Egypt is a hamlet near Thornton, in the City of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England.
Egypt is situated about one mile (1.6 km) north-west of Thornton on a hairpin bend of a road between Well Heads and a junction with the B6144 road near Wilsden, and at the top (western) end of the marked valley of Bell Dean in which a stream runs roughly in an eastern direction. [1] High walls that were erected to hold back the waste rock from the local quarries flank the road, giving rise to the nickname "The Walls of Jericho". [2]
The hamlet was established in the first half of the 19th century and is named on maps surveyed in the late 1840s. [3] Its name may be related to the commemoration of the 1798 invasion of Egypt by the troops of Napoleon Bonaparte, [4] or the nearby Egypt Methodist Chapel which was already demolished by 1876. [5] The names of other hamlets in the area such as Jericho, Jerusalem, and World's End are also of biblical origin. [6]
Quarrying was the major industry in the area, with about 30 active quarries reported in the 1870s. [5]
Egypt is a hamlet near Thornton, in the City of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England.
Egypt is situated about one mile (1.6 km) north-west of Thornton on a hairpin bend of a road between Well Heads and a junction with the B6144 road near Wilsden, and at the top (western) end of the marked valley of Bell Dean in which a stream runs roughly in an eastern direction. [1] High walls that were erected to hold back the waste rock from the local quarries flank the road, giving rise to the nickname "The Walls of Jericho". [2]
The hamlet was established in the first half of the 19th century and is named on maps surveyed in the late 1840s. [3] Its name may be related to the commemoration of the 1798 invasion of Egypt by the troops of Napoleon Bonaparte, [4] or the nearby Egypt Methodist Chapel which was already demolished by 1876. [5] The names of other hamlets in the area such as Jericho, Jerusalem, and World's End are also of biblical origin. [6]
Quarrying was the major industry in the area, with about 30 active quarries reported in the 1870s. [5]