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idgley near Wakefield
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The Midgley
township, further west near Halifax, is recorded in
the Domesday Book and was part of the Wakefield Manor's western
division held by the Warrenes, whilst Midgley near Wakefield
appears under the "Honour of Pontefract" once held by the De Laci
family of Pontefract. One branch of the De Lacis were the FitzWilliams
of Sprotbrough near Doncaster who were lords of nearby Emley. Emley
was part of the Warrene lands of the Wakefield Manor.
The area around Midgley near Wakefield
appears to have been part of the Manor of Cawthorne held
at the time of the conquest by an Anglian called Ailric. Ilbert
de Laci (of Lassy in Normandy) was granted the Cawthorne estates
in 1067, which covered a wide area mainly to the south and
east of the Warrene estates of the Wakefield Manor. It would
appear that the Calder Valley estates of the former English King
were divided between the two families by William I to prevent
any ascendancy and power over himself.3
Midgley near Wakefield lay within the administrative area known as
the Honour of Pontefract, held until 1311 by the De Laci lineage
with its centre at Pontefract Castle. Thus both villages with the same
name were in separate feudal administrative regions. This seems to
be related to the Anglian name derivation for the western Midgley township
and the Norman name derivation for the eastern Midgley township of West Yorkshire.
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| The honour of Pontefract shown
in relation to the manor of Wakefield, West Yorkshire Key: Purple = The honour of Pontefract Blue = The manor of Wakefield |
Midgley near Wakefield lies on a geological formation called
the Middle Coal Measures where there are seams of coal and
self fluxing
ironstone close to the surface which have been worked in the
past. There is a large area of at least twenty-one shallow pit
iron workings ("bell pits") one mile to the S.W. of Midgley at Woodhouse
Farm. Bell pits for mining coal can also be seen in the vicinity of Newhall
Farm near Midgley. These bell pits date back to the 1200's before Sheffield
was using local iron ores and charcoal from the forested areas to manufacture
knives in the 1300's. The iron ore was mined from what is now known
as the Tankersley Seam which was interbedded with local coal seams,
this iron ore ran in a band of about 35cm in thickness. Wood for preparing
the charcoal was used to smelt the ore into iron in local furnaces
near Emley.
Wood was taken from Bank Wood [Furnace
Grange] between Emley and Midgley and later from Cannon
Greve (at nearby Cawthorne) where it was being sold in the
1300's as fuel for smelting iron ore5.
The chemical process in the bloomery
or furnace involved the following steps:
1. 2C+ O2 = 2CO oxidation of the
carbon to carbon monoxide
2. CaCO3
= CaO + CO2 calcium carbonate is decomposed
to calcium oxide
3. Fe2O3
+ 3CO = 2Fe + 3CO2 reduction of the iron
oxide to iron using CO from step 1.
4. SiO2
+ CaO = CaSiO3 formation of slag from
silica gangue and calcium oxide formed in 2.
The iron ingots were transported along a packhorse route from Emley
down Thorncliffe and Lezzes Lanes to a ford in Bank Wood
then through Midgley to the River Calder, across the River
Calder to Horbury and York, some travelling by boat down-river
to Selby.
This movement of raw iron [pig
iron] between Emley and the River Calder probably led
to the development of a smithy industry in Midgley, from which
originated the production of wrought iron and devices known
as caltraps or devil-thorns as used in warfare. Consequently this
device became a charge on the Midgley coat of arms.
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Midgley, as Migelaia, and surrounding villages may owe their prescence
to the exploitation of these iron ore deposits from the
late 1100's. The Bentley Grange and Emley spoil heaps overlie
medieval cultivated strips this indicates that the strips
pre-date the Domesday Book and belong to the Anglian and Danish
settlement patterns of the 800-900's. It was common before
water power to site furnaces on moorland where the winds would assist
their work ["bloomeries"]. The ores from the Tankersley ironstone
bed were low in sulfur, unlike the coal, which made them easily
smelted, especially where the iron oxides were mixed with calcium
carbonate or were present as siderite. The iron ores lead to the
appearance of chalybeate springs in the area. Coal was ignored until
the 1200's4
Monasteries such as Byland,
Fountains and Rievaulx ran mines in the area. The Lord of
Elmley gave the Cistercian monks of Byland Abbey [near Thirsk]
iron ore and enough fuel to supply one furnace here at Bentley
Springs near Woodhouse Farm.11 Indeed, Byland Abbey
held lands here from a number of local families. At Bentley Grange, where the
Tankersley seam outcrops amongst the shallow coal seams are a large number
of circular 'bell pits' [some have been obliterated by later strip mining]
were dug by the monks of Byland between the 1100's and 1500's. Fountains
Abbey, the Cistercian monastery was no exception running mines here
for iron in the 1250's.
