Place:Thorner, West Riding of Yorkshire, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

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

Thorner is now a rural village and civil parish in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. Its population in 2001 was just over 1500 (source: UK census).

Thorner is situated close to the A1, A58 and A64 trunk roads. It is 8 miles (13 km) north-east of Leeds city centre and 7 miles (11 km) to the south-west of Wetherby. The underlying rock is limestone, some of which was burnt into lime and flagstone and slates were quarried.

Historically, Thorner was an ecclesiastical parish in the Lower division of the Skyrack Wapentake. From 1894 until 1974, Thorner was located in Wetherby Rural District. In 1974 the area became part of the Leeds Metropolitan Borough in West Yorkshire.

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

There is archaeological evidence of Bronze Age and Anglo-Saxon settlements, while the name St Osyth's Well, just west of the church, refers to a Viking Age saint.

The ancient parish of Thorner covered 4400 acres in the wapentake of Skyrack in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The parish included the townships of Scarcroft and Shadwell, which became separate civil parishes in 1866.

In 1245 it acquired a market, and the area around Main Street shows a typical Medieval layout of strips leading from a market street.^[1] The base of a medieval market cross is on Butts Garth. As well as farming, pottery was a local industry in the Middle Ages, supplanted by the textile industry in the 18th and 19th centuries.^[1]

Thorner railway station (which also served nearby Scarcroft and was originally called Thorner & Scarcroft, opened 1876 and closed 1964 under the Beeching cuts and was demolished and the area developed into housing. It was on the Cross Gates to Wetherby Line, which thereby gave access to Leeds and Harrogate, with some services running between these two extremes. This resulted in an increase in housing and a more widespread distribution of agricultural and industrial products^[1] with a substantial number of shops. The end of the annual agricultural show in 1924 indicates the lesser importance of farming to the community.^[2] However, from the 1950s local businesses declined as the village population increasingly commuted to larger centres such as Leeds.^[2]

The former Bishop's House at Eltofts, to the west of Thorner, was the Dower House of the Earls of Mexborough.

In 1970 the main part was designated a Conservation Area by Leeds City Council: in 2009 the area was extended to include the area of Sandhills to the south.^[1] This has essentially limited industrial development and restricted new housing to the surroundings.^[2] Many of the properties on Main Street are listed buildings along with St Peter's Church (grade II).

The church of St Peter is built in the later English gothic style and has a square embattled tower. In the graveyard is the memorial to John Philips, who lived to 118 years. A school was built by subscription in 1787, and is now the Parish Centre. Two former Methodist churches in Thorner are now closed, the nineteenth-century former chapel having been converted to flats.^[3]

Research Tips

• GENUKI on Thorner. The GENUKI page gives numerous references to local bodies providing genealogical assistance.
• The FamilySearch wiki on the ecclesiastical parish of Thorner provides a list of useful resources for the local area.
• A Vision of Britain through Time on Thorner.
• A Vision of Britain through Time also 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. Those listed here provide data for the part of the West Riding that transferred to North Yorkshire in 1974 plus the northern parts of Leeds and Bradford. These maps all blow up to a scale that will illustrate small villages and large farms or estates.

• Ordnance Survey West Riding 1888. The "Sanitary Districts (which preceded the rural districts) for the whole of the West Riding.
• Ordnance Survey Northern part of the West Riding 1900 The rural and urban districts, not long after their introduction. (rural districts of Sedbergh, Settle, Skipton, Pateley Bridge, Ripon, Knaresborough, Great Ouseburn, Clitheroe, Wharfedale, Wetherby, York, Bishopthorpe, Keighley, the northern part of Bradford, the northern part of Leeds, the northern part of Hunslet Urban District, the northern part of Tadcaster Rural District, the northern part of Selby Rural District). [Note: this map appears to be no longer available on the Vision of Britain website. This is unfortunate because the equivalent map from 1931-44 was redrawn after the 1938 reorganization of the rural districts in the northern part of the West Riding.]
• Ordnance Survey Northern part of the West Riding 1944. The urban and rural districts of the northern part of the West Riding (mostly Settle, Skipton, Ripon and Pateley Bridge, and Nidderdale, with sections of Wharfedale and Wetherby) after the revisions of 1938.
• Ordnance Survey Southern part of the West Riding 1944 shows the southern part of the West Riding (including the southern part of Wetherby Rural District).