Introduction: historical geography and the social context of religious history

To the extent of their present boundaries, the County Borough of Halifax and the Metropolitan Districts of Denholme and Keighley are very nearly contiguous. But as recognisable towns, they are separated across about twelve miles of high moorland. Keighley stands at the confluence of the Rivers Aire and Worth, cradled in a stretch of land situated around North Beck and the River Worth. It is just over ten miles north-west of Bradford, and seventeen miles, in a slightly more westerly direction, from Leeds. Five miles almost due south is Denholme. Once little more than an ecclesiastical parish, then a thriving industrial village, it is now a straggling country town and a dormant commuter haven. To a visitor, perhaps the most striking aspect of the town is the fact that it stands out upon a broad shoulder of moorland which reaches up to Ogden and Thornton Moors. The centre of the town is about 900 feet above sea level, rising to 1,200 feet at Upper Bradshaw Head. Running gently downhill, about six miles further south still, lies Halifax. It is located in the Upper Calder Valley, on an extensive piece of low-lying land broken by Hebble Brook, a tributary of the River Calder. It is eight miles west of Bradford; about fifteen west-south-west from Leeds.

Geography accounts for much in this part of the world.