In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Ecclesfield like this:
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.
Ecclesfield through time
Ecclesfield is now part of Barnsley district. Click here for graphs and data of how Barnsley has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Ecclesfield itself, go to Units and Statistics.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Ecclesfield, in Barnsley and West Riding | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/12384
Date accessed: 05th November 2024
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