In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Mirfield like this:
MIRFIELD, a small town, a parish, and a sub-district, in Dewsbury district, W. R. Yorkshire. The town stands on the river Calder, the Liverpool and Leeds canal, and the Lancashire and Yorkshire and the Northwestern railways, 2½ miles SW of Dewsbury; is partly situated on an eminence, commanding extensive views; consists largely of modern houses; carries on extensive manufacture of woollen cloths, cottons, carpets, and blankets; does considerable business also in malting. ...
machine-making, boat-building, and in the working of corn-mills and fulling and scribbling mills; and has a post office‡ under Normanton, a railway station with telegraph, several inns, gas-works, a church, six dissenting chapels, an endowed school with £56 a year, two boarding-schools, a Moravian seminary, and charities £6. The church was result In 1826, and retains the tower. of a previous edifice. The dissent chapels are for. Independents, Moravians, Wesleyans, Primitive Methodists, New Connexion Methodists, and United Free Methodists.—The parish contains also the village of Hopton; comprises 3,390 acres; and, till 1261, was part of the parish of Dewsbury-Real property, £25,730; of which £897 are in mines, £39 in quarries, and £786 in the canal. Pop. in 1851,6,966; in 1861,9, 263. Houses, 1,968. The increase of pop. arose mainly from the establishment of several new woollen mills. The landed property is divided chiefly among six. The manor belongs to the trustees of the Savile estates. There are several collieries. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Ripon. Value, £242. Patron, J. Ingham, Esq. The p. curacies of Hopton and Battyeford are separate benefices, with separate churches. Another church, called St. Saviours, was built in 1865, at a cost of £1,927; is in the early English style; and contains 500 sittings, all free. An Independent chapel and a national school are in Hopton and Battyeford.—The sub-district is conterminate with the parish.
Mirfield through time
Mirfield is now part of Kirklees district. Click here for graphs and data of how Kirklees has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Mirfield itself, go to Units and Statistics.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Mirfield, in Kirklees and West Riding | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/744
Date accessed: 23rd April 2024
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