This small family-run boutique hotel is situated in Bingley, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom: for sale

Bingley is a market town and civil parish in the metropolitan borough of the City of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, on the River Aire and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, which had a population of 18,294 at the 2011 Census.

Bingley railway station is in the town centre and Leeds Bradford International Airport 10 miles (16 km) away. The B6265 connects Bingley to Keighley.

Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, Bingley appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Bingheleia".

Founding

Bingley was probably founded by the Saxons, by a ford on the River Aire. This crossing gave access to Harden, Cullingworth and Wilsden on the south side of the river.

Bingley's entry in the Domesday Book. 1086 AD

The origins of the name are from the Old English personal name Bynna + ingas ("descendants of") + lēah ("clearing in a forest"). This would mean altogether the "wood or clearing of the Bynningas, the people called after Bynna".

Industrial Revolution

Bingley Five Rise Locks.

Like many towns in the West Riding, Bingley prospered during the Industrial Revolution. The Bingley section of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal was completed in 1774, linking the town with Skipton, and Bradford via the Bradford Canal. The canal passes through the town centre and ascends the side of the valley via the Bingley Five Rise and Bingley Three Rise Locks. Several woollen and worsted mills were built and people migrated from the surrounding countryside to work in them. Many came from further afield such as Ireland in the wake of the Irish Potato Famine. A railway and line goods yard were constructed bringing further trade. The villages of Gilstead and Eldwick became conurbated with Bingley. The Bingley Building Society was also founded in this period.

Damart buildings

Post-industrial

Bingley Teacher Training College opened in 1911 with Helen Wodehouse as principal. The first intake of students was 102 women from in and around the then West Riding of Yorkshire. Before its closure in 1979, the college produced approximately 16,000 teachers.

The Beeching Axe demolished the goods yard, although the station still has trains to Leeds, Bradford, Skipton, Morecambe and Carlisle. The textile mills have largely been closed. The Damart mill still stands and trades in textiles. Since 1995 the tannery, Bingley Mill & Andertons, have been converted into flats. The most cramped and outdated terraced housing was partly replaced with council housing, Bingley Arts Centre and the headquarters of the Bradford & Bingley Building Society. Further council housing was built up the hill towards Gilstead including three tower blocks. In the wake of Margaret Thatcher's reforms of council housing much of the council estate was sold and a substantial portion has been knocked down and rebuilt as private housing. The Bingley Permanent Building Society merged with the Bradford Equitable Building Society to form the Bradford & Bingley Building Society in 1964. It was decided to site the corporate headquarters in Bingley. This brought several thousand jobs to the town, but the building itself did not meet with universal acclaim and was demolished in 2015. The Bradford and Bingley collapsed in the 2008 credit crunch.