Cononley ( or ) is a village and civil parish in the Craven district of North Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, Cononley is in the Aire Valley south of Skipton and with an estimated population of 1,080 (2001 est.), measured at 1,172 at the 2011 census. It is situated west of the A629 road with access to Skipton, Keighley. Also joined to the Leeds-Carlisle railway, the village has commuter access to Leeds and Bradford. The village is served by Cononley railway station. History and information The origin of the settlement There is evidence that people first settled around Cononley in the Bronze and Iron Ages. The Domesday Book contains only a brief mention of Cononley, but the settlement's name had probably originated several centuries earlier. The ending 'ley' refers to a clearing in the then wooded Aire valley and is shared with other Airedale communities. The first part of the name is derived from either a personal name or a river or beck name. The Cononley local historian, Trevor Hodgson, collected more than 60 different spellings of the name, in use from the 11th century onwards. Early spellings such as 'Conundley' and Cunanlay' may represent older pronunciations of the name. Cononley in the Middle Ages and beyond By the 12th century the present village had been laid out on a deliberate plan which is most obvious on the north side of Main Street where the plots (or 'tofts') ran northwards to Back (now Meadow) Lane. It may not be a coincidence that from the 12th century a significant part of the cultivated land was owned by Bolton Priory. Both Bolton Priory's Compotus (a listing of income and expenditure) and the Priory's records listing around 70 gifts of land in Cononley have survived. The latter record includes recognisable place names such as 'Dedehee' (Dead Eye). A smaller estate was owned by the Knights Hospitallers of St. John. By the time of the dissolution of the monasteries in the late 1530s these farms were all in the hands of tenants. Some 16 former Bolton Priory farms were bought by Henry Clifford, 1st. Earl of Cumberland. In addition, half a dozen former Knights Hospitallers' properties were transferred to the Crown and remained in the hands of the monarch for the remainder of the 16th century. The fortunate survival of many of these records is due to the lordship