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
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TANNERY The
Leather, together with wool and wood, was one of the three indispensable items
in common usage and manufactured locally throughout the medieval and pre
industrial eras. The production of leather was a lengthy process and
required the use of much water and oak bark. The tannery at Knottingley was
situated at the edge of the common, where wasteland trees and streams
provided a natural resource for processing hide and in a location where the
noxious smell of the process of manufacture would be at maximum distance
from the local inhabitants.
TANNERS BAR CLOSE
A parcel of land in excess of two acres close to Low Green and located on the
north side of South Moor Lane. The presence of nearby buildings, shown on
the first edition of the Ordnance Survey Map, indicates a tannery abutting
the entrance to the Common Lane situated on the site now occupied by Thistle
ton farm. In the early nineteenth century the Tan Yard and croft were
occupied by Charles Turner who leased the site from Philip Schofield.
TARRAN HOUSES
Prefabricated houses situated at Southfield Lane, Knottingley and Crewe
Avenue, Ferrybridge. Built in response to the Temporary Housing Act
immediately following the end of the Second World War, these pre-cast
concrete, bolt together dwellings, described as the architectural equivalent
of an instant dinner, were a temporary measure to alleviate the housing
shortage of the period. Named after the designer, the dwellings were
supposed to have a maximum utility of fifteen years but are still occupied
almost sixty years later, many having been given a modernising facelift.
TEAZER TERRACE
Located in Marsh End, the name of this group of houses suggests a connection
with the local glass industry for although the date, 1866, predates the
establishment of the industry in Knottingley, it may reveal a connection
with Ferrybridge Glassworks. A teaser prepared the ‘batch’ materials which
provided the molten glass for working by the glassblower. The name ‘teazer’
arises from the function of the founder in skimming off the impurities from
the molten metal which was achieved by dropping a turnip into the furnace
which caused the impurities to rise to the surface for ease of removal.
TEMPERANCE HOUSE
A detached house situated in Womersley Road near the cemetery. Brick built in
the late nineteenth century, the house is notable for the stone bearing a
bass relief of the Temperance Movement badge situated above the door.
TEMPEST GARTH
Two acres of pastureland situated opposite Green House farm in Spawd Bone
Lane.
TENTERS CLOSE / BALK
A reference to the area in which cloth-stretching frames were located, the
cloth being hung on tenterhooks. Tenters Balk was situated on the south side
of what is now the bottom end of Ropewalk, providing access to the said
close. The site was subsequently occupied by the Methodist Chapel and the
National School.
THORN BANK
An area of land slightly in excess of three acres on the edge of the South
Field which probably takes its name from hawthorn trees on a balk or banking
marking the field boundary and the adjacent rough land.
THORN TREE FLATTS
A series of single strip holdings of about 26-27 perches situated within the
Middle Field and lying between middle Lane and Racca Field Lane. The area
containing the Flatts was rich in limestone and extensively excavated from
the mid nineteenth century. One strip, the ownership of which could not be
identified, was left unexcavated and forms a ‘breasting’ or land barrier
between the defuct Jacksons Quarry and the lime quarry formerly owned and
worked by the late Mr. Jack Hargraves’ Knottingley Lime Co., until about
1962 and now the operational base for the Plasmor company.
THISTLETON CLOSE
The above site does not feature in the Enclosure Award Schedule but is listed
in the town rate Books of the mid nineteenth century. It is probable that
the close formed part of the holding situated at the Low Green end of Common
Lane, known as Thistleton Farm. The close name is most likely based on the
prevalence of thistles within or near its confines.
THROSTLE ROW
Not as may be thought named for the modern housing development but a reference
to the medieval strips in part of Longlands Field in the great South Field
close to its western extremity, hence the variant prefixes such as Near /
Far / Little / Throstle Row. The name is derived from the Old English ‘ruh’
meaning rough arable or grassland and the bird element from the profusion of
thrushes within the Longlands area. Following the abandonment of the open
field system consolidation of elements of the common fields occurred and as
a result the holding known today as Throstle Farm was established.
