Location
Geographically, Cross Hills is in Airedale at a point where the River Aire bends east from its north-south course. The village lies on the south bank of the river just above the flood plain, which is wholly agricultural. As its name implies, Cross Hills is surrounded by the hills of the eastern Pennines including Steeton Moor (south-east), Cowling Moor (south-west), White Hill (north-west) and Kildwick Moor (north-east). There are views along the Aire Valley itself to the north and east. Rombalds Moor, between Silsden and Ilkley, is about six miles east of Cross Hills. Skipton is about four miles north and the hills of the Yorkshire Dales can be seen beyond it.
The village is overlooked by two monuments called The Pinnacles which stand above crags on the Cowling Moor skyline. These are small towers: Sutton Pinnacle is square and topped by a crenelated parapet; Cowling Pinnacle is an obelisk. They were built a century apart by local farmers to commemorate sons who were killed in the Napoleonic War and First World War respectively.
The village is adjacent to Glusburn, which lies immediately to the west. Kildwick is due north of Cross Hills on the other side of the River Aire. Sutton-in-Craven is less than a mile to the south-west and Eastburn less than a mile to the south-east. Cross Hills is separated from Sutton-in-Craven and Eastburn by the beck which flows into the Aire just east of Cross Hills. The beck is known by various names: Surgill Beck, Holme Beck and Eastburn Beck. It forms part of the county boundary between North and West Yorkshire as it approaches the Aire, Eastburn being in West Yorkshire.
Cross Hills is split by the Airedale Line of the former Midland Railway. The biggest part is south of the railway and is largely residential with most of the shops and restaurants on or near Main Street (the A6068). North of the railway, former farmland has been given over to light industry and commerce but with some residential property on Station Road which connects the A6068 and the A629.
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