Thornhill
Thornhill is located in West Yorkshire
Thornhill
Thornhill
Location within West Yorkshire
Population6,875 (2005)
OS grid referenceSE245185
Metropolitan borough
Metropolitan county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townDEWSBURY
Postcode districtWF12
Dialling code01924
PoliceWest Yorkshire
FireWest Yorkshire
AmbulanceYorkshire
UK Parliament

Thornhill is a village and former township on the southern outskirts of Dewsbury in the Kirklees district of West Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, Thornhill was absorbed into Dewsbury County Borough in 1910. It is located on a hill on the south side of the River Calder, and has extensive views of Dewsbury, Ossett and Wakefield. It is known for its collection of Anglo-Saxon crosses.

History

Thornhill is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as within the ancient wapentake of Agbrigg,[1] while 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 indicates substantially earlier settlement. The tombstone of a certain very high-ranking Anglian called Osberht (a very rare find) was found in the graveyard of Thornhill Parish Church. Some historians claim that the grave bearing the name Osbehrt is that of King Osberht, 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 on display in the church. The local place-names of Ludd Well (shown in 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 (covering modern West Yorkshire) collapsed in AD 617. In 1320 Edward II granted a charter for a market and a fair.[2]

This is the original coat of arms for the Thornhill family, before they married in with the Saviles.

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 now passed its property down the Savile line. Thornhill now became the seat of the powerful Savile family.[3]

The Saviles later intermarried with the Calverley family as well, 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.

Seizure of Thornhill Hall

The Saviles remained here until the English Civil War when the house was besieged. As royalist heroine since the siege of Sheffield Castle in 1644, Lady Anne Savile's troops under Capt. Thomas Paulden (brother of William Paulden) in August 1648 defended Thornhill Hall against the Parliamentary forces under Col. Sir Thomas Fairfax. They were forced to surrender and the hall was destroyed.[5]

St. Michael and All Angels, Thornhill Parish Church

The Old Rectory survived and was home to several prominent vicars, most notably John Michell,[6] who first 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 for Thornhill, 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.

Some ruins of the house and the moat still remain at Thornhill Rectory Park.[7] The moat still retains water.

Monuments to members of the Thornhill and Savile families are in Thornhill Parish Church.[8]

Industrial Revolution

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.

Governance

Historically Thornhill (St. Michael) was a large ecclesiastical parish 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]

Geography

Thornhill is situated on a hill on the south side of the River Calder and the Calder and Hebble Navigation. The township covered 2,486 acres (1,006 ha) and the underlying rock comprises coal measures. Thornhill encompasses the areas of Thornhill Edge, Overthorpe and Fox Royd overlooking the valleys of the Howroyd Beck and Smithy Brook.[2]

Schools

The Thornhill area has two junior schools: Overthorpe (C of E) Junior and Infants and Thornhill Junior and Infants School. Thornhill Community Academy is the area's secondary school, with a GCSE pass rate of 84% in 2010, an increase of 22 percentage points from 2009. Recently the school has undergone various modifications, and is now a Science College. Much of the school has been refurbished and modernised. Construction of a new sports hall was completed in April 2007 and includes a new Multi-Use Games Area (MUGA).

Sports

Thornhill Trojans[10] rugby league team play (2023) in the National Conference League Division 1.[11] 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, an archery club shoots at Thornhill Cricket and Bowls Club.[12] 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.

Amenities

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.

Survey of English Dialects site

The area was also covered by the Survey of English Dialects owing to the belief that it was a hotbed of Yorkshire dialect.[13] A 2005 study compared the 1964 Thornhill recording with a recording from nearby Ossett in 1999.[14]

St Michael and All Angels

Church protests

In 2014 there were protests after items were removed from gravestones at Thornhill Parish Church, under the orders of the Diocese of West Yorkshire and the Dales.[15]

Notable people

George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax. c. 1675

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Open Domesday Online: Thornhill (Yorkshire)". Retrieved 8 August 2023.
  2. 1 2 Lewis, Samuel (1848). Thornhill St Michael. British History Online. pp. 335–337. Retrieved 10 October 2010. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  3. ↑ "The family of Thornhill of Thornhill, Yorkshire".
  4. ↑ "Medieval English genealogy: The Savile Family". www.medievalgenealogy.org.uk.
  5. ↑ B. Nuttall, A History of Thornhill, 1970.
  6. 1 2 "Michell, John" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 18 (11th ed.). 1911. pp. 370–371.
  7. ↑ Historic England. "RUINS OF THE MEDIEVAL THORNHILL HALL IN MOATED ENCLOSURE, IN RECTORY GROUNDS (Grade II) (1134729)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 1 January 2019.
  8. ↑ "History & Publications – Thornhill Parish Church". Archived from the original on 12 March 2007. Retrieved 12 February 2006.
  9. ↑ Thornhill CP/AP, Vision of Britain, retrieved 3 July 2018
  10. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 23 December 2021. Retrieved 22 July 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  11. ↑ "National Conference League".
  12. ↑ "Kirklees Area Target Archery Club :: Savile Bowmen". www.savile-bowmen.org.uk.
  13. ↑ "Thornhill, Yorkshire". Archived from the original on 11 March 2007. Retrieved 13 July 2006.
  14. ↑ "Dialect and Folk Life Studies in Britain: The Leeds Archive of Vernacular Culture in its Context" (PDF). 19 March 2005. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 December 2010. Retrieved 8 August 2023.
  15. ↑ "Protests continue against church which removed graveside mementoes". Bately and Birstall News. 16 August 2014. Archived from the original on 30 March 2018.
  16. ↑ "Radcliffe, Sir George" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 22 (11th ed.). 1911. p. 784.
  17. ↑ Yorke, Philip Chesney (1911). "Halifax, George Savile, 1st Marquess of" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 12 (11th ed.). pp. 839–843.
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