[2] Historically, the township of Stansfield was considered within the manor of Wakefield which was granted, after the Norman Conquest, to William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey.

The earl then granted the manor of Stansfield to his sub-tenant John de Thornhill, and it later passed to the Savile family.

[3][4] In terms of ecclesiastical organisation, Stansfield was one of the townships in the chapelry of Heptonstall within the ancient parish of Halifax.

[11] Wyon Maryons, lord of the lordship of Stansfield, was reputed to have been the descendant of a noble line from Brittany who accompanied William the Conqueror to England, and received a grant of the lands and lordship of Stansfield.

By the early modern period, various Stansfield (Stansfeld) families populated Stansfield, Shore, and the neighbouring parishes of Todmorden, Heptonstall, Halifax, Sowerby, and Hartshead, Yorkshire, and Rochdale, Lancashire.