Interesting facts about Moor Valley and the Old Sconce Village:

Moor Valley was once an old textile mill (Low Mill) in the 1800’s. Low mill farm and the textile mill was driven by a water wheel which was fed from a dam. There was also a steam engine and a tall chimneystack. The steam engine was indeed built by Brealeys of Baildon Green. Unfortunately the buildings and chimneystack caught fire three times, the last time being in 1881 and was never rebuilt. The tea room is the old stables.

' Aunt Aggies' Tea room and refreshments, including oat cakes in the shape of pancakes and hung over the fire to 'mature'. Aunt Aggies café was a wooden structure on the moor edge, a few hundred yards up the stream from Sconce

On the Old Village site there are still indications of the layout of the hamlet, which consisted of thirteen cottages built in the shape of a letter T. From old photographs it would appear that the entrance to the hamlet from the moor was over the stream via a simple bridge wide enough to take a horse and trap and progressing through an entrance flanked by two stone gateposts and into the 'Main Street'.

In 1610 the area around Sconce was called Northwood, but Sconce is mentioned as such in a register of 1738’ although at that time no mention was made of any cottages on the site. The colony was described as being one of weavers and combers, which leads to the belief that the inhabitants were connected with home industry textiles rather then mining. According to the 1841 census there were ninety six men, women and children living at Sconce of these thirty two were textile workers of one sort or another, many of whom would probably work at the Low Mill in Hawksworth Lane, on the present caravan site. This mill belonged to the Fawkes family; unfortunately the buildings and chimneystack caught fire three times, the last time being in 1881 and was never rebuilt; and people that worked in textiles, were unemployed by the time the 1881 census was taken.

Although the hamlet is marked on a survey map dated 1817, but estimates seem to suggest that they were built between 1730 and 1750, probably as miners dwellings for those extracting coal from the seams on Baildon Moor. . Although the hamlet is marked on a survey map dated 1817 it has been impossible to establish how old the cottages were, but estimates seem to suggest that they were built between 1730 and 1750, probably as miners dwellings for those extracting coal from the seams on Baildon Moor.

In 1934/35 the thirteen cottages were demolished by order of the Local Council on the grounds of lack of sanitation and services including a town's water supply, the owners receiving £300 in the way of compensation. Much of the stone was used in the construction of houses in Station Road, Hallfield Drive and a property in Browgate, Baildon which used to be the Well Pharmacy.

* TURN LEFT OUT OF THE ENTRANCE WAY, YOU WILL FIND SCONCE ON YOUR RIGHT OVER THE BRIDGE *