The name of this valley and village is a simplification and Great Vowel Shiftsound shift from scep den. A brief mention in Edward III of England's Calendar of Close Rolls has the place as Shipen. It has, as manorial records equally attest, long been farmed. In the many centuries of the main English wool trade the manor prospered from wool production, with incident crop farming and offshoot lamb and mutton meat produce. Halifax's own, chief, highly skilled manufacture of wool products began in 1414 ascribed to the settlement of certain emigrants from the Spanish Netherlands, who sought refuge from the persecutions under the government of the Duke of Alva. At this time there were about 13 houses in Halifax, but it soon began to increase in extent and population; in 1540 it contained 520 houses, and it has progressively advanced to its 18th century and early 19th century level of importance, as one of the main global sites of woollen manufacture. Under the manor park passes an early 19th century-built regular line rail tunnel. At a similar time parts of the wider manorial land were dug for underlying coal seams, which after some stealing from the owner were successfully tapped by contractors appointed by landowner, entrepreneur and private diarist Anne Lister of Shibden Hall, after whom a local nickname of the time "Gentleman Jack" arose. Then in the 21st century a prominent book and a BBC six-part drama of that name were made, after an earlier two-part drama featuring Maxine Peake, with associated modern folk song. In 1600 a house with lands straddling Northowram and Shibden passed from Richard Northend to his kinsmen of the same surname. Ecclesiastically in the Church of England it remains an eastern manor in parishes of Halifax, which Minster church is the place of worship for the northern corners of the park and few adjoining buildings, including petrol service station which proliferate beyond Shibden Brook to the east, but which marks the western limit of Northowram. Most of the buildings are today in the Halifax daughter parish of St Anne-in-the-Grove, Halifax, the church of which is in Southowram. The brook has been dammed and tapped much further north for a reservoir.
, a subinfeudated manor house, was built in 1681. Shibden Hall the parent manor house, was built in the 15th century, it has a lakeside café and miniature railway. The Hall hosts the West Yorkshire Folk Museum.
