Queensbury

West Yorkshire

Queensbury is a village in the Bradford metropolitan district of West Yorkshire.

Victoria Hall, QueensburyHigh Street, QueensburyHoly Trinity Church, QueensburyChapel Street old village green, QueensburyAlbert Road and Queensbury Tavern, QueensburyHigh Street, QueensburyQueensbury is about 4 miles west-south-west of Bradford and 3½ miles north of Halifax.

The extensive village is situated high on the moor on the main route between the two big metropolitan centres.

Queensbury is mostly at an altitude of more than 320 metres (1,060 feet). Together with its high-point outer hamlet of Mountain, itself now the size of some villages, Queensbury is the highest village of its size anywhere in Yorkshire and also across the UK.

One of the village's biggest claims to fame is its brass band of international reknown, the Black Dyke Band. The band was founded in 1855 by the owner of Black Dyke Mills although there had been an even earlier band in the village, which was then known as Queenshead.

Queenshead originally developed as a hamlet on the turnpike road between Bradford and Halifax, opened in 1740. At this near-mid-point between the two large industrial towns was the Queen's Head Inn and the hamlet became named after it.

The expansion of Queenshead in the 19th century owes much to philanthropic mill owner John Foster who established a textile business there. He expanded by building the Black Dyke Mills, a vast mill complex just off the village's High Street. Construction started on the main blocks of the mill in 1842. The last part of the main buildings was completed in 1868, five years after the village had changed itsname from Queenshead to Queensbury.

As work began on the new mill, work also was started in 1843 on a large new parish church, Church of the Holy Trinity, at the village's West End.

For many years the mills traded under the name of John Foster and Son, spinning weaving and dyeing cloth, before production stopped there in the late 1980s. The John Foster name, however, lives on at a textile business now based in Bradford.

Albert Memorial, QueensburyBlack Dyke Mills, QueensburyToday the surviving main part of the Black Dyke Mills complex has multiple uses as it reshapes itself as a heritage venue also incorporating a live music and community events centre, an indoor karting arena for the youngest of drivers, a cycle business, music school and a charity shop.

The mill-owning Foster family has left other legacies which were created for the mill workers of Queensbury. One of its finest buildings is Victoria Hall. Opened in 1891, it served as a concert hall, recreation centre and social and educational institute. More recently the building has also housed a Bradford Council swimming pool but has become a victim of cuts typical of those faced by the large metroplitan authorities of West Yorkshire, each with their multiple towns and villages to maintain across vast areas.

Littlemoor Park, QueensburyLittlemoor Park to the east of Queensbury is another legacy to the village, being the grounds of a now-demolished house built for the Foster family.

Another feature of the village is a memorial to Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, again erected by the Black Dyke Mill owners.

The memorial stands next to the busy crossroads in Queensbury where there is much traffic congestion at the point where the original turnpike route between Bradford and Halifax crosses the main road from Brighouse towards Keighley.

Railway lines did reach Queensbury in the late 1870s, but the village's altitude meant a tunnel was built beneath it to carry the lines from Bradford and Keighley towards Halifax. Queensbury did have a station, however, near the northern portal of the tunnel, more than half a mile from the village centre and some 120 metres (400ft) below. A triangular arrangement of lines and platforms allowed passengers to change between Bradford-Halifax, Bradford-Keighley and Halifax-Keighley trains. Passenger services ended in 1955 but some goods services continued into the early 1960s.

There has been a campaign for the Queensbury Tunnel to be reopened as a cycle path and there have also been suggestions it is used as part of a future light rail system for West Yorkshire, but in 2019 one of the tunnel shafts was infilled by the government Department of Transport's Highways England after concerns about its stucture.

Village features

Queensbury has a choice of pubs.

Queensbury has local traders and a supermarket.

The village has a Post Office.

The village has a pharmacy.

Pub food is available in Queensbury.

Takeaway food outlets in the village include fish and chips, chicken, chinese, pizzas.

The village has a park.:golf

Queensbury has a community centre.

Queensbury has schools.

Place of worship: Anglican, Catholic, Baptist.

Travel

Bus travel

Buses principally operate to Halifax or to Bradford, but there are also buses to Shelf and indirectly to Halifax via Illingworth.

Destinations include
Halifax 14, Bradford 32.
Typical fastest journey times in minutes.
Red - places in West Yorkshire ticket area.

Metro - Bus information Bus travel information at Metro website.

