Cononley Village
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Cononley 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 3 miles (5 km) south of Skipton.
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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.
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