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 |
QUARRIES
Too numerous to list (eg Quarry Pieces, Closes, Flatts, Holes etc), indicating
the extent of the extractive limestone industry which is recorded as early
as the thirteenth century but began to pick up pace in the seventeenth, was
widespread in the eighteenth century when the bulk of the stone in the
town’s central area was extracted, and reached its apogee in the nineteenth
century with large and small workings to the south side of the town, and
declined to a state of non-existence during last century.
Used in the preparation of leather, plaster, building, road making, glass and
as an agricultural fertiliser, lime was a valuable commodity which although
consuming a large amount of fuel was relatively easy to produce.
As wood became scarcer and therefore more expensive for use as fuel, the
limestone industry was one of the first to adapt to coal, particularly by
the mid nineteenth century when the construction of the Aire & Calder canal
and the development of local coal measures facilitated ease of supply and
transport.
By the eighteenth century the purchase of land with underlying limestone
strata by a group of wealthy local businessmen resulted in an increase of
enclosed areas within the common fields and promoted the movement for
general enclosure of the town fields at the end of that century.
The quarries, a source of considerable wealth to a coterie of local lime
merchants whilst providing a livelihood for labouring men, have in effect
robbed the town of much physical evidence concerning its past history.
QUARRY COTTAGE
Standing in a semi-isolated location at the bottom of the east side of the
long defunct and partially in-filled Jacksons’ Quarry, this limestone built
house was probably erected originally for use by a ‘watcher’ whose task was
to undertake observation of the slow burning lime clamps during the hours
when the site was non operational.
The property was purchased by Bagley & Co., Ltd., after the quarrying ceased
and part of the site was used for tipping ashes and factory waste. During
the fuel crisis which occurred in the severe winter of 1947, dozens of
locals picked cinders from the tips, some to burn as fuel, others to sell
for profit.
Between the mid 1930s and 1960s the cottage was tenanted by the Tucker family
and continues to remain inhabited at this time.
QUARRY HOUSE
An imposing, detached house standing at the lower end of Hill Top and once the
residence of J.S. Bentley, auctioneer and valuer, prominent in the
administrative affairs of the township in the nineteenth century. The house
has no particular historical significance beyond the Bentley family
connection but because its deep foundations necessitated its being supported
on a series of arches in order to save construction costs, the resultant
‘tunnels’ gave rise to the myth of a subterranean passage connecting with
Pontefract Castle, a romantic fiction with no basis in fact.
RACCA CRABTREE
First listed in 1368 the name is derived from a wild apple tree situated
within the area known as the Racca and forming a characteristic landmark as
well as serving a useful function by providing crab apples for wine and
animal food.
RACCA FIELD / LANE
The Racca Field was a furlong lying within the East Field and occupying the
area lying approximately between the south side of Weeland Road and the
railway crossing at Womersley Road and to the east as far as the footpath
between the Broomhill and Springfields estates. Sub divisions of the Racca
Field have resulted in a plethora of associated strip names (eg High / Low /
Middle / Long / Short / Near / Far Racca / Racca Crabtree / Racca Field
Close, etc., etc.,) The road known as Womersley Road was originally named
Racca Field Lane, a name retained until the late nineteenth century and
formed the boundary line between the Middle Field and the East Field. The
land to the east of Racca Field Lane, lying beyond Broomhill was known as
Upper Racca.
RACCA GREEN
A site of secondary settlement adjacent to the Racca Field and Spring Field to
the south and Bendles Field to the west. The origin of the name ‘Racca’ is
uncertain and several theories have been advanced as probable explanations,
including the presence in the vicinity of racks for the drying and
stretching of newly manufactured cloth. The most probable explanation,
however, is that the name derives from the ancient dialect work ‘rack’
(derived from the racking gait of oxen and horses) for a lane or path
described as a ‘rackerway’. Such a one lay to the south of Cow Lane and was
the nucleus of Racca Green, and also the basis of the name of Racca Field
(i.e. locations identified by proximity to the rackerway known as Racca
Field Lane)
While an expanding settlement from its early beginnings, Racca Green retained
a largely rural appearance and although as early as the 1830s it was
proposed to fill in the Pinders Pond and make a road through the Green it
was not until the closing decades of the nineteenth century that it was the
subject of urban development with a metalled road cutting through the centre
with houses and shops augmenting and eventually outnumbering the more
ancient dwellings and features such as Pinders House, Pinders Pond and small
farmsteads.
