Godley, Halifax — The Great Cutting and the Road to Shibden
Godley is a historic locality in the Shibden area, east of Halifax town centre. Its story is closely connected with the difficult routes into Halifax and the engineering works that transformed travel through the steep surrounding landscape.
The most distinctive landmark is Godley Cutting, constructed between 1824 and 1830 under a turnpike improvement scheme. Cutting through the rocky hillside and building an embankment across the Shibden Valley created a more practical route towards Stump Cross. The diarist Anne Lister reportedly described the undertaking as “a stupendous feat”. Today, the route forms part of the A58.
Godley Bridge is another landmark with a story of its own. The original narrow stone bridge crossed the cutting when the road opened in 1830. It was replaced by the present iron bridge, designed by Halifax Borough Engineer E. R. S. Escott and opened on 26 June 1900. Its greater height allowed trams to pass beneath, reflecting the expansion of Halifax’s public transport network at the turn of the twentieth century.
Godley also connects with the older landscape around Shibden Hall, historic lanes and the medieval route known as Wakefield Gate. These surviving features reveal how road building gradually changed the approach to Halifax, replacing difficult tracks with engineered roads while leaving traces of earlier routes nearby. Historic photographs of Godley help record these changes, capturing the cutting, bridge and surrounding valley as the area evolved.
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Contemporary descriptions and later summaries give a clear sense of its impact:
- Around 60 feet high at its deepest
- About 44 feet wide
- Roughly ¾ of a mile long
It was described at the time as “one of the most stupendous of its kind in England.”Who built it, and when?
The cutting was constructed by the Leeds and Halifax Turnpike Trust between 1824 and 1830, following the Turnpike Act.
The contractors were Rhodes & Leadbetter of Leeds, and the works were carried out on land purchased from Anne Lister.
Around 40 men were employed in the construction.What routes did it replace?
Godley Cutting didn’t just improve a road — it changed the way Halifax was approached.
It replaced:
- The mediæval Wakefield Gate route into the town
- The later Halifax Old Road / Shibden Hall Road route of the 1700s
In effect, it created a purpose-built corridor through difficult ground, designed for the transport needs of a growing industrial district.The Stump Cross Inn and the reshaped landscape
The works also altered local landmarks.
- The original Stump Cross Inn stood on the site of the embankment
- A new Stump Cross Inn opened at the present site
(See also: the Museum, Stump Cross.)
Where did all the excavated earth go?
A key detail in how the project was engineered is what happened to the spoil.
Earth dug out to create the cutting was dumped further down the valley to raise the level of the road as it dipped towards Stump Cross. So the scheme was both a cutting and a major embankment job — shifting the landscape in two directions at once.Accidents recorded by Anne Lister (1829)
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The cutting’s sheer depth made it dangerous while under construction.
In her diary for 13th April 1829, Anne Lister noted:
- “3 accidents in the new Godley road. A young men has fallen into the gulf and was almost killed [Sunday, 29th March 1829]. 2 elderly men fell in and were killed [Monday 30th March 1829]”
These lines capture how raw and hazardous the site still was — and why locals referred to it as a “gulf.”A later fatal fall (1856)
The danger did not end with completion.
In January 1856, Charles Stead (aged 66) died after falling from the top of the cutting. The 1919 landslide that stopped the trams
On 24th December 1919, a landslide caused the retaining wall to collapse, which stopped tram services through the cutting.
It’s a reminder that the engineering challenge wasn’t only in building the cutting — it was also in keeping it stable over time.
Closing note
Godley Cutting remains one of the most striking examples of early 19th-century road engineering around Halifax: a place where transport history, industrial growth, and the personal record of Anne Lister all meet in one steep-sided corridor.
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