Wath Upon Dearne, Yorkshire, England. Geographical and Historical information from 1750.

WATH UPON DEARNE:
Geographical and Historical information from the year 1750.

"WATH UPON DEARNE, (given as "WATH UPON DON") a parish in the West Riding of Yorkshire, or WATH UPON DEARN, on the N. side of Rotheram, is a large parish with 3 divisions, viz. Wath, Swinton, and Wentworth. Wath bel. to the marquiss of Rockingham, and gives him title of baron, as well as Malton and Hanowden. In a neighbouring wood are plain marks of the Ikenild-Street Romanway. Here is a ch. sc."

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"WENTWORTH, in the parish of Wath upon Dearne, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, 3 m. N.W. of Rotheram, is a large chapelry, with several hamlets, and 2 or 300 houses. The Wentworth family has flourished ever since the Conquest, at their seat here, called Wentworth-Woodhouse, of which estate they have been possessed ever since Henry III. The great Tho. Wentworth Earl of Strafford, who was beheaded in the R. of Charles I. lived here, and was interred in this church. It was the seat of his great grandson, the late Marquis of Rockingham, who so improved it, that few in Great-Britain exceed it. The house is built in imitation of Earl Tilney's at Wansted, on the S. E. side of a hill, and extends 200 yards in the principal front, and from the farthest end of the S. avenue to that of the N. 'tis above 3 m. The park, which is about 8 m. in com. is beautified with fish-ponds, woods of large timber, and innumerable plantations, particularly one coppice of 100 acres, adorned with statues. Here is a grove of old fir-trees, and a mount raised about 100 feet high in the perpendicular, on the top of which is a summer-house, that commands an extensive view over a rich and beautiful Co. bel. to, the family, whose benefactions to the curate and the poor of Wentworth, amount to above 200 l. a year. At this village there is a ch. sc. also, where 25 boys, and as many girls, are taught and cloathed for ever, at the expence of Thomas Wentworth, nephew to the abovementioned Earl, and grandfather to the late Marquis."

[Transcribed by Mel Lockie © from
Stephen Whatley's England's Gazetteer, 1750]