TITHE BARN / LANE
In the earliest period of Anglo-Christianity the church and clergy were
maintained by offerings from the laity with one quarter being utilised for
the personal support of the clergyman and the remainder used for the upkeep
of the church fabric and alms for the poor. At an indeterminate date the
system became regularised as a tithe which consisted of payment by all
inhabitants of one tenth of all the produce of the land. Following the
reorganisation of the parishes in the twelfth century each parish had its
own vicar or curate to whom such annual offerings were made. In addition,
the incumbent was allotted a series of strips within the open field system.
To accommodate the fruits of the land and the profits of the labour of the
peasantry, each parish had a tithe barn. In Knottingley the tithe barn was
first located in a foldyard close to the site of the Wildbore Manor House,
adjacent to the Church but at an unknown date it relocated to Primrose Vale,
close to the site of the present Elim Church and is well remembered by the
writer as a large limestone, cement rendered building, its size seeming
disproportionate to the size of the township and its population in earlier
times. At some point, probably during the eighteenth century, the barn and
its accompanying holding was leased out and the site became an urban
farmstead (tithes for the most part being commuted to money payment). With
the widespread urban regeneration of the town from the late 1950s, the Tithe
Barn area was scheduled for redevelopment and the barn and farm buildings
were demolished.
TOWN HALL The
Built by a limited company of local inhabitants on a parcel of land at the top
of the Ropewalk sold by Fanny and Emma Smallpage in 1865. The foundation
stone was laid by Sydney Woolf on the 29th September 1865 and the building
was opened on the 14th September 1866.
In 1902 the Town Hall was purchased by Mr. J.G. Lyon and donated to the
township of Knottingley and served for many years as the social hub of the
town as well as its administrative centre, being the offices of the Urban
District Council before transfer to The Close in the 1960s.
Following the reorganisation of local government in 1974 the Town Hall was
declared surplus to requirements by the new local authority and was in
danger of eventual demolition. In 1976 a management committee of local
citizens was formed and hard work and dedicated leadership has enabled many
crises to be overcome and ensured that the Town Hall remains of value to the
community to this day.
TRAMWAYS The
These were situated along the middle of Hill Top in the area between Forge
Hill and Marine Villa Road.
As the limestone quarries lying to the immediate south of the Hill Top were
developed it became necessary to convey the stone from the quarries to the
river (and later canal) wharf at the north side of the road. Tunnels were
excavated under the pillar of limestone left to support the highway and
wagon tracks were laid to enable trucks to pass under the roadway.
One tramway, belonging to William Moorhouse, was located close to the Bay
Horse Inn while a second was located slightly further east, serving the
quarry site now occupied by Morrisons’ supermarket.
The tramways were operational for a limited period of time and as excavation
progressed further away from the centre of the township recourse was made to
transport by horse and cart and numerous lime routes between the quarries
and the waterways bisected the length of the town.
TRUNDLES LANE / CLOSE
Lying between Marsh lane and Weeland Road, the name derives from ‘trendle’
describing something circular in shape such as the nearby bend in the river
known as bank Dole Reach at the eastern extremity of Marsh lane. Trendles
Lane, eventually becoming linguistically transformed as Trundles Lane,
connected the fields and water meadows alongside the river with the common
grazing land of South Moor.
Trundles Close was formerly known as Rye Royde, the name arising from the
profusion of rye grass in that location, being a common indication of
woodland clearance.
TOWN’S QUARRY
Originally the site of the manor house of the Wildbores, lords of the manor of
Knottingley during the sixteenth century. The house was demolished in 1844
to facilitate the excavation of the underlying limestone. By 1871, when
Forrest wrote his History of Knottingley, the site was described as “a green
and stagnant pool”. Part of the site was infilled in the late nineteenth
century to enable St. Botolph’s Churchyard to be extended and landscaped and
thus provide a new entrance to the church yard and later, (1895) space for
the erection of the parish rooms. The remaining part was used as a refuse
tip for almost a century before being refurbished as St Botolphs Memorial
Garden in the 1970s.
