Ravenfield
Ravenfield Common
The simple explanation is that the village was named after a field of ravens. Ravens are uncommon rare around here these days whilst crows are aplenty. Sounds better than Crowfield though doesn't it! Cockburn's place names contend that the name Ravenfield means 'the standard'. My knowledge of Anglo Saxon English and Old Norse is small, very small but I know that raven comes from hrafn. I have never come across the word meaning standard, unless it described the emblem on the standard. Further reading has revealed that the raven was a popular emblem borne, amongst other, by the Kings of Lothian and Harald Hardrada, king of Norway. So it seems likely that Ravenfield was in origin a settlement founded in the late 9th Century or later by Viking incomers.
To distinguish itself from the other part of Ravenfield which is called Ravenfield Common, Ravenfield is often called Ravenfield Old Village. In fact there is no real village centre as there are no pubs or shops that I noticed, although there are some very nice houses in the old village. Ravenfield Common is about half a mile due south of the old village, a nice proletarian distance, and would at one time have been the common land used by the villagers. Much of it is now covered by housing. It is here that you will find Ravenfield's facilities, school, pubs, shops etc.
Until the 20th Century the village of Ravenfield remained a small, rural settlement with the only industrial occupation being the quarrying of grindstones. The first Census of 1801 indicates that the population was 172. The population fluctuated in the 19th Century according to the availability of work but was only 217 in 1901. The pit at Silverwood was in production from 1905 to 1995 and housing for the miners was built at in the south of Ravenfield parish. There was more development at Ravenfield Common after the Second World War. By 1991 the population of Ravenfield and Ravenfield Common had risen to 1,636.
St James' Ravenfield
Now in most villages the church is the heart of the village. Not so for in Ravenfield St James' Church is set well to one side and very much out of the way, to the north of the houses.
The present church was designed by John Carr in 1756 and built on the site of previous churches. The church is not generally open but to gain access contact 44 (0)1709 549689 (2009).