Market Cross and Memorial
A charter to hold a weekly market and annual fair at Thornhill was granted by Edward II to Sir John de Thornhill as early as 1318, and the market place marked with a stone cross. Very little remains of this, but what there is lies at the meeting point of several routes, in an area known as The Town. The market cross lies at the base of a susequent memorial to Ridley Rewcastle, Clerk of Works of the Savile Estates, who died in April 1856. He was evidently well respected as the memorial was placed there by the agent, builders and other friends on the estates as a mark of appreciation and respect. The Saviles owned most of the land in and around Thornhill.
Combs Road Girls School
Built in 1869, this was once a thriving girls school but was in need of restoration when this photo was taken, although it has now been rescued. At one time the headmistress of this school and the one next door (the Grammar School) were sisters, and the two schools joined together at times for certain events. The side wall of the school bears this Coat of arms. Once a year the girls had an outing to Rectory Park.
The Greenwood Grammar School
This boys school was founded by the Reverend Charles Greenwood who left £500 towards it in his will. The stone building, which is dated 1642, cost £250 and the schoolmaster, who probably lived in an attached master's house was paid £20 a year. Boys usually had to pay to attend, although some poor boys were allowed in free. By 1669 one Richard Wilson was schoolmaster and boys had to pay 2 shillings a week for their board. But during that century the school sent at least 6 boys to Cambridge University. It became a National School in 1873. John Baines (1787–1838), a renowned English mathematician but also skilled in Latin, Greek and botany, was master there from around 1829 until his death. There are still some original school honours boards inside the building, which has sadly fallen into disrepair. It eventually became the boys' part of the Church of England schools, but has been disused since 1974.
Combs Hall
Originally a farmhouse, this old house was built in 1661. A small stone building in the grounds was once the brewhouse. There were once a row of cottages nearby but only the water pump shared by them all survives. The well it serves is about 24 feet deep.
The Pinfold
Nothing now remains of the medieval pinfold, once used to house stray lifestock, but its site is remembered in the name of the new street on the same spot.
Scarborough Fisheries
This building was once a barn or warehouse,originally built in 1843. It still has a beam extending to the side of the building on which a pulley would have been attached for raising heavy goods up to the top floor.
The Walker Free School
This is on Edge Lane, near the entrance to the present Thornhill J&I School. It was built as an elementary school in 1813 at the expense of local farmer, Richard Walker, and extended in 1896. The Reverend Richard Ellerby had also left £200 in 1831 towards its upkeep.
Until then the only schools in Thornhill had charged the children to attend, and many of the poorer people could not afford to send their children, even if they wanted to. Children were often expected to help with farm work at certain times of the year and with chores at home all year round. Even after the Walker school was opened, attendance was sometimes low both because of this, and because of difficulties in getting to school during periods of heavy snow or when illnesses such as whooping cough, measles or diptheria were rife.
Latest: This stone has recently been removed but is in safekeeping
Thornhill Edge Co-operative Store
This could be found at the corner of Albion Road and Edge Lane and consisted of a grocery department, drapery department and butchery department in a separate building with Reading Rooms above. There was also a co-op store on Combs Hill with Co-op butchers next door, and a branch of Middlestown Co-operative on Edge Road. Coincidentally a board member,chairman, director and president of the national Co-operative Wholesale Society (CWS) from 1895 to 1898, George Thorpe, was born in Thornhill in 1852. He was sent to work at Inghams Thornhill Colliery at the age of 7 until two of his
brothers were killed there in a fire, after which his parents wouldn't allow him to work there anymore. From a very poor family, he nevertheless decided to educate himself at nightclass and later the Mechanics Institute and Yorkshire College whilst working during the day in a mill. His mother had taught him about co-operation, sending him miles to the old Batley Carr Co-operative store for the family's groceries, and the day after he married, George joined the Co-operative Society as a member himself and began to advocate co-operation publicly. He secured election to the Dewsbury Pioneers Industrial Society Board and became its president in 1895. Three years later he was elected to the Board of Directors of the CWS.
