Blackshaw Parish
Blackshaw is a predominantly rural South Pennine Parish within the area of Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council and is a part of the Calder Valley Parliamentary Constituency. The bulk of the Parish is part of the Calder Terrace moorland fringe and upland pasture framed by the moorland tops, Noah Dale, the wooded Colden and Jumble Hole Cloughs and crossed by the Pennine Way. The Parish stretches from the valley settlement of Charlestown on the busy A646 between Hebden Bridge and Todmorden to the high moorland plateau on the border with Lancashire at Hoof Stones Height (479 metres high). The upland settlement of Blackshaw Head sits on the ancient trans-Pennine “Long Causeway” 12 miles from Halifax and 7 miles from Burnley. The 2011 census estimated a population of 963 in the parish for mid 2010.
There was no village fete in 2020 because of the COVID19 restrictions. The 2024 fete will be on Saturday 31st August. Records of previous fates going back from the 2016 fete are online.
The Parish has one Chapel, Blackshaw Head Chapel, and one public house The New Delight at Jack Bridge.
The area is served by two primary schools, Colden Junior and Infants and Hebden Royd, both of which are just outside the Parish Boundary.
Young people residing within the boundaries of Blackshaw parish are eligible to apply for a grant to help with their studies from the Heptonstall Exhibitions and Richard Naylor charities to which the parish council together with other local councils makes an annual grant.
May’s shop at Height Gate Farm on Edge Lane Colden close to the parish boundary is open daily early til late for newspapers, provisions and providing snacks and hot drinks. The closest Post Office is in Heptonstall.