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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 Wakefield Manor, 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 (The order of which Richard
Tuck the Friar was supposedly a member), 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 Middleton5. 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.
1851
census for Midgley's of Wakefield Region 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
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Sources:
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