley and some land in Siddal, including Backall, and the tenants there remained tenants of the Elands and of the manor of Elland, and were not handed over to the Lacy's. The Cromwell-Bottoms, who seem to have had a little manor of their own in connection with old Cromwell-Bottom Hall, which was dependant on that of Elland, managed to hold their own for a few years longer. The Lacey's. however, tried to make out that the lands belonging to Cromwell-Bottom had been granted to them by Hugh de Eland, and finally became possessed of that manor as well as Southowram.
In the 32nd Edward I (1303 or 1304), the King granted to Hugh de Eland free warren in all his lands in Elland and Tankersley, and in the 10th Edward II (1316 or 1317), the King, at the request of John, Earl of Warren, granted to John de Eland a free market at his manor of Elland and two fairs lasting six days, one on the vigil and day of St. Barnabas the Apostle, and the other on the vigil of St. Peter ad Vincula. A charter stating the conditions of the grant ran as follows:
"Charter Roll for a market and two fairs at Elland, AD 1317. For John de Eland. The King to the Archbishop, etc., greeting, and know ye that we, at the requisition of our beloved and faithful kinsman, John de Warrenne, Earl of Surry, have granted and by this Charter confirmed to our beloved and faithful John de Eland, that he and his heirs for ever may have one market every week, during the day, on Tuesday, at his manor of Eland, in the County of York, and two fairs at the same place every year, lasting through six days; one, to wit, on the day before the eve, on the eve, and on the day of St. Barnabas, the Apostle; and on the other on the day before the eve, on the eve, and on the day of St. Peter ad Vincula,unless that market and those fairs be to the injury of neighbouring market and neighbouring fairs. Wherefore we will and strictly enjoin, on behalf of us and our heirs, that the aforesaid John and his heirs for ever may have the aforesaid market and fairs at his manor aforesaid together with all liberties and free customs to a market and fairs of this kind belonging, unless that market and these fairs, etc, as is aforesaid".
Hence it seems that by this time Elland had become quite an important little town.