FIELD SYSTEMS AND PLACE NAMES
OF OLD KNOTTINGLEY

TERRY SPENCER B.A. (Hons), Ph D.

INTRODUCTION : BEGINNINGS : DOMESDAY : PORT OF KNOTTINGLEY :
MANORIAL RE-ORGANISATION

GAZETTEER OF PLACE NAMES

INDEX | A-B | C-D | E-F | G | H | I-J | K-L | M-N | O | P | Q-R | S | T-U | V-W | YARDS |

OAKS CLOSE
An irregularly shaped field of six acres, shaped like an axe and lying in the great South Field at the edge of the boundary with Ferrybridge fields. Probably named from being near to oak trees which as well as acorns for feeding pigs, produced bark used in tanning leather.

OCEAN TERRACE
A row of houses at Marsh End, situated between Howards Field and the roadside. The property is one of a series of buildings constructed in the nineteenth century by mariners resident in the town. Others include Sarnia (the Roman name for Guernsey) in Cow Lane, L’Ancess (Guernsey Bay), Grove Cottage (Marsh End), Humber Cottages (Banks Lane - Weeland Road), Providence Row (The Ropewalk) and Ocean Cottages which stood in the Croft.
For a period of time one of the houses in Ocean Terrace served as the Congregational Church Manse.

OLD TOWN QUARRY
Situated behind Knottingley Workhouse and alongside Headlands Lane, this early quarry was used for the employment of able-bodied paupers on parish relief in the eighteenth century. It appears to have been worked out by the end of that century and was replaced by another site in the early nineteenth century.

ORCHARD The
Occupying an area between lower Aire Street and the Croft, this land, a little over an acre in extent, was originally named Cock Garth. By the mid nineteenth century the site contained houses and cottages in its upper part and fruit trees in the end nearest Cow Lane. The nature and name of the site was retained until the introduction of the Aire Street redevelopment scheme in the 1960s.

ORCHARD LANE
A lane opposite the old Bendles area which provided the site for Bagleys glassworks from the late nineteenth century. The lane was situated opposite the main entrance to the works and was later characterised by a single railway line running across Weeland Road along which Bagleys shire horses used to pull railway wagons containing white sand into the factory yard from the railway sidings opposite. Today the line of the Orchard Lane provides an entrance to the workshops opposite the factory but a little over a century ago led to land containing fruit trees. During the Second World War that part of the former orchard lying alongside Womersley Road provided a temporary home for a large circular water storage tank for use in wartime emergency.

Terry Spencer

INDEX | A-B | C-D | E-F | G | H | I-J | K-L | M-N | O | P | Q-R | S | T-U | V-W | YARDS |

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