Blackshaw Civil Parish was created out of the much larger ancient Stansfield Township as part of a major national re-organisation of local administration in the later nineteenth century, Blackshaw Parish Council being set up in 1894.
The Parish has a varied topography. An elongated rectangular- like shape, NW to SE in orientation it encompasses the high grounds over 1000 ft of Stansfield moor and descends to the Calder valley bottom, skirting the river itself. The Jumble Hole Valley and Noahdale/Colden Valley with their fast-flowing streams form the major part of the Parish’s SW and NE boundaries. In between these streams and their deeply wooded cloughs lies the farming land of Blackshaw – a patchwork of stone wall lined fields served by isolated farmhouses. The upper and lower parts of the parish with main centres of population at Blackshaw Head and Charlestown developed separately, reflective of the increasing sophistication of the textile industry and transport links.