The origin of the name, Town’s Quarry, is obscure. In 1844 Michael Bentley, a
limeburner, purchased the site which had formerly belonged to the Long
family. Bentley was a prominent member of the Select Vestry and employed
parish paupers in the quarrying of the limestone on the site and thus by
occupational association, producing the name Town’s Quarry. Forrest states
that the Aire & Calder Navigation Co., were the owners in 1871 and the
township minute books reveal that the site became Church property about that
time. Regardless of ownership, the site was identified as the Town’s Quarry
for more than a century.
TURNERS ROPEWALK
Situated between Skew bridge and Kemp Bank and lying opposite the chemical
works to the east of the town, the land was owned by Thomas Seaton and was
the site of a ropewalk, shed and house worked by Hickson Turner and
established there following the opening of the canal in 1826.
TURNPIKE CLOSE
Turnpike Close was an enclosure of a little over 3 acres situated on the south
side of the Weeland Turnpike Road and took its name from its closeness to
the toll bar which was located just west of the said enclosure.
TURNPIKE ROAD / TOLL BARS
The Weeland Road Turnpike Trust, which was established by an Act of Parliament
in 1740, ran along the Pontefract Road and through Knottingley via the
Headlands and Spawd Bone Lane before skirting Racca Green and the Low Green
en route to Weeland near Snaith from 1745.
Tolls were payable at booths erected at Shilling Lane at the western extremity
of the town and at a bar house located at the east of Low Green. Initially,
tolls were granted for a period of 21 years but the entitlement was extended
and only ceased to be levied officially in 1879. However, in practice, apart
from an occasion in 1875 when 13 donkeys were passed through the Low End bar
at a charge of one penny each, no tolls were collected there after 1858.
The decline in the collection of tolls was probably due to the increased use
of the Hill Top – Banks Lane route after the construction of the canal
between 1820-1826 which resulted in a gradual decrease in the use of the
Turnpike route. The decline in the use of the Turnpike route was reinforced
by the construction of the Wakefield – Goole railway in 1848 which cut
through the line of the road close to the bottom of Spawd Bone Lane. The
existence of the toll bars was increasingly regarded as an imposition and in
1877 when William Worfolk refused to pay a charge at the Shilling Hill
barrier his action was endorsed by the presentation of a public petition
seeking the closure of the toll bars and the winding up of the Turnpike
Trust. As a result, the year following the trustees decided not to seek
renewal of their franchise and the Trust ceased to exist in 1879.
TWISTLETON CLOSE
A five acre site situated at Common Lane end and named as Twistleton Close in
the Enclosure Award Schedule, the site probably developed into the urban
farmstead known as Thistleton farm during the second half of the nineteenth
century.
URBAN FARMSTEADS
By the mid nineteenth century land consolidation had resulted in the existence
of numerous homesteads within the more populated central area of Knottingley
and the presence of large agricultural units in the peripheral areas of the
township. As the pace of commercial and demographic development intensified
and presaged the industrial development of the last quarter of the century,
the former semi-rural homesteads were in effect transformed into small urban
farmsteads. Varying in size from between 10 and 20 acres, compared with
those in the still open areas of the town being from 80 to 120 acres in
size, the small urban sites were increasingly unviable so that the owners of
such units were generally compelled to combine farming activity with
pursuance of a trade or occupation to attain sufficient livelihood. The
pressure of urbanisation allied to national legislation and the agricultural
depression of the final quarter of the nineteenth century resulted in the
gradual decrease in local farmsteads from 17 in 1871 to 8 in 1901.
Nevertheless, a few urban sites survived well into the last century and as
late as the 1930s working farmsteads were in existence at Spawd Bone Lane,
Racca Green and two sites at Low Green.
Terry Spencer
INDEX |
A-B |
C-D |
E-F |
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H |
I-J |
K-L |
M-N |
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Q-R |
S | T-U |
V-W |
YARDS |
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