Three outstanding vicars
The Brooke Memorial
This memorial to the Reverend Joshua Ingham Brooke (1836-1906) stands very close to the main entrance doorway to Thornhill church and commemorates a past incumbent who greatly benefited the village, particularly in the realm of education. Revd. Brooke was born in Honley to Thomas and Grace Charlotte Brooke (nee Ingham), a textile manufacturing family whose members seem all to have been philanthropists.
He was educated at Cheltenham College and University College, Oxford, achieving his B.A. in 1859 and M.A. in 1862. Meanwhile he had been ordained Deacon in 1860 and Priest in 1862. He then took up post as a curate in Retford (Notts) and Batheaston (Somerset) before briefly becoming vicar of Easthope (Herefordshire) in 1866. By 1867 he had been nominated by the Bishop of Ripon to the post of vicar of Thornhill which he took up, and here he stayed until 1888. In the meantime he had been made Rural Dean of Dewsbury in 1871, an honorary Canon of Ripon in 1883, and eventually left Thornhill when he became Archdeacon of Halifax in 1888. A member of the Northern Convocation, he was an able, influential and wealthy man. During his career he turned down the offered Bishoprics of Glasgow and even Pretoria. He was instrumental in having established the Bishopric of Wakefield, the first Bishop being appointed in 1888, and also helped found the Woodward Schools, a charity established to provide quality education in a Christian environment.
In Thornhill he determined to bring the opportunity of education to more of the children of his parish. Under his direction a new school was built for girls and infants in 1869 and the old Grammar School became the boys' church school and was enlarged in 1884. Revd. Brooke also organised the reconstruction and renovation of Thornhill church. A new nave was installed in 1877 but it wasn't until November 1879 that the church was able to reopen. The cost of all this building work came to over £40,000 over the course of 20 years or so, much of it contributed by Revd. Brooke and his family, Mr Henry Savile who owned the estates around Thornhill, and the Ingham family who owned the local colliery.
He had married Grace, the daughter of Lieutenant-General Godby, ADC to Queen Victoria in 1859 and they had 3 sons and several daughters together. However, his third son was killed in South Africa when serving with the Yorkshire Light Infantry.
Revd. Brooke retired from his post in Halifax in 1904 and died at his home, "Woolgreaves" at Newmillerdam, Wakefield, on 19th June 1906 having achieved during his career much for his congregation and the people of Thornhill.
The Revd. John Michell
The vicar of Thornhill from 1767 to 1793, the Revd. John Michell (1724-1793) was an outstanding scientist. Before taking up post at Thornhill he had been a Woodwardian Professor at Cambridge University but he did his most impressive scientific work at Thornhill. He invented the Torsion Balance in order to measure the density of the Earth, an instrument acquired after his death by an acquaintance of his, the Honourable Henry Cavendish. He only refined Michell's results yet today the process is known as "The Cavendish Experiment". Similarly Michell made a telescope whilst at Thornhill which the astronomer Herschell bought after Michell's death, and Herschell used this one in preference to his own! Michell was also the first to propose the existence of Black Holes! All this brought him to the attention of other prominent scientists of the day and the canal engineer and designer of the Eddystone Lighthouse, John Smeaton, visited him at the rectory in Thornhill to exchange ideas, as did the famous scientist Joseph Priestley and even Benjamin Franklin. Michell also delved into astronomy, geology, seismology and other scientific fields, and in each discipline produced pioneering thoughts and theories. He was the first to suggest earthquakes travel in waves, for instance, and the first to explain how magnets could be manufactured. For all his brilliance, however, it seems he was unable to carry through his ideas to a productive end, and others were left to develop his initial insights.
Michell was born in Nottinghamshire in December 1724, the son of Gilbert and Obedience, nee Gerrard. He was educated at Queen's College, Cambridge, obtaining his M.A. in 1752 and becoming a Fellow of Queens and a tutor there. By 1760 he was rector of St. Botolph's, Cambridge, holding the post of Woodwardian Chair of Geology from 1762 until his marriage to a Miss Williamson in 1764. Sadly his wife died the following year and it was not until 1773 that he married again, this time to a Nottinghamshire girl, Ann Brecknock. They had only one child, a daughter named Mary.
