CONONLEY is a township, which together with Bradley was formed in 1871 into an ecclesiastical parish from that of Kildwick, from which it is distant 2 miles west, 3 ½ south-east from Skipton and 6 miles north-west from Keighley, in the Northern division of the Riding, east division of Staincliffe and Ewcross wapentake, Skipton union, petty sessional division and county court district, rural deanery of south Craven, archdeaconry of Craven and diocese of Ripon. The Midland railway has a station at Cononley, which is situate on the river Aire. The church of St. John is a small stone building, consisting of chancel and nave, with a bell-cot at the west end, containing 1 bell, and was erected in 1866. The register dates from that year. The living is a vicarage, yearly value £125, in the gift of Christ Church, Oxford and held by the Rev. James Wynn of St. Bees. There are chapels for Wesleyan Methodists, Baptists, Primitive Methodists, The Brethren and the Free Church. There is also a Primitive Methodist chapel at Bradley. Here are lead mines belonging to and worked by the Duke of Devonshire, the agent for Which resides at Carleton; weaving is also carried on to some extent. The Duke of Devonshire is lord of the manor. James Lund esq. J.P. of Malsis Hall, is the chief landowner. The land is chiefly pasture. The soil is sand; subsoil, stone and gravel.

The area of Cononley is 1,454 acres; gross estimated rental £3,906; rateable value, £3,581 4s.; area of Bradley 1,951; population of the former in 1871, 1,012; and of the latter, 487; rateable value, £2,656 6s. 4d.; the area of the ecclesiastical parish is 3,285; population in 1871 was 1,461.

Schools

National, Alfred Hoyle, master; Mrs. Martha HoyIe mistress; Miss Elgive Redcliff, infants’ mistress.

Wesleyan, Bradley, Thomas smith, master.