Thornhill | |
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![]() St Michael and All Angels, Thornhill Parish Church | |
Location within West Yorkshire | |
Population | 6,875 (2005) |
OS grid reference | SE245185 |
Metropolitan borough | |
Metropolitan county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | DEWSBURY |
Postcode district | WF12 |
Dialling code | 01924 |
Police | West Yorkshire |
Fire | West Yorkshire |
Ambulance | Yorkshire |
UK Parliament | |
Thornhill is a village on the southern outskirts of Dewsbury in Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, Thornhill was absorbed into Dewsbury County Borough in 1910. The village is located on a ridge on the south side of the River Calder. Dewsbury, Ossett and Wakefield are close by. Its parish church houses a collection of Anglo-Saxon crosses.
Anglian crosses and other remains indicate that there was a settlement here by the 9th century. A hoard of 27 Roman denarii found in Turnip Lane and pottery at the cross indicate a substantially earlier settlement. The tombstone of a high-ranking Anglian, Osberht, was found in the graveyard of Thornhill Parish Church. Some historians claim that the grave bearing the name Osbehrt is that of Osberht of Northumbria, who was killed on 21 March 867 while fighting the Viking Great Heathen Army led by Ivar the Boneless. The gravestone, among other contemporaneous high-status Anglian gravestones, is displayed in the church.
Local place-names, Ludd Well (shown on a 1602 map) and the Combs indicate Celtic settlement. This is reinforced by the dedication of the Parish Church to St Michael, which is typical for churches in high places in formerly Celtic parts of northern England. The Celtic kingdom of Elmet that covered parts of modern West Yorkshire collapsed in AD 617.
Thornhill is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as within the ancient wapentake of Agbrigg. [1] In 1320 Edward II granted a charter for a market and a fair. [2]
In the reign of Henry III, Thornhill Hall was the seat of the Thornhill family, who intermarried with the De Fixbys and Babthorpes in the reigns of Edward I and Edward II. In the reign of Edward III, Elizabeth Thornhill, the only child of Simon Thornhill, married Sir Henry Savile. This extinguished the family line of Thornhills of Thornhill which passed its property down the Savile line and Thornhill became the seat of the Savile family. [3] The Saviles intermarried with the Calverley family so that when Sir John Savile died in 1503 in Thornhill, he left provision in his will for his sister Alice, married to Sir William Calverley. [4] Sir William Savile, the third baronet of the family, fortified the hall.
The Saviles remained here until the English Civil War when Thornhill Hall was besieged. A royalist heroine after the siege of Sheffield Castle in 1644, Lady Anne Savile's troops under Capt Thomas Paulden (brother of William Paulden) defended the hall against the Parliamentary forces under Col Sir Thomas Fairfax in August 1648. They were forced to surrender and the hall was destroyed. [5] Some ruins of the hall and the moat remain in Rectory Park. [6] The moat retains water.
The Old Rectory survived and was home to several vicars, notably John Michell, [7] who rose to international prominence by developing an understanding of earthquakes, then devised an experiment to accurately determine the mass of planet Earth, but perhaps most intriguingly, attracted Benjamin Franklin (founding father of the USA), Joseph Priestley, Jan Ingenhousz, John Smeaton and others to a scientific meeting and overnight stay in 1771. Benjamin Franklin's stay in Thornhill remained unknown until 2015.
Monuments to members of the Thornhill and Savile families are in Thornhill Parish Church. [8]
Thornhill has close ties to coal mining. The demand for coal increased due to the development of the steam engine. The local population increased as more workers were recruited for the mines. In 1893 an explosion at Combs Pit killed 139 coal miners. Thornhill Colliery resulted from the merging of Inghams and Combs Collieries in 1948 but closed in 1971.