RACCA HOUSE
A large detached house standing at the top end of Racca Green. The residence
of the Twaite family for over a century. In the second half of the last
century the hipped roof was removed and the building was put to commercial
use before bring renovated and converted as flats.
RADDINGS CLOSES
Two enclosures named respectively as Upper and Lower Raddings lying between
Banks Garth and Spawd Bone Lane. The name may be derived from either or both
of two elements of the Old Norse language indicating land in a nook or
corner and land cleared by assart, both being applicable to a site close to
a previous boundary of the common field system at Spawd Bone Lane. The land
formed part of the manorial holdings belonging to David Poole, and was then
owned by William Moorhouse before passing to William Jackson. The Upper
Raddings, a little in excess of 8 acres, was bisected by the railway line
constructed in the late 1840s. The Lower Raddings, slightly more than two
acres, had a series of randomly placed buildings including a more
substantial ‘L’ shaped structure erected on site sometime between 1842 and
1852, suggesting that a dwelling and homestead had been established by that
time. By the late nineteenth century a second ‘L’ shaped structure had been
added to the original one to form an imposing but unnamed dwelling house
which may be the one referred to in the 1881 census return as ‘Bentley’s
House’.
At some unknown later date the premises were sub-divided and now form two
separate dwellings.
RAIL CLOSE
Named for the proximity of the land to the fence which stood on top of the
rampart enclosing Cridling Park which abutted part of the boundary of the
East Field.
RAILWAY STATION The
By the mid nineteenth century Knottingley Station, situated to the south of
Hill Top on the edge of the former Waithwaite Field, was an important
railway junction serving all parts of the country. The carriages of the
Leeds and the York trains were linked here to form the London train in the
1860s but the importance of the towns rail link was somewhat diminished from
thereafter as new routes were developed which bypassed the town. The station
remained a quite substantial centre, however, with numerous platforms,
buildings and public facilities, including a W.H. Smith’s newspaper and
bookstall, and a large freight yard, until well into the following century.
The resultant passenger traffic supported trade fro the three hotels in the
vicinity of the station: The Commercial Hotel (1838), The Royal Albert Hotel
(1840 – later renamed as the Railway Hotel) and the Lancashire & Yorkshire
Hotel (1864).
In 1901 an approach to the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Co., by the Urban
District Council seeking the erection of a second railway station at the
east end of the town was rejected by the Company which claimed it was owed
money by the Council and although by the mid 1950s hope still remained that
a sub-station might be constructed at the Depot Field, the plan never
materialised.
The infamous Beeching review of the 1960s resulted in the severe curtailment
of passenger services, presaging the demolition of Knottingley Station and
reduction of its status to the present unmanned role of today.
RAMPART The
Known colloquially as ‘the ramper’ to later generations, the Rampart was the
balk or rein which surrounded the Cridling (deer) Park which marked part of
the eastern boundary of the great East Field of the manor of Knottingley. In
common with the King’s Standard, the Rampart has been the subject of much
speculation by later generations of local inhabitants, the most common
regarding the name as an indication of an iron age or other prehistoric
fortification.
RAWCROFT The / CLOSE
Part of the original arable land of the manorial vill, occupying the site
between the Flatts and Marsh End later known as Pickhill Garth, the
Rawcroft, also referred to as Rowcroft, was retained as Crown land in the
post feudal era and was a centre for the building and repair of vessels as
well as providing wharfage for the transhipment of goods and materials to
and from the adjacent King’s Storehouse.
RED HOUSE
One of a pair of brick built nineteenth century dwelling houses so named
because the brickwork was originally painted red. Situated at Marsh End next
to Ocean Terrace. The house was the last residence of H.T.B. Worfolk,
formerly of Skew Bridge House, the town’s Registrar of births and deaths in
the late nineteenth – early twentieth century. Following Worfolk’s death in
1920 the house had a number of occupants and at one period was the home of
successive commanders of the local Salvation Army Corps.
RIDGEWAY The
The strip land characteristic of the open field system of agriculture was
rendered accessible by earthen balks between the cultivated furlongs, hence
the name Ridgeway. The name is of great antiquity being based on the Old
English ‘hrycg’ or the Norse ‘hryggr’. As with the wider headlands, there
were innumerable ridgeways within the area of the manor but in common with
the road known as the Headlands today it is the Ridgeway running off Spawd
Bone Lane which alone perpetuates the former name.
