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Ackworth, West Yorkshire history

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Name

The name Ackworth was first recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Aceuurde. It is thought it have been formalised as ‘Ackworth’ in the 1800s.

Early history

The area around Ackworth may have been settled about 500–600 by settlers from Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands. The first church may have appeared in Ackworth between 750 and 800, a well-established tradition being that the monks of Lindisfarne, escaping the Norse invasion, stopped there about 875, bringing with them the body of Saint Cuthbert. Domesday suggests Ackworth was small – 14 villagers and two smallholders – but as only heads of families were counted, likelier population would have been 30–40.

Ackworth in the Middle Ages

The plague of 1645 was said to have killed 153, the bodies being buried in a “burial field… crossed by the footpath from Ackworth to Hundhill” The plague stone on Castle Syke Hill became “for many months the only contact between them and the outside world” A well-loved monk from the priory at Nostell would preach at the medieval cross in Ackworth.

Battles and conflicts

The area around Ackworth was a hotbed for dissent against the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII. A revolt led by Robert Aske marched through the area on its way to capture Pontefract Castle in 1536. During the English Civil War, the area was strongly Royalist, with four divisions of volunteers raised to garrison the castle.

Religious history

First recorded mention of a church in Ackworth appears in the 1086 Domesday Book. The Church of St Cuthbert in the centre of High Ackworth is believed to have been dedicated when the monks stopped on their pilgrimage in 875–882. The church was declared a Grade II listed building in 1968. Thomas Bradley was chaplain to Charles I of England and attended his execution in 1649.

Village history

In A History of Ackworth School (1853), Ackworth was called a “neat agricultural village, situate about three miles from Pontefract, and closely bordering on the great Yorkshire manufactories.” The book underlines its location: “It is so completely removed from any great line of road, either of the old system or the new, that but for the world-wide celebrity it has obtained from the Society of Friends from its association with their school, it is probable that, at least as it regards them, it would have slumbered in undisturbed repose amidst the well cultivated lands by which it is surrounded.” The school was opened by John Fothergill, described in the book as an “eminent physician of London and a man of much influence in the Society of Friends”. Originally built as a branch of the Foundling Hospital in London, work started in 1757 and cost about £13,000. The governors of the “Hospital for the Maintenance and Education of Exposed and Deserted Young Children” had already established branches in Shrewsbury, Chester and Westerham. Their move to Ackworth was in view of the “great advantages from having one amongst the active and enterprising people of the northern counties.” The hospital eventually closed in 1773 and remained empty for several years, during which time it seems to have avoided being turned into a “lunatic asylum” or “being sold and taken down for the materials.” It was on hearing that the building may be “disposed of” that Fothergill bought it along with 85 acres of surrounding lands for £7,000. This purchase in 1777 was fully approved by the Society of Friends in 1778 and the school set up in 1779. Fothergill died in 1780, by which time 80 girls and 150 boys were being taught there. Of its time as a foundling hospital, A History of Ackworth School paints an unflattering picture, in which “disease and death carried off great numbers annually,” due to “starvation, and even murder, on the part of nurses who had the care of the infants, and of masters to whom the elder children were apprenticed.” This “added to the mortality and, though the evidence is abundant of the untiring efforts of the directors to care for the children whilst in the hospital, and to protect their rights when they were apprenticed, evils and oppressions, unnumbered and insurmountable, paralyzed their exertions and the establishment was given up.” Children were sent to Ackworth from London and other areas in which there was a branch of the hospital, with the children made to work, as “idleness was the parent of vice,” or so it was seen by the governors. In 1759 a “woollen manufactory” was established at the hospital, with children spinning and weaving a cloth that soon became in demand, so much so that in 1762 profits were a significant £500. Meanwhile other children worked on the farm, and all were taught to mend their own clothes. Whilst at the hospital, attempts were made to place the children as “apprentices” with business owners in the local area. At times the demand for apprentices was so high that the steward of the hospital, John Hargreaves, wrote to the London board asking for more children to be sent. The high demand for apprentices in turn led to checks on those taking the apprentices being relaxed, despite the instruction to ensure that all applicants for apprentices should be tested for suitability. As the demand grew and checks became rarer, “men unsuitable for the trust” were able to obtain credentials and then “treat the children they obtained on the strength of them, with little short of barbarity, and in more than one case murderous cruelty.” Some children would be apprenticed as young as 6 and 7 until they reached 24, although in 1768 this changed to 21. After the foundling hospital closed in 1773, John Fothergill, who had arranged the purchase in 1777, turned the building into a school for the Society of Friends. Fothergill, a prominent Quaker born in Wensleydale, educated at Sedbergh School and apprenticed as an apothecary in Bradford. He studied medicine in Edinburgh, graduating in 1736 before moving to London to set up a practice. He was a keen botanist and developed an extensive garden at his home at Rooke Hall in Upton. A selection of some 2,000 sketches of his flowers and plants were sold after his death and eventually became the property of the Empress of Russia. Fothergill was a contemporary of Benjamin Franklin and took an interest in relations between England and the American Colonies, which were on the verge of war at the time. He had helped establish schools in New York and Philadelphia, and though never visiting the colonies, often saw patients crossing the Atlantic to seek his advice as a physician. His relation with Franklin was formed as Franklin visited Europe to try to find a settlement between the two countries. Fothergill wrote a paper on how the two sides might agree, and this was accepted by Franklin, but rejected by the British government. Fothergill intended Ackworth School to be a “boarding school for the education of children whose parents were not rich.” He took a great interest in the running it, often travelling from London to serve on the committee and help with expenses, before his death in 1780. A hall built at the school in 1899 with seating for 400 people was named Fothergill Hall.

  

Ackworth, West Yorkshire map & travel guide with history & landmarks to explore

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