Road travel

Queensbury can be reached via the A644 A647

Places to visit

Salt's Mill, Sailtaire

Saltaire

Near Shipley
About 4 miles north-north-west of Bradford, Saltaire village on the River Aire is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The huge Salt's Mill, a former textile mill, is at the centre of a late 19th century village of stone houses which were built for the mill workers by architects employed by mill owner Sir Titus Salt. More information on our page about Saltaire.

East Riddlesden Hall

East Riddlesden HallBradford Road, Riddlesden
The attractive 17th century home of a cloth merchant includes an array of needlework from the era. The house is set in colourful and peaceful gardens with an outdoor discovery garden and children's play area. The property, around 1.5 miles to the north-east of Keighley, has a car park, accessed through its narrow entrance. The property is managed by The National Trust.
Find out more at the

National Trust - East Riddlesden Hall web pages.
Locate on map:

East Riddlesden Hall

Keighley and Worth Valley Railway

Keighley Station and stations along the Worth Valley
The earliest of Yorkshire's heritage railways was made famous by the film The Railway Children in 1970, but that was just the first of many TV and film appearances, now going full circle with the 2022 film The Railway Children Return. The Keighley and Worth Valley Railway has a collection of more than 30 locomotives, many of them steam locomotives, and operates the five-mile branch between Keighley, Ingrow (West), Damems, Oakworth, Haworth and Oxenhope. Passengers can change to and from the rail network's Airedale Line trains at Keighley. Add-on tickets for the K&WVR can be bought with rail tickets from any station on the rail network while the railway's station ticket offices offer a full range of tickets. The line was among the country's first preserved railways, reopening as a preservation line six years after the closure of the branch by British Railways in 1962.

Find out more at the

Keighley and Worth Valley Railway website.

Haworth

Haworth, around 4 miles south of Keighley, is an attractive village popular with tourists. It was the one-time home of the literary Brontë sisters, their home having now become the Bronte Parsonage Museum. The village has attractive shops and cafes on its steep cobbled Main Street. Haworth also has a station on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway from which there is an uphill walk through Central Park to the village centre. The village can also be reached by bus from Keighley or Hebden Bridge. More on our page on Haworth.

Emergency services

West Yorkshire Police

West Yorkshire Police website.

West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service

West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service website.

Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust

Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust website.

Local government

Metropolitan district council

City of Bradford

The City of Bradford authority covers an area extending many miles beyond the city itself, including areas of moorland of The Pennines and Ilkley Moor, parts of Wharfedale and Airedale and the Worth Valley.

The area includes many separate small towns and villages, among them Addingham, Baildon, Bingley, Burley in Wharfedale, Haworth, Idle, Ilkley, Keighley, Saltaire, Shipley and Silsden.

Councillors are elected across 30 wards with three councillors per ward.

One councillor per ward is elected for a four-year term on each of three years out of four.

Political composition after May 2024 election:

49 131310 5
90 members

Link to City of Bradford MDC website.

See our Yorkshire.guide Gazetteer for more about the

Bradford metropolitan district and places within it.

County strategic authority

West Yorkshire Combined Authority
Covers some combined services of the five metropolitan district councils of West Yorkshire - Bradford, Calderdale, Leeds, Kirklees and Wakefield — which were at one time provided by a West Yorkshire metropolitan county council, with the addition of the non-contiguous unitary authority area of the City of York council as well as the unelected Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership. Since 2021 it has operated with an elected mayor as chairman and decision-maker for some responsibilities. These include transport, housing and planning and finance powers. The responsibilities also include those of Police and Crime Commissioner, a role substantially delegated to an appointee deputy mayor.

Elected mayor: ❚ Tracy Brabin Labour & Cooperative

West Yorkshire Combined Authority website.

Police and Crime Commissioner

The Police and Crime Commissioner for West Yorkshire
This role has become one of the many responsibilities of the West Yorkshire elected mayor since May 2021.

West Yorkshire Combined Authority website.

Fire Authority

West Yorkshire Fire Authority
The fire authority is made up of elected members of each of the five metropolitan district councils of West Yorkshire - Bradford, Calderdale, Leeds, Kirklees and Wakefield.

West Yorkshire Fire Authority web pages.

Parliamentary constituency

Bradford South
Elected MP: ❚ Judith Cummins Labour

National government region

Yorkshire and the Humber

Ceremonial county

West Yorkshire

Historic

-1974 Within the West Riding of Yorkshire.

Also in Yorkshire.guide

New Places to visit Gazetteer