ROPERS ARMS
A detached property standing close to the junction of Sunny Bank and Cow Lane
which between the 1830s and 1971 was a public house established by the
roper, Samuel Atkinson, and named as the Roper’s Arms. The premises were
subsequently converted into flats.
ROPEWALK The
The name is a reminder of the fact that at one time there was no less than six
locations in Knottingley which were associated with the manufacture of
ropes. The absence of any detail other than the name of the site prevents
positive identification of proprietorship. However, the Enclosure Award
Schedule refers to a Ropery owned by John Thompson near Tenters Balk and
although not featured in the Tithe Appointment of 1842, a conveyance of 1864
refers to “a private road, formerly a ropewalk” lying south of Cock Garth
and this suggests that a Ropewalk occupied the site at an early date in the
towns maritime history.
Connecting Weeland Road with Primrose Hill, a Census entry of 1841 refers to
Ropery Walk as a residential site, a fact which reinforces the probability
of the ropewalk’s existence and demise at a period before the nineteenth
century. The fact that the Ropewalk is perpetuated by the definite article
may be an indication that the ropery was the first of its kind within the
town.
The Ropewalk was restricted to pedestrian use until well into the twentieth
century.
ROPEWALK METHODIST CHAPEL
Members of the Methodist religion were recorded within the town in 1784 and by
1788 were using Dame Gawthorpe’s cottage on Low Green as a meeting place.
The first chapel was erected in 1799 in Gaggs Yard, off Aire Street, but
with seating for only 150 it proved too small and in 1816 a new 380 seat
chapel was built on Primrose Hill. The chapel was partially demolished and
extended in 1834 and again in 1839. Such was the popularity of Methodism
that in December 1844 a plot of land in Tenters Balk (Ropewalk) was
purchased and the following year John Carter laid the foundation stone of a
new chapel which was opened in June 1846. Before April 1844, when a clock
was installed in the tower of St. Botolph’s Church, the sole public building
in Knottingley to have a public clock was the Ropewalk Methodist Chapel.
Early in the twentieth century a Sunday School was built adjacent to the
chapel but following the decline in religious observation following the
Second World War, the chapel was demolished in 1977 and the adjacent
schoolroom adapted to serve as the place of worship. The chapel has a
graveyard containing memorials to several former mariners and local
dignitaries.
ROTHERY’S CROFT
Crofts or closes were small enclosures for tillage or pasture. Rothery’s Croft
was a small area situated near the junction of the Croft and Cow Lane which
whilst probably of ancient origin takes its name from the Rothery family,
professional gardeners, who were resident at Cow Lane by the late eighteenth
century.
ROUGH
A one acre site adjacent to Ferrybridge Potteries which may be an alternative
name for the land belonging to the township known as the Swineholes.
ROUGHSTORTH
Identified as early as 1368, the name of this parcel of land is derived from
the Old English ‘ruh’ = rough / ‘storo’ = plantation and is therefore rough
land close to a plantation. The name had changed by the time of the
Enclosure Award in the late eighteenth century and its disappearance
prevents identification of its location but it may be the Swineholes site
also known as Rough, which may be an abbreviation of Roughstorth.
ROUND ACRE
Neither round nor an acre, this three acre plus field was in fact square
shaped being formed from former peasant strips within the Middle Field close
to Waterfield Hill, near Middle Lane.
ROUND HOUSE The
The name derives from the beehive shaped ‘pot’ furnace which characterised the
bottle house which feature in the engravings showing glass manufacture in
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The Round House was of later
origin, however, being established on a site at Low (Fernley) Green,
adjacent to the canal bank, in February 1874 when a partnership of three
glassblowers and a blacksmith began to manufacture flint glass containers.
The site is now occupied by a modern glassworks known since the late
nineteenth century as the Hope Glassworks and still associated in the public
mind with the Gregg family who were the proprietors during most of last
century.
The Round House was also the name given to one of the Warren Hill mills
following its conversion as a dwelling house.
ROYDES. LOW / HIGH
From the Old English ‘rod’ meaning a clearing in a woodland, the name of the
two sites known as Low and High Roydes, is an indication of the process of
assarting which took place on the fringes of the open fields in the early
Middle Ages. In this case the clearance was to extend the area of the East
Field, a fact confirmed by the adjacency of Stocking Lane which provided
access to the Roydes which lay to the south between Weeland Road and South
Moor Lane at Kemp Bank.
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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