Toponymy

Wibsey means "Wibba's island", from the Old English personal name Wibba (possessive -s) + ēg (island, marsh).^[4] Local road-names, such as Harbour Road, support this meaning. An alternative derivation is that wib is a corruption of Old English with, meaning witheys or willows. Wibsey would thus be "willow island".^[5] The terrace of houses in Wibsey called Palm Close, where palm refers to willows rather than the more exotic palm tree would seem to support this theory. Yet another theory has Wibsey as "land or hill of Wigbeort [personal name]".^[5]

Early history

Under the Danelaw Wibsey was in the wapentake of Morley. It became an independent manor under the Normans when it was granted to the de Lacy family. The whole area had been laid waste during the Harrying of the North and it was up to fifty years before it recovered.^[5]

Eventually the manor passed to the Danby family of Farnley, Leeds and was then purchased by the Rookes family of Royds Hall, near Huddersfield and subsumed into a wider estate that also included North Bierley.^[6]

By the 19th century, the main development in Wibsey was centred on Holroyd Hill. Elsewhere, small farm cottages (some of which survive today) were the main residences. They formed a ring around Wibsey Slack, an area of marshland, coal mines and slag heaps, whose existence is remembered today in local place names like Slackside and Slack Bottom Road. In fact, Wibsey remained an isolated, rural community until very late in its existence. It was not incorporated into Bradford until 1899.^[7] As a result, the medieval system of strip farming was a feature of Wibsey's landscape until well into the 19th century, much longer than elsewhere in England. Wibsey's antiquity is still visible today, with certain houses dating back to the early 17th century.^[8]

20th century

An Enclosure Act of 1881 laid the way for the development of modern Wibsey. Wibsey Park, North Bierley Cemetery and Harold Park are all direct results of this Act. Further development occurred in the 1920s and 1930s. Odsal council estate dates from this period, as does the area around St. Paul's Avenue.