Ecclesfield, West Riding of Yorkshire
Historical Description
Ecclesfield, a village, a township, and an extensive parish in the W.R. Yorkshire. The township lies 5 miles N of Sheffield, and has two stations on the M.S. & L.R. It contains the hamlets of Aldwark, Bellhouses, Birley Carr, Brackenhill, Burncross, Butterthwaite, Chapeltown,Deerlands, Elm Green, Hesley, High Green, Upper and Lower Hirst, Middleton Green, Hartley Brook, Lapwater, Parson Cross, Mortomley, Potters Hill, Shire Green, Nether Shire, Skew-hill, Southey Green, Thompson Hill, Wadsley, Wadsley Bridge, Whitley, Wmcobank, Grenoside, Longley, Greswiek, and Sheffield Lane Top, and has a post and money order office under Sheffield; telegraph office, Ecclesfield railway station. Acreage, 10,893; population of the civil parish, 25,885; of the ecclesiastical, 6017. The manor was known at Domesday as Eclesfelt, and belongs now to the Duke of Norfolk. Vestiges exist of a Roman fortification, with a deep trench, vulgarly termed the Devil's Ditch. An alien Benedictine priory, a cell to the Abbey of St Wandra-gisilus in Normandy, stood at Ecclesfield, and was given by Richard II. to the Carthusian monastery of St Anne at Coventry. Many of the inhabitants are employed in mining, in file cutting, and in the cutlery trade. There are also a paper mill, iron foundry, corn mill, fire-brick, and clay pits. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of York; gross value, £600 with residence. The church belonged to the ancient priory; bore formerly the name of Minster of the Moors; shows architectural characters which assign it to the latter half of the 15th century; possesses beautiful features; and was partly restored in 1866-67, and finished in 1893. The chapelries of Midhope, Chapeltown, Stannington, Wadsley, Oughtibridge, Bradfield, Bolsterstone, and part of Thorpe Hesley, are separate benefices in this parish. There are several dissenting chapels, and some valuable charities. The workhouse for Wortley district is in this township.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
Ancient County | Yorkshire | |
Ecclesiastical parish | Ecclesfield St. John the Baptist | |
Poor Law union | Wortley | |
Riding | West | |
Wapentake | Strafforth and Tickhill |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
Findmypast, in conjunction with various Archives, Local Studies, and Family History Societies have the following parish records online for St Mary, Ecclesfield:
Baptisms | Banns | Marriages | Burials |
---|---|---|---|
1571-1915 | 1768-1799 | 1558-1930 | 1558-1933 |
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Ecclesfield from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Ecclesfield (St. John the Baptist))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for the West Riding of Yorkshire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Ecclesfield are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following West Riding newspapers online: