Throstle's nest

I walked back a little way along the other side of the river from Ireland Bridge and then climbed up steep stone steps from the river bank into Bingley's town square, where there was a lovely display of crocuses. 

Bingley was granted a market charter by King John in 1212. By the 1300s it was probably the largest town in the Aire valley (more important in those days than what are now the cities of Bradford and Leeds). The old town was sited around the church and the Old White Horse coaching inn, by the Ireland Bridge river crossing, and the market would have been set up along what was then the main street. 

The market hall, dating to the late 1600s (when a second market charter was granted), is a long, low, open-sided building with stone columns and an oak roof covered with stone slates. When the main street was widened in the 1800s, it became redundant and was moved to a Bingley park and in the 1980s it was relocated again to what is now the town square.    

Behind it is the buttercross, thought to date from the 13th century (the original market charter) and later given a canopy. Vendors would have laid out their butter and dairy produce on its steps. There is also a set of stocks preserved beside it. 

An early historian noted: 'Ancient houses round its venerable parish church, the little place lays deeply embossed amidst high craggy hills and embowering woodlands and well does it deserve its title of: The Throstle’s Nest of England.'  On the riverside there is a stone plaque illustrating this old title, showing a thrush (throstle) feeding its young in the nest.