Kirkburton

The Ancient Parish of KIRKBURTON

[Transcribed information mainly from the early 1820s]

"KIRKBURTON, a parish-town, in Agbrigg-division of Agbrigg and Morley, liberty of Wakefield, 6 miles SE. of Huddersfield, 8 from Penistone, 11 from Wakefield, 39 from York. Pop. 2,153. The Church is a vicarage, dedicated to Holy Trinity, in the deanry of Pontefract, value, £13. 6s. 8d. Patron, the King.

The name and situation of this place, led Dr. Whitaker to conjecture, that a Saxon Fort once stood there. "Accordingly, at this place, the parish church, from, which there is a steep declivity on the north and west, the appearance of a ditch on the south, and a deep and narrow lane, at a corresponding distance on the east has every appearance of a Saxon Fort, though the keep has been levelled. In addition to these appearances, a small dike immediately adjoining to the Northeast, is still called the Old Saxe Dyke.

The present Church, built in the reign of Edward III. pays a pension of £4. per annum, as a mark of its dependence upon that ancient and fruitful Mother of Churches, Dewsbury, from which, it appears to have been severed, about the time of the first Earl of Warren.

The Burtons may be traced as Lords of this Manor, to the highest period of local names, in 1455, Edward Kaye, of Woodsome, Esq. was owner of this manor, by marriage of Isabel the daughter of Thomas Burton: it is now the property of Sir John Lister Kaye, Bart. of Denby Grange, his descendant. Whitaker's Loidis and Elmete."



Information on the following places in this Parish is contained on a supplementary page.

Arrunden Barnside Cartworth Fulstone Greenside Haddingley Hardingley Hepworth Highburton Holmfirth

Lane Head Linfit Lane Maythorn Meltham House Nether Shepley New Mill Royd House Scholes Scholes Cave Shelley Shelley Hill Top

Shepley Storthes Hall Thorncliffe Thurstonland Thuskin Holes Totties Town End Upper Cumberworth Wood Row Wooldale