Dewsbury Yorkshire Family History Guide

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Dewsbury Parishes

History

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

DEWSBURY, a town, a township, a parish, a sub-district, and a district in W. R. Yorkshire.

The town stands partly on the declivity of a gentle eminence, partly in a vale, on the river Calder, adjacent to the Leeds and Huddersfield railway, near other railways and the Huddersfield canal, 8¼ miles NE of Huddersfield.

It dates from very ancient times; was the place where Paulinks preached in the 7th century, and the centre whence the Christian doctrines spread over the vale of Calder.

It presents now a modern appearance, yet includes some streets of quaint antique character; contains the parish church, rebuilt in 1667, St. Mark’s church, built in 1865 at a cost of £7,000, West-Town and Dewsbury-Moor churches, eight non-established places of worship, two n. schools, a charity school with £108 a year, some other charities, a mechanics’ institute, a free masons’ hall, a large market-place, a head post office, two railway stations (one of them of 1865), and two banking offices; and publishes two weekly newspapers.

Markets are held on Wednesdays and Saturdays; and fairs on the Wednesday before 13 May and the Wednesday before 11 Oct.

Traffic is carried on in connexion with corn-mills, lime-works, and collieries; manufactures are carried on in woollen yarn, worsted yarn, leather, malt, cast-iron, and nails; and large establishments exist for blankets, carpets, and especially woollen cloths of almost every description, from coarse to fine, from shoddy to pure woollen.

The town was incorporated in 1861, and is governed by a mayor, aldermen, and a common council; and, by the reform act of 1867, it acquired the right of sending a member to parliament.

The borough is regarded as conterminate with the township; but, in that view, includes some hamlets. Acres, 1, 392. Real property, £48, 324; of which £540 are in gas-works. Pop., 18, 148. Houses, 3, 639.

The parish comprises Dewsbury, Soothill, and Ossett-with-Gawthorpe townships in Dewsbury district, and Hartishead and Clifton hamlets in Halifax district. Acres, 9, 768. Real property, £93, 286; of which £3, 950 are in mines and quarries. Pop. in 1841, 23, 806; in 1861, 34, 988. Houses, 7, 167.

The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Ripon. Value, £290. Patron, the Crown. The vicarages of West-Town, Dewsbury-Moor, Earls-Heaton, Hanging-Heaton, Batley-Carr, Ossett-with-Gawthorpe, and South-Ossett, and the p. curacies of St. Mark and Hartshead-with-Clifton, are separate benefices. Value of West-Town, D-Moor, and H. Heaton, each £150; of E-Heaton, £164; of B-Carr, £150; of Ossett, £300; of S. Ossett, £170; of Hartshead, £230. Patron of St. Mark, the Bishop; of S. Ossett, alt. the Crown and the Bishop; of the others, the Vicar of Dewsbury.

The sub-district is conterminate with the township.

The district comprehends also the sub-district of Soot-hill, conterminate with Soothill township; the sub-district of Ossett, conterminate with Ossett-with-Gawthorpe township; the sub-district of Mirfield, conterminate with Mirfield parish; the sub-district of Gomersal, conterminate with Gomersal township in Birstall parish; the sub-district of Liversedge, containing Liversedge and Heckmondwicke townships in Birstall parish; the sub-district of Thornhill, containing Thornhill and Lower Whitley townships in Thornhill parish; and the sub-districts of Morley and Batley, conterminate with Morley and Batley townships in Batley parish.

Acres, 24, 456. Poor-rates in 1862, £17, 643. Pop. in 1841, 69, 709; in 1861, 92, 883. Houses, 19, 369. Marriages in 1860, 1, 000; births, 3, 982, of which 260 were illegitimate; deaths, 2, 200, of which 1, 110 were at ages under 5 years, and 20 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 7, 794; births, 34, 162; deaths, 20, 353.

The places of worship in 1851 were 22 of the Church of England, with 15, 129 sittings; 12 of Independents, with 7, 492 s.; 6 of Baptists, with 1, 394 s.; 1 of Quakers, with 266 s.; 2 of Moravians, with 775 s.; 25 of Wesleyan Methodists, with 11, 286 s.; 4 of New Connexion Methodists, with 1, 182 s.; 14 of Primitive Methodists, with 1, 967 s.; 6 of Wesleyan Reformers, with 802 s.; 1 of the New Church, with 114 s.; 8 undefined, with 1, 131 s.; and 1 of Latter Day Saints, with 310 s.

The schools were 39 public day schools, with 3, 984 scholars; 130 private day schools, with 4, 675 s.; 78 Sunday schools, with 13, 267 s.; and 12 evening schools for adults, with 289 s.

Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].

Parish Registers

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The Registers of Dewsbury Yorkshire V. 1 1538 to 1653

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Parish Records

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