Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for ECCLESFIELD

ECCLESFIELD, a township, a sub-district, and a parish in Wortley district, W. R. Yorkshire. The township lies 2 miles NE of Wadsley Bridge r. station, and 5 N of Sheffield. It contains the hamlets of Aldwark, Bellhouses, Birley-Carr, Bruckenhill, Burncross, Butter-thwaite, Chapeltown, Elm-Greenside, Hesley, High-Green, Hirst, Mortomley, Potters-Hill, Shire-Green, Nether-Shire, Skewhill, Southey, Thompson-Hill, Wadsley, Wadsley-Bridge, Whitley, Wincobank, and Wise-wood, and part of the village of Owlerton; and has a post office under Sheffield. Acres, 9, 810. Real property, £38, 943; of which £2, 150 are in mines, and £1, 050 in ironworks. Pop. in 1851, 10, 005; in 1861, 12, 479. Houses, 2, 493. The manor was known at Domesday as Eclesfelt, and belongs now to the Duke of Norfolk. Vestiges exist of a Roman fortification, with a deep trench, vulgarly termed the Devil's ditch. An alien Benedictine priory, a cell to the abbey of St. Wandragisilus in Normandy, stood at Ecclesfield; and was given, by Richard II., to the Carthusian monadtery of St. Anne at Coventry. Many of the inhabitants are employed in mining, in file-cutting, and in the cutlery trade. The sub-district is conterminate with the township. The parish contains also the township of Bradfield. Acres, 43, 540. Real property, £55, 394. Pop., 21, 568. Houses, 4, 189. The property is much subdivided. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of York. Value, £573.* Patron, the Duke of Norfolk. The church belonged to the ancient priory; bore formerly the name of Minster of the Moors; shows architectural characters which assign it to the latter half of the 15th century; possesses beautiful features; and was recently restored. The chapelries of Midhope, Chapeltown, Stannington, Wadsley, Oughtibridge, Bradfield, and Bolsterstone are separate benefices. There are several dissenting chapels. Sylvester's hospital has £104 from endowment; schools have £69; and other charities have £280. Two work-houses, for Wortley district, are in respectively Ecclesfield and Bradfield townships.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a township, a sub-district, and a parish"   (ADL Feature Type: "countries, 4th order divisions")
Administrative units: Ecclesfield AP/CP       Wortley PLU/RegD       Yorkshire AncC
Place names: ECCLESFIELD     |     ECLESFELT
Place: Ecclesfield

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