Calverley is a rural village with a
medieval manor house,
Calverley Old Hall, which dates back to the 14th century and was home to the Calverley family. In 1605 the landowner,
Walter Calverley, went insane and murdered some of his children in
Calverley Hall. He refused to plead and was ordered to be
pressed to death, a method used to try to force a confession. He died without confessing his crime in order to ensure that his estate was not taken from his remaining family. Houses in the village are mostly constructed of
sandstone, darkened by the soot of the
Industrial Revolution, though there are brick buildings to the south of the original village. The
Anglican parish church
St Wilfrid's has parts dating from the 11th or 12th century. The tower was added and increased in the 13th to 15th century. The
Methodist church beside Victoria Park opened in 1872. Both churches are
Grade II listed buildings. Calverley Cutting, a straight road which was intended to replace the old winding packhorse way through the woods between Carr Road in Calverley and
Apperley Bridge, was cut through the local sandstone rock by 1856. It was meant to be part of a scheme to develop the area for luxurious residential purposes which, however, failed. Local residents objected to the closure of the old route because the new road proved to be very steep.
Calverley and Rodley railway station on the line of the former
Leeds and Bradford Railway was opened in 1846, closed to passengers in 1965 and to freight in 1968. In 1931 the parish had a population of 3655. == Governance ==