Yorkshire M.P. Sir George Savile took an interest him early on and in 1751 invited him to meetings of the Royal Society where he became a member in 1760. Savile became his patron, probably accounting for his appointment to Thornhill in 1767.
Revd. Michell's brother, Gilbert, who had been a London merchant, later came to live with him at the rectory and the two purchased many properties in the West Riding between them. The Revd. Michell died at Thornhill on 21st April 1793 and is buried there. Popular pressure led to two monuments to him in Thornhill church - a stone plaque commemorating his achievements in the tower and a blue plaque on an exterior wall.
Revd. John Rudd
Another early rector of Thornhill of note was John Rudd (c.1498 - 1579), in post there from 1558, but also vicar of Dewsbury from 1554 to 1570. he had a keen interest in map making and in 1561 was given 2 years leave from these posts to travel the country in order to make a map of England. He took with him his apprentice mapmaker, Christopher Saxton, who not only learnt how to survey the land and draw up his findings from his master, he is thought to have completed his unfinished work. Saxton (c.1540 - c.1610) was probably born near Ossett in the parish of Dewsbury. He later undertook his own survey of England beginning in 1574, and of Wales commencing 1577, but the speed at which he published his resulting maps suggests he probably built on Rudd's earlier work. Individual county maps were then sent to Lord Burghley, Queen Elizabeth I's Secretary of State, who compiled them into the "Atlas of England and Wales", published 1579, the first atlas of any country in the world.
Rudd's map of the Isle of Wight and the Hampshire coast (pictured) was of particular importance at the time, as the island was heavily defended in order to protect the approach to Portsmouth via the Solent. These lines of defence and position and shape of fortresses on the island are portrayed here for the first time ever.
Rudd married but had to renounce his wife Isabel during Mary Tudor's reign. However, they did have at least 3 sons and 3 daughters and one of the sons, also John, also became a vicar. Rudd himself held several ecclesiastical posts, including a prebend at Durham, which is where he died.
Stained Glass Window
This stained glass window (see photo) in the Saville chapel within Thornhill St Michael's Church is part of the Holy Kindred window, depicting Jesus Christ's family, installed by Sir Thomas Savile in 1447. The left hand panel shows St. Mary Cleophas, Alphaeus and their four children. It is important because one of the children is thought to be playing with a whip and top. If so, this is the earliest known depiction of the game!
Thornhill Hall
This was originally built in the late 13th Century and owned by the local De Thornhill family (a depiction of a member of that family with a thorn bush sprouting from her head can be seen in Thornhill church), but the hall and surrounding estates passed by marriage to the powerful Savile family who already owned lands in the north. In 1450 they rebuilt the hall, this time with a moat, gatehouse and corner turret. Other buildings were added over time and the land immediately surrounding the Hall became its deer park. By the mid 17th Century a farm complete with barn, stables, ponds, dairy and a malthouse had been added. The Rectory stood nearby with both formal gardens and an orchard.
The English Civil War proved disastrous to the Hall however. A detachment of parliamentary forces surrounded the moated island the Hall now stood on, and where 200 royalist soldiers had encamped to defend it. But on 18th July 1848, whilst truce negotiations were in progress, a spark in the royalist camp set their stored gunpowder alight and the resulting explosion and fire destroyed the Hall almost completely, only the ruins shown here remaining. What the besieging forces failed to achieve was thus completed by its intended protectors. After this the Saviles relocated their main base to Rufford Abbey, Nottinghamshire, and their island home at Thornhill was never occupied again.
In the 18th Century the area once occupied by the Hall became part of the grounds of the Rectory. A stone bridge over the moat was created along with a gateway and pathways across the island, all for the use of occupants and guests of the Rectory.
Two stone figures, much worn, stand at the site of the earlier gateway and are known locally as "Gog" and "Magog". One of them is pictured here.
Eventually the area became neglected until the Local Authority bought it in 1947, renaming it "Rectory Park" and opening it up to the public. Renewed interest in the site led to several archaeological digs in the mid 20th Century. The moat was dredged and a new footbridge built too.