Historically Thornhill (St Michael) was a large ecclesiastical parish and township in the wapentake of Agbrigg, West Riding of Yorkshire which joined the Dewsbury Poor Law Union in 1837. In 1894 it was an urban district and in 1910 it was incorporated into Dewsbury County Borough. [9]
Thornhill is situated on a flat-topped ridge to the south and east of the River Calder and the Calder and Hebble Navigation and north of the Howroyd Beck. The township covered 2,486 acres (1,006 ha) and the underlying rock comprises coal measures. Thornhill encompasses the areas of Thornhill Lees in the valley by the Calder and the Calder and Hebble Navigation, Thornhill Edge, the Edge from the Old English ecg an escarpment [10] the south-facing scarp slope that overlooks the valley of the Howroyd Beck; Overthorpe, from uferra and þorp was the upper outlying farmstead, [11] now a residential area; and Fox Royd. [2]
The Grade II listed former Thornhill Grammar School was built with money bequeathed by Charles Greenwood, Rector of Thornhill in 1643. [12] A school endowed by Richard Walker dated from 1712. [2]
Thornhill has two primary schools: Overthorpe (C of E) Junior and Infants and Thornhill Junior and Infants School. Thornhill Community Academy, the area's secondary school had a GCSE pass rate of 84% in 2010, an increase of 22 percentage points from 2009. The school is a Science College. Much of the school has been refurbished and modernised. Construction of a sports hall was completed in April 2007 and includes a new Multi-Use Games Area.
Thornhill Trojans [13] rugby league team play (2023) in the National Conference League Division 1. [14] Overthorpe Sports football team play in the West Riding County Amateur League (Premier Division) on Saturdays and Overthorpe Town play in the Heavy Woollen Sunday League (First Division). Thornhill United play at Rectory Park. Thornhill Rugby Club is based in Overthorpe Parks. Community facilities open to the public include a football pitch, rugby pitch and basketball court, a mini rugby pitch frequently used by the rugby club for the under tens junior team and a sports hall with a multi-use games area are at the local secondary school (the Community Science College at Thornhill).
The Savile Bowmen archery club shoots at Thornhill Cricket and Bowls Club. [15] Three tennis courts are situated next to Thornhill Cricket and Bowls Club. Thornhill Tennis Club has two teams in the Huddersfield and District Tennis League.
There are a number of local shops and off-licences in Thornhill and numerous takeaways ranging from traditional English to Italian cuisine. The nearest large supermarkets are in Dewsbury, which is connected by public transport. The area has two post offices with limited services. Overthorpe Post Office has recently undergone building work and is now part of the Onestop franchise. Other shops and services include a florist, dental surgery, beauty salon, a computer repair shop, a tattoo studio, a fish and chip shop and a couple of Indian takeaways.
The area was covered by the Survey of English Dialects in the belief that it was a hotbed of Yorkshire dialect. [16] A 2005 study compared the 1964 Thornhill recording with a recording from nearby Ossett in 1999. [17]
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and east, South Yorkshire and Derbyshire to the south, Greater Manchester to the south-west, and Lancashire to the west. The city of Leeds is the largest settlement.
Batley is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England, south-west of Leeds, north-west of Wakefield and Dewsbury, south-east of Bradford and north-east of Huddersfield, in the Heavy Woollen District. In 2011, the population was 48,730.
Brighouse is a town within the metropolitan borough of Calderdale, in West Yorkshire, England. Historically within the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is situated on the River Calder, 4 miles (6.4 km) east of Halifax. It is served by Junction 25 of the M62 motorway and Brighouse railway station on the Caldervale Line and Huddersfield Line. In the town centre is a mooring basin on the Calder and Hebble Navigation. The United Kingdom Census 2001 gave the Brighouse / Rastrick subdivision of the West Yorkshire Urban Area a population of 32,360. The Brighouse ward of Calderdale Council gave a population of 11,195 at the 2011 Census. Brighouse has a HD6 postcode.
