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- the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia
Since 1974 Rothwell has been a town in the southeast of the City of Leeds metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England, situated between central Leeds and Wakefield.
The town is in the Rothwell ward of Leeds City Council and is part of the West Yorkshire Urban Area. At the 2011 census the ward had a population of 20,354. The town is close to the A1/M1 link road. The nearest railway station is Woodlesford.
The following description from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72 is provided by the website A Vision of Britain Through Time (University of Portmouth Department of Geography).
- "ROTHWELL, a village, a township, and a [registration] sub-district, in Hunslet[registration] district, and a parish partly also in Wakefield [registration] district, [West Riding of] Yorkshire. The village stands 1¾ mile W S W of Woodlesford [railway] station, and 4 S E of Leeds; and has a post-office under Leeds.
- "The township contains also the hamlets of Rothwell-Haign, Thwaitegate, and Rhodes-Green; and comprises 3,186 acres. Real property: £17,373; of which £6,840 are in mines, and £50 in gas-works. Population in 1851: 3,052; in 1861: 3,220. Houses: 665. The manor of [Rothwell] belonged formerly to the Lacys, and belongs now to J. Calverley, Esq. [Rothwell] Haigh and Rhodes Green are separate manors. Remains exist of a castle of the Lacys. [Rothwell] Haigh, Haigh Park, and Stourton Villa are chief residences. The debtors' jail for the liberty of Pontefract was here, and previously was a poor-house. There are a nursery-ground, a malt-house, a seed-mill, a corn mill, glue-works, rope and twine-works, and extensive collieries.
- "The [registration] sub-district contains also the township of Middleton, and comprises 4,983 acres. Population in 1851: 4,029; in 1861: 4,122. Houses: 872.
- "The parish contains likewise the townships of Thorpe, Oulton with Woodlesford, and Lofthouse with Carlton; and comprises 8,715 acres. Population in 1851: 7,541; in 1861: 8,072. Houses: 1,740. The, property is much subdivided. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Ripon. Value, £850.* Patron,J. Brandling, Esq. The church is very ancient, and was recently restored. The p. curacies of Middleton, Loft-house, and Oulton-with-Woodlesford are separate benefices. There are several Wesleyan chapels, two Primitive Methodist chapels, several public schools, and charities £14."
GENUKI provides a description of the ecclesiastical parish of Rothwell from a gazetteer from the 1820s. It was in the Agbrigg division of the Agbrigg and Morley Wapentake.
History
One of the royal lodge's documented owners was John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster. The parish church (Church Street) is dedicated to Holy Trinity and is on the site of an Anglo Saxon predecessor. The current church, which has a ring of eight bells, is of medieval origins but was substantially rebuilt in the 19th century: the tower retains medieval fabric believed to be from the 15th century.
John Blenkinsop (1783–1831), a pioneer in the use of steam locomotives on the nearby Middleton Railway, is buried at Holy Trinity Church.
The town was granted the rights of a market town in the 15th century and a twice-yearly fair.
Rothwell has a long history of coal mining. It was a site of early mining, using a system known as bell pits. Coal mining has been carried out in the area for over 600 years. There were many local pits including the Fanny, the Rose and Rothwell Water Haigh. As the reserves as Rothwell Haigh Colliery were exhausted, production ended on 9 December 1983, with the majority of the 650 men employed transferring to the new [[wikipedia:Selby Coalfield|Selby Coalfield. Whereas some mineworkers moved house closer to Selby, many commuted daily from Rothwell to Selby for years. After closure, the old coking plant site at Haigh Colliery remained within the Coal Products Division of the NCB until privatisation in 1994, at which point former employees banded together to buy the site and later sold the site to a housing developer.
Rothwell Urban District
Rothwell was constituted an urban district in the West Riding of Yorkshire under the Local Government Act 1894. In 1937 it was expanded by taking in the Methley urban district and Hunslet Rural District. This district included the areas of Rothwell, Oulton, Woodlesford, Stourton, Carlton, Robin Hood, Lofthouse and Thorpe, and, after 1937, Methley. The Rothwell Urban District had a total population of around 25,000, but if it still existed today, that figure would be closer to 30,000. In 1972 these areas were taken into the newly formed City of Leeds Metropolitan District, although Thorpe, Lofthouse, Carlton and some parts of Robin Hood have a Wakefield postcode.
The urban district was incorporated into the City of Leeds metropolitan borough, West Yorkshire by the Local Government Act 1972. Its inclusion in the Leeds district as opposed to the Wakefield metropolitan district was controversial: originally planned for the Leeds district, it was added to the Wakefield district at the request of residents, but then moved to the Leeds district by the House of Lords.
The Districts of Leeds Metropolitan Borough established 1974
Research Tips
- British History Online (Victoria County Histories) do not cover the West Riding of Yorkshire
- GENUKI has a page on all three ridings of Yorkshire and pages for each of the ecclesiastical parishes in the county. Under each parish there is a list of the settlements within it and brief description of each. The list is based on a gazetteer dated 1835 and there may have been a number of alterations to the parish setup since then. However, it is worthwhile information for the pre civil registration era. GENUKI provides references to other organizations who hold genealogical information for the local area. There is no guarantee that the website has been kept up to date and the submitter is very firm about his copyright. This should not stop anyone from reading the material.
- The FamilyTree Wiki has a series of pages similar to those provided by GENUKI which may have been prepared at a later date from more recent data. The wiki has a link to English Jurisdictions 1851 which gives the registration district and wapentake for each parish, together with statistics from the 1851 census for the area.
- A Vision of Britain through Time, Yorkshire West Riding, section "Units and Statistics" leads to analyses of population and organization of the county from about 1800 through 1974. There are pages available for all civil parishes, municipal boroughs and other administrative divisions. Descriptions provided are usually based on a gazetteer of 1870-72.
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- The above three maps indicate the boundaries between parishes, etc., but for a more detailed view of a specific area try a map from this selection. The oldest series are very clear at the third magnification offered. Comparing the map details with the GENUKI details for the same area is well worthwhile.
- Yorkshire has a large number of family history and genealogical societies. A list of the societies will be found on the Yorkshire, England page.
- In March 2018 Ancestry announced that its file entitled "Yorkshire, England: Church of England Parish Records, 1538-1873" has been expanded to include another 94 parishes (across the three ridings) and expected it to be expanded further during the year. The entries are taken from previously printed parish registers.
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