 Early routes and tracks followed high ground to avoid the marshy and wooded valley bottoms and it was on one such high level packhorse route that Stainland developed.The Stainland Cross remains as evidence of man's activity there in the medieval times.An economy that was based principally on wool and textile production led Stainland to develop as a hilltop village, in much the same way as Sowerby and Heptonstall.