Dewsbury is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Calder and on an arm of the Calder and Hebble Navigation waterway. It is to the west of Wakefield, east of Huddersfield and south of Leeds. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, after undergoing a period of major growth in the 19th century as a mill town, Dewsbury went through a period of decline. Dewsbury forms part of the Heavy Woollen District of which it is the largest town. The population of the built-up area was 63,722 at the 2021 Census.
Elland is a market town in Calderdale, in the county of West Yorkshire, England. It is situated south of Halifax, by the River Calder and the Calder and Hebble Navigation. Elland was recorded as Elant in the Domesday Book of 1086. It had a population in 2001 of 14,554, with the ward being measured at 11,676 in the 2011 Census.
Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 109,766 in the 2021 census, up from 99,251 in the 2011 census. The city is the administrative centre of the wider Metropolitan Borough of Wakefield, which had a 2022 population of 357,729, the 26th most populous district in England. It is part of the West Yorkshire Built-up Area and the Yorkshire and The Humber region.
Mirfield is a town and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is on the A644 road between Brighouse and Dewsbury. At the 2011 census it had a population of 19,563. Mirfield forms part of the Heavy Woollen District.
Ossett is a market town in West Yorkshire, England. It is in the City of Wakefield district. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is situated between Dewsbury, Horbury and Wakefield. At the 2021 census, the town had a population of 21,861. Ossett forms part of the Heavy Woollen District.
Morley is a market town and a civil parish within the City of Leeds metropolitan borough, in West Yorkshire, England. Morley is the largest town in the borough after Leeds itself. Morley forms part of the Heavy Woollen District.
Clifton is a village on the eastern outskirts of Brighouse in the Calderdale district of West Yorkshire, England.
Methley is a dispersed village in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough, south east of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is located near Rothwell, Oulton, Woodlesford, Mickletown and Allerton Bywater. The Leeds City Ward is called Kippax and Methley. It is within the triangle formed by Leeds, Castleford and Wakefield, and between the confluence of the River Aire and River Calder. The latter is crossed by Methley Bridge, the A639 road, about a mile south-east of the village.
Netherton is a village in the City of Wakefield metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, England. It lies about 4 miles south-west of Wakefield, 3 miles south of Ossett and 1 mile south of Horbury. The village is in the Wakefield Rural ward of Wakefield Metropolitan District Council. The village name is shown on map "Dvcatvs Eboracensis pars occidentalis" from 1646.
Thornhill Trojans are an amateur rugby league club situated in Thornhill, West Yorkshire; they currently compete in the National Conference League Premier Division
Savile Town is a suburb of Dewsbury, Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England, lying just to the south of the River Calder.
Agbrigg is a suburb of the city of Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England.
Halifax is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale, in West Yorkshire, England. It is near the east Pennine foothills. In the 15th century, the town became an economic hub of the old West Riding of Yorkshire, primarily in woollen manufacture with the large Piece Hall square later built for trading wool in the town centre. The town was a thriving mill town during the Industrial Revolution with the Dean Clough Mill buildings a surviving landmark. In 2011, it had a population of 88,134. It is also the administrative centre of the wider Calderdale Metropolitan Borough.
Thornhill Hall is a ruined medieval manor house on a moated island in Rectory Park, Thornhill, West Yorkshire, England. The ruins are listed as grade II. and the moat, with the surrounding grounds, is a scheduled monument.
Thornhill Lees is a district of Thornhill near Dewsbury, in the borough of Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England. Thornhill Lees is between Thornhill and Dewsbury town centre, in the area between the River Calder and the Calder and Hebble Navigation.
Dewsbury is a town and an unparished area in the metropolitan borough of Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England. It contains 134 listed buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England. Of these, two are listed at Grade I, the highest of the three grades, three are at Grade II*, the middle grade, and the others are at Grade II, the lowest grade. The list consists of the listed buildings in the town and the countryside to the south, and includes the districts, villages and smaller settlements of Boothroyd, Briestfield, Hanging Heaton, Overthorpe, Ravensthorpe, Thornhill, and Whitley Lower.