Doubting Castle
This odd looking building was once a hunting lodge used and probably built by the Savile family, perhaps as far back as the year 1400, and set amongst countryside with good views into the surrounding valleys. At some point, however, it was sold off to be used as a dwelling house. The building then had one room up, the bedroom, and one room down, a combined kitchen and living room, with a vaulted cellar below, reached by a winding stairway. Its name probably derived from the Doubting Castle in Bunyan's “A Pilgrim's Progress”.
An incident occurred at Doubting Castle on 24th July 1856 which resulted in a case being heard at Dewsbury Court House in August and reported in the 'Leeds Times' that month. Mr John Littlewood brought a complaint against 20 men who had conducted a cock fight there in front of an audience of 200. Joseph Tweedale and Matthew Rowley, who had been handling the cocks, were sentenced to a month in prison with hard labour, and the others were fined £2 each or a month in prison.
Robert Christmas Hartridge, his wife Nanny or Nancy, and her daughter Rachel Parkinson were living at the “Castle” in 1861. Robert had been baptised in Strumpshaw, Norfolk in January 1823 but had moved to Dewsbury where the family were living in Boothroyd Lane in 1851. They had a son, Frank, during their stay in Thornhill in August 1862. By 1871 they had moved on to Dewsbury Moor.
A more recent family to occupy the “Castle”were the Taylors. John Taylor (born 1818 at Whitley Lower) and his wife Hannah nee Kaye (born 1818 at Lepton) may have lived there. They had lived all their lives in the Thornhill area and were at Thornhill Lees on the 1861 Census. Certainly two of their sons, James (born c.1847) and Evison (born 1851) did occupy the property. Both boys worked as coal miners from an early age. In 1861 James, aged 14, and Evison, aged just 10, were working as miners. Ten years later James, married now to Ellen (nee Megson) and with two young daughters of his own, is at the “Castle” and has changed his occupation to the much healthier one of gamekeeper. They have taken in a baby, their niece, Mary Louise Broadhead. This family seem to have left Thornhill around 1874 and moved to the Barnsley area, to Wombwell at first where James remains a gamekeeper but later to Hemingfield, where he has reverted to coalmining again. Mary Louise is still with them in 1891 but is now acting as their servant.
Meanwhile, James's younger brother, Evison, and wife Ann (pictured below) have taken their place at the “Castle”. Evison too is a gamekeeper in 1881 yet he, too, reverts to coal mining, listed as his occupation in 1891, 1901 and 1911. Their son, Frank, born in September 1885 had better opportunities.
Frank was educated at Wheelwright Grammar School in Dewsbury and afterwards became a pupil teacher at the Walker Endowed School in Thornhill itself. He went on to become an uncertificated master at Boothroyd Council School in Dewsbury, and spent some time in Rhodesia. But with war approaching he returned home and gained a commission in the 10th Battalion York and Lancasters. He was soon promoted to Captain but received orders to leave for France in September 1915, hurriedly marrying before his departure. He was promoted again to Major but was killed in action on 12th March 1916, aged 30. This must have been a devastating blow for his parents back in Thornhill.
Evison Taylor died in 1927 but his widow, Ann, continued to live on at Doubting Castle. An article in the 'Yorkshire Evening Post' in January 1931 describes her living accommodation. The “Castle” came complete with gargoyles, stone carved faces decorated the front of the house which had its name carved in stone over the front door. It had a 3 inch thick oak heavily studded front door within an arched doorway and the front windows were also arched. Near the front door was a bootscraper in the shape of a Cromwellian soldier, quite appropriate for Thornhill. Inside the faces of an owl and
of the Devil were carved in stone over the fireplace, the oven door was embellished with a design of thistles, and a gun and ammunition cupboard was built into the wall. There was no gas or electricity supply, only oil lamps and a water trough, a well in the garden was badly damaged during coal mining operations and had to be demolished. New houses were already being built nearby.
The last occupants of the “Castle” were Fred and Olive Charlesworth, although Mr Jim Broadhead, Mrs Charlesworth's father's cousin, had lived there sometime between them and the Taylors. Mrs Charlesworth was also related to the Taylor family - James and Evison were her great uncles. The Charlesworths lived at Doubting Castle for 13 years before moving to a bungalow on nearby Castle Avenue in 1949, at which point the Council demolished the old “Castle” to make way for more housing. Doubting Road, named after it, occupies the land now.