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Rastrick, Calderdale — Ancient Village Roots, Historic Mills and Railway Heritage

Rastrick, beside Brighouse, has a history reaching back to the Domesday Book of 1086, when the settlement was recorded as Rastric. Long before the surrounding area became a busy industrial landscape, Rastrick was a rural community of farms, old lanes and substantial houses. Its historic centre still preserves traces of that earlier village around Church Street, Thornhill Road and Crowtrees Lane.

The village’s fortunes changed with the growth of the textile industry. Woollen and cotton mills, stone quarries and other industries brought jobs and a rising population during the nineteenth century. Rastrick Mill, a former corn mill beside the River Calder, was recorded as far back as 1307, linking the area to an even earlier tradition of water-powered industry.

Railways added another chapter. The Manchester and Leeds Railway opened a station at Rastrick on 5 October 1840, helping connect the district to the wider industrial region. Today, old buildings, historic churches and local records preserve the story of a village transformed by industry while retaining its own identity beside Brighouse.

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