The area in the 1100-1400's was
heavily forested forming part of the great forest which
ran north from Nottingham to North Yorkshire. This area was inhabited
by charcoal
burners, foresters and fugitives who helped to inspire
the Robyn Hode ballads. By the 1500's wood supplies were beginning
to decline, the great forests were becoming depleted.
In 1515 at Flockton Edge, shallow
coal pits (Day Holes* or Dene Holes) now marked by clumps
of trees were worked. Others can be found in the vicinity of New
Hall Farm. The coal was taken from pits here where it outcrops on
the steep valley sides. The pits are shallow because of the risk
of the sides caving in. Some of the pits had short galleries extending
out from the base similar to those found at the flint mines at Grimes
Graves in Norfolk4 By the 1530's the monasteries
were being closed and the ownership was being transferred to protestant
entrepreneurs. One such was the Kay family who bought lands near
Honley from the Crown after the closure of the monasteries. They continued
mining the coal that the monks had mined, using it to burn lime for
the fields and in a smithy built in 15734
Towards the end of the 1500's coal
began to be in greater demand, which was mainly used for
making agricultural lime. Adits allowed the water to drain
away from mines, but water was a big problem until pumps were
available, so that Bell-pits and Day holes could no longer used.
During the 1600's the Spencers' of Cannon Hall,
Cawthorne had iron production occuring at Bank Furnace in the Thornhill
Parish.
During the Middle Ages (1100-1500) the village of Midgley became a hostelling
point on the North Road [referred to from the 1100's as "The King's Highway"]
from Halifax through West Bretton village to Barnsley and Wakefield with
a packhorse route lying to the east from the Hathersage area in Derbyshire
to Wakefield. No doubt this packhorse route carried many
million's of woolpacks,
of which England's wealth depended from the early Middle
Ages.
The North Road or "King's Highway"
was a pre-industrial age road running from the North (Hexham),
through Barnard Castle, Richmond, Skipton, Keighley, Halifax,
Darton, Barnsley, Rotherham, Nottingham and south to London.
*sufficient to
provide a family with coal day by day.
Domesday only refers to part
of Sitlington vill [village]12 Medieval Sitlington
was composed of four hamlets13 which included:
* Nether Midgley (from Old English neotherra or lower), half
a mile downhill from Over-Midgley previously Nether
Sitlington [now Netherton]
* Over Midgley (from Old English
uferra or upper). This is marked on maps as Midgley
today.
* Sitlington now Middlestown.
* Over-Sitlington (now Overton) in the township of Middle-Sitlington,
parish of Thornhill
* New Hall, described as a farm-house
in the township of Sitlington, parish of Thornhill in
1822.
See photographs
of New Hall manor moat and the farm buildings
See mudmap of
New Hall and Midgley [print off 'landscape'].
In the late 1000's-early 1100's Swein the son of Ailric
the Danish-Anglian who held title to the Manor of Cawthorne
about the time of Domesday Book held lordship over Newhall ("Newhale")
as well as Cawthorne, Kexborough, Gunthwaite, Penistone, Worsborough,
Carlton, Brierley, Walton, Mensthorpe, Wrangbrook and Middleton.5
Brierley later represented the eastern part of the manor when
two grand-daughters of Ailric were made co-heiresses of the
estate. 
This name would indicate there is
an earlier hall, this could concievably have been in the
Danish homelands of Englet. The term "hall" is a particularly
Anglian one originally referring to the large and long building
used by the lord and for formal gatherings and occasions.
New Hall farm is today defended
on its south and eastern sides by a moat which would indicate
that it was at one time a moated manor.
| "Thomas de Horbyri, brother and heir
of John of Horbyri; to Sir Nicholas de Wortelay. The manor of Shetelingthon
with the homage and services of the free tenants in Netyhir shetelington; two water mills; one messuage and two carucates of land in Miggeley by Sheletington; and a parcel of land and wood called Stayniclif. Witnesses: Sir William FitzWilliam FitzThomas, Sir Robert de Baliol, Sir William de fleming, Sir Hugh de Eland, Sir John de Sotehill, Sir Roger FitzThomas, knights, Adam de Pontefract, John de Thornhill, John de Lasseles, Thomas de Dronfeld, Thomas de Quitlay,Robert de Barneby." Seal: red wax, vesica with impression of Virgin and child. |
*Christopher Saxton's map of Eboracensis (1577) on which Denby
Grange, Thornhill,
Netherton, Emley Hall and
Bretton Hall are mentioned.
