CALVERLEY, a parish in the wapentake of MORLEY,
West riding of the county of YORK, comprising the
chapelries of Idle and Pudsey, and the townships of Bolton,
and Calverley with Farsley, and containing 14,134
inhabitants, of which number, 2605 are in the township
of Calverley with Farsley, 4-§ miles (N. E.) from Bradford.
The living is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry
and diocese of York, rated .in the king's books at
£9. 11. 10., endowed with £200 private benefaction,
and £200 royal bounty, and in the patronage of the
Crown. The church is dedicated to St. Wilfrid. There
is a small endowment for the instruction of children.
At Apperley Bridge, in a most delightful part of Airedale,
is a noble mansion, appropriated as a school, on the
principle of that at Kingswood in Gloucestershire, for
the education of the sons of Methodist ministers; it was
established, in 1812, under the .superintendence of the
Rev. Miles Martindale, and the number is limited to
seventy-two. Many of the inhabitants are employed in the
woollen trade. This place is memorable as the scene of a
most inhuman murder, committed in 1605, by Walter
Calverley, on his two infant sons, William and Walter,
aggravated by his attempt to assassinate his wife also,
for which he was executed, by being pressed to death,
having on his trial refused to plead; this barbarous
outrage was made the subject of the " Yorkshire Tragedy,"
erroneously ascribed to Shakspeare.