Name and economy

The name of this valley and village is a simplification and Great Vowel Shift sound shift from s(h)cep(e) den(e) (sheep dene). A brief mention in Edward III of England's Calendar of Close Rolls has the place as Shipen.^[1] It has, as manorial records equally attest, long been farmed. In the many centuries of the main English wool trade the manor prospered from wool production, with incident (largely subsistence) crop farming and offshoot lamb and mutton meat produce.

Halifax's own, chief, highly skilled manufacture of wool products began in 1414 ascribed to the settlement of certain emigrants from the Spanish Netherlands, who sought refuge from the persecutions under the government of the Duke of Alva. At this time there were about 13 houses in Halifax, but it soon began to increase in extent and population; in 1540 it contained 520 houses, and it has progressively advanced to its 18th century and early 19th century level of importance, as one of the main global sites of woollen manufacture (woollen-cloths, kerseymeres, shags, coatings, baizes, carpets, shalloons, tammies, corduroys, calimancoes, everlastings, moreens, crapes, bombasines, and damasks).^[2]

Under the manor park passes an early 19th century-built regular line rail tunnel. At a similar time parts of the wider manorial land were dug for underlying coal seams, which after some stealing from the owner were successfully tapped by contractors appointed by landowner, entrepreneur and private diarist Anne Lister (1791–1841) of Shibden Hall, after whom a local nickname of the time "Gentleman Jack" arose. Then in the 21st century a prominent book and a BBC six-part drama (Gentleman Jack) of that name were made, after an earlier two-part drama featuring Maxine Peake (The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister), with associated modern folk song.

In 1600 a house with lands straddling Northowram and Shibden passed from Richard Northend to his kinsmen of the same surname (with usual fines being paid to the Crown).^[3]

Ecclesiastically in the Church of England it remains an eastern manor (with hamlet) in parishes of Halifax, which Minster church is the place of worship for the northern corners of the park and few adjoining buildings,^[4] including petrol service station which proliferate beyond Shibden Brook to the east, but which marks the western limit of Northowram (but not of Southowram to the south, being on the Shibden side of that powerful brook). Most of the buildings are today in the Halifax daughter parish of St Anne-in-the-Grove, Halifax, the church of which is in Southowram.^[5] The brook has been dammed and tapped much further north for a reservoir.

Local government

The land was part of the County Borough of Halifax (formed 1889) until its 1974 abolition.^[6]