* John Speed's map (1610) of the
West Riding of Yorkshire, on which are named, Netherton
and Bretton Hall.
*Willdey's pre-industrial map with
the "Halifax and Barnesley main road" or "Via
Magna"(1715).
*Thomas Moule's The County Maps
of Old England (1830) where Thornhill, Flockton
and Bretton are shown including
railways.
Field Systems
The early field systems appear
to have been convincingly oblitereated by changes to the
Anglian and later feudal patterns. This has principally
occurred since the time of widespread land enclosure during the
1700's when common land and early medieval field systems had large
changes imposed upon them.
See Google Midgley
Field patterns today between Midgley and Flockton |
*
Thornhill,
stones inscribed with runes and "pot-hook" lettering (a
form of debased continental lettering) have been found
from the 800's here. The lettering indicates influence from
Hexham at this time6. A moated manor had a commanding
view here up and down the Calder Valley.
The remains of The Hall now
lie to the North side of the moat. Here at Thornhill
Lees was a Norman court formerly the caput of the Thornhill
family who from their coat of arms appear to have feudal connections
with the Midgley family of Midgley.14 Thornhill later
became the seat of the Savile family.
See Thornhill s' of Thornhill
*The National Coal
Mining Museum at Overton on the site of Denby Grange Coal pit,
this is the oldest pit sunk
in Yorkshire (1791)
*Denby Grange near Overton which
had a hall here in 1577
*Stoneycliffe Wood Nature Reserve
which follows a stream north from Midgley to the
Calder River.
*New Hall
Farm, Midgley, a moat survives on the property which once protected
a hall and is 
likely to be post 1100. Halls were being established
in the late 1500's in the district
e.g. Whitley Lower and Denby Grange both in 1577.
*Hollinhirst to the east of Netherton
(O.E. meaning Holly Wood or Holy Wood)
*A sawmill in Midgley which operates
at the southern end of Stoneycliffe Wood, Job Earnshaws.
*The "Black Bull" public house,
Midgley
* Midgley Lodge Motel
*A colliery in Midgley (closed in the 1980's)
*Bullcliffe Colliery to the east
of Midgley which developed between 1961 and 1988.
*Open cast colliery (closed) half
a mile to the west of Midgley
*A church or chapel without a tower
or spire in Midgley.
*H.M. Female Detention Centre near
Flockton Green.
*Horbury Bridge which crosses the
river Calder, no longer in use.
*Cemeteries lie between Netherton
and Midgley and at Middlestown
*Cold Hiendley, Hiendley meaning
in O.E. wood frequented by hinds or does.
*Cumberworth (Upper & lower),
meaning O.E. enclosure of a man called Cumbra or of the
Britons O.E. personal name or O.E. Cumbre (compare with Cymry-the
Cumbrian Britons and Cymry the primitive Welsh form for "The Welsh")
The manor of Midgley which lay
in the parish of Thornhill is recorded by the Historical
Manuscripts Commission to have no documents relating to it
in any official or private repository. Records of account and
Court Rolls for Thornhill Parish are held at the Nottinghamshire
Archives10.
See
map of 1855 for Midgley Farm
And later the 1851 Census for Midgley gives some idea of the occupations
of the residents9:
| Coal miners 6 Farm Labourers 17 Scholars 15 Tailor 1 Pauper 1 House servant 2 Farmer 7 Farm Bailiff 1 Housekeeper 1 Nurse 1 |
Woodman 1 Hand loom weaver 1 wool comber 1 shoemaker 2 worsted factory girl 2 labourer 7 Blacksmith 1 Maltster 1 Retired farmer 1 |
From this it would appear that farming and coal mining were the
most common pursuits at this time and iron ore mining had
ceased.
The hamlet of Midgley
had 173 persons resident in 1851, of whom at least 81 were born there.
Midgleys of Cawthorne,
Normanton, Woodhouse and Hambleton
Links:
New Hall manor moat and the farm buildings
The Savilles'
of Thornhill
The Thornhills
of Thornhill
Arms of Midgley
West Yorkshire
Arms
Early Yorkshire
families
Anglian Life
Home
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Sources:
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