Place:Alverthorpe, West Riding of Yorkshire, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Alverthorpe is a suburb of, and former village in, Wakefield now in West Yorkshire, England.

History

After the start of the Industrial Revolution woollen and worsted yarns were spun and woollen and worsted cloth woven in the mills and factories that were built in the valley. Rope and twine were also manufactured.

In 1830 the township's population was 4,590 and in 1870 it had 1,423 houses and the population had risen to 6,645. (see below)

A. Talbot & Sons manufactured sweets for many years in a factory with a landmark chimney which was originally a rag mill. The company originated in 1890, selling wholesale groceries from a horse-drawn vehicle, but moved into [[wikipedia:boiled sweet manufacture when its sweet supplier, John Kay of Flushdyke, retired and gave it his recipes. The company's humbugs, mint imperials, toffees and Yorkshire mixtures became popular throughout Yorkshire and further afield. The Talbots ran the business until the mid-1960s.

Governance

Alverthorpe and Thornes was anciently a township which included Westgate Common, Flanshaw, Kirkhamgate and Silcoates in the ecclesiastical parish of Wakefield in the wapentake of Agbrigg and Morley in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The town hall was in Green Lane, and it had a workhouse off Light Lane, as well as its own sewage farm and slaughterhouse.

After the passing of the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, Alverthorpe became one of the 17 constituent parishes of the Wakefield Poor Law Union formed in 1837.

end of Wikipedia contribution

A Vision of Britain through Time states that it became part of Wakefield in 1894. Kirmhamgate also became a civil parish at this time, but parts of it were absorbed by various surrounding civil parishes until in 1936 the remainder of it was absorbed by the parish of Stanley. ibid.

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Alverthorpe from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"ALVERTHORPE, a village, a township, a chapelry, and a [registration] subdistrict in Wakefield parish, [West Riding of] Yorkshire. The village stands near the Midland railway, 1½ mile NW of Wakefield; and has a post office under Wakefield. The township bears the name of Alverthorpe with-Thornes; lies partly within the borough boundaries of Wakefield; and contains the hamlets of Fanshaw, Kirkham Gate, and Silcoates, and part of the hamlet of Newton. Acres: 3,153. Real property: £23,690. Population: 6,645. Houses: 1,423. The property is much subdivided.

"The chapelry was constituted in 1830. Population: 4,590. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Ripon. Value: £300. Patron: the Vicar of Wakefield. The church is large, modern, and handsome. There are three Methodist chapels, the Northern Congregational grammar school, four national schools, and charities £50.

"The [registration] subdistrict is co-extensive with the township.

Research Tips

• GENUKI on Wakefield. The GENUKI page gives numerous references to local bodies providing genealogical assistance.
• The FamilySearch wiki on the ecclesiastical parish of Wakefield provides a list of useful resources for the local area.
• A Vision of Britain through Time on Wakefield.
• A Vision of Britain through Time provides links to maps of the West Riding, produced by the United Kingdom Ordnance Survey, illustrating the boundaries between the civil parishes and the rural districts at various dates. The location of individual settlements within the parishes is also shown. These maps all expand to a very large scale.

• Ordnance Survey West Riding 1888. The "Sanitary Districts (which preceded the rural districts) for the whole of the West Riding.
• Ordnance Survey West Riding North 1900 and Ordnance Survey West Riding South 1900. The rural and urban districts, not long after their introduction. NOTE: In 2022 the map of the southern section is not available through the Vision of Britain website. It is unknown if this omission is accidental or if the copy used by the university has been damaged in some way.
• Yorkshire West Riding South and Yorkshire West Riding North revised_1944. These two maps illustrate the urban and rural districts of the whole of the West Riding after the revisions of 1935.
• A further useful map on A Vision of Britain through Time is a boundary map dated 1917. This shows all the boundaries of villages, townships and parishes in the Holmfirth area.