Roman remains have been found in the valley and it is thought that roads from York to Chester, and from settlements in Halifax and Wakefield, passed through Cleckheaton.

They also demonstrate the lack of administration as only the richest four of the 227 families living in the Spen Valley were made to pay more than the 4d (approx.

These tax returns also show the recent deviation from the traditional sources of wealth in the area (i.e. farming and allied trades).

These were centred on textiles and included dyeing, weaving and fulling (common names in the area nowadays still recall these early trades: Lister- dyer, Webster- weaver, Walker- fuller).

[5] After the Reformation, Kirklees Priory was largely destroyed, many families were driven from the area and new non-aristocratic lords of the manor who were sympathetic to Protestantism were introduced by Elizabeth I, as was a puritan clergyman who was installed at Birstall Church.

Sir John Neville went into exile and forfeited his estate and Thomas Hussey (heir to the de Tilly family of Oakwell Hall) was imprisoned in the Tower of London for some time before being pardoned.

Local religious leaders included people like Eli Collins, the "Wizard of Wyke", and Alvery Newsome, the "Wise Man of Heckmondwike".

[9] In 1804 the Reverend Hammond Roberson, annoyed that the administration of Liversedge was disorganised, promoted a system of reform (the select vestry) which quickly spread to Cleckheaton and Heckmondwike.

[11] Around 1900, many large and expensive buildings were erected and became symbols of the area's wealth; massive chapels and a new grammar school were built in Cleckheaton, and to mark the new urban district and the fact that it was the centre of it, Cleckheaton built a town hall in 1892, paid for in part by public subscription.

A tourist industry developed to serve visitors to the area aware of its connection to Charlotte Brontë's novel Shirley and Luddite attacks.

British Rail had contracted for the clearing of the site; part of the deal was that the contractors would sell and retain the proceeds from disposal of the materials and scrap.

Subsequent efforts to trace the second firm failed, and the court found the man not guilty, deciding that he had been duped and left significantly out of pocket.

There were at this time attempts to involve all the local authorities in the valley in joint projects such as installation of sewers and water.

In 1937, a county review order enlarged the urban district to include Birkenshaw, Hunsworth and Hartshead.

[19] Spenborough (which included all the Spen Valley except for Heckmondwike) was granted a charter of incorporation and became a municipal borough on 23 May 1955.

[24] Under the borough council's decentralisation scheme, Cleckheaton's councillors and those from Heckmondwike and Liversedge and Gomersal form the Spen Valley Area Committee.

[25] In August 2014, it was announced that Cleckheaton councillor Kath Pinnock was to be elevated to the House of Lords as a life peer.

After Jo Cox was murdered in 2016, she was replaced in a by-election (which was uncontested by the other major parties) by Tracy Brabin, who retained the seat in 2017 and 2019.

It closed in the 1960s but its trackbed between Low Moor, south of Bradford, and Ravensthorpe, between Dewsbury and Mirfield, is a cycleway known as the Spen Valley Greenway.