Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for OTLEY

OTLEY, a town, a township, a parish, a sub-district, and a district, in W. R. Yorkshire. The town stands on the river Wharfe, and on the Leeds and Ilkley railway, at the N W foot of the Chevin, amid delightful environs, 10 miles N W of Leeds; was known, at Domesday, as Othelai, signifying "the field of Otho; " probably tookthat name from some Danish local magnate, long before the Norman conquest; sent, for some time, two members to parliament, but ceased to send them on account of poverty; is now a well-built place, with houses all ofstone; enjoys a good supply of water, from works extended in 1867; is a seat of petty sessions and county courts; and has a head post-office‡, a railway-station, a banking office, three chief inns, a court-house, a police station, a church, six dissenting chapels, a Roman Catholic chapel, a literary and philosophical society, a mechanics' institute, a grammar-school, a national school, and charities £82. The church includes a Saxon or early Norman N doorway; is of various dates, but chiefly of the time of Henry VI.; exhibits effects of many repairs; was restored in 1869, at a cost of about £2, 400; comprises nave, three aisles, transept, and chancel, with a tower; and contains a massive stone font, a piscina, and numerous ancient monuments to the families of Fairfax, Fawkes, Vavasour, Palmes, and Pulleyn. The church-yard also contains several interesting tombs, together with a monument of Caen stone, representing a tunnel, and placed over the remains of more than thirty men who lost their lives at the making of a railway -tunnel through the Chevin. The Independent chapel is a large plain stone edifice; and, about 1859, was considerably enlarged. The other dissenting chapels are Baptist, Wesleyan, P. Methodist, New Connexion Methodist, and Christian Brethren. The Roman Catholic chapel was built in 1851, at the expense of T. Constable, Esq.; and is a handsome stone edifice, in the pointed style. The mechanics' hall was founded in 1869, is in the Italian style, and includes a large concert-room. The grammar-school stands at Clap-gate; was founded, in 1611, by Thomas Cave; and has £27 a year from endowment. A weekly market is held on Friday; a cattle fair is held onevery alternate Friday; general fairs are held on Easter Wednesday, the second and fourth Wednesdays after Easter, Whit Wednesday, and the Monday after 2 Aug.; hiring fairs are held on the Friday before and the Fridayafter Old Martinmas-day; and worsted-spinning, worsted-weaving, and machine-making are carried on. Pop. in 1851, 4, 522; in 1861, 4, 458. Houses, 954.

The township comprises 2, 233 acres. Real property, £14, 968; of which £109 are in gas-works. Pop. in 1851, 4, 751; in 1861, 4, 714. Houses, 1,007. The manor was given, by Athelstan, to the archbishops of York, and still remains in their possession. An archiepiscopal palace long stood at the head of Kirkgate, but has completely disappeared. The Manor House, a handsome edifice, now occupies the site of the palace, and is the seat of T. Constable, Esq. The Chevin, at the S E of the town, is a range of bold cliffs, with picturesque appearance; commands a brilliant view of Wharfedale; has been deprived of much of its old bold character, partly by the quarrying of its rocks, and partly by the growth of trees; and is said to have furnished blocks of stone toform the foundations of the Houses of Parliament. The parish contains also the townships of Baildon, Hawksworth, Menstone, Burley-in-Wharfedale, Denton, Esholt, Bramhope, Poole, Lindley, Farnley, Newall-with-Clifton, and Little Timble. Acres, 22, 799. Real property, £53, 990; of which £124 are in quarries, and £65 in mines. Pop. in 1851, 12, 385; in 1861, 13,040. Houses, 2, 757. Features in other parts of the parish than O. township are noticed in the articles on the several townships. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Ripon. Value, £300.* Patron, the Lord Chancellor. Only a section of the parish containing a pop. of 5,080 is now assigned to the parish church; and the rest is cut into the chapelries of Baildon, Bramhope, Burley-with-Menstone, Denton, Esholt-with-Hawksworth, Farnley, and Poole.—The sub-district contains only the Otley townships of Otley, Baildon, Hawksworth, Menstone, Burley-in-Wharfedale, and Denton; but includes also the parish of Weston, the Ilkley townships of Ilkley and Middleton, and the Guiseley townships of Rawden and Carlton-Acres, 28, 756. Pop. in 1851, 14, 800; in 1861, 15, 997. Houses, 3, 263. The district comprehends also the sub-district of Harewood, containing the parish of Addle, and the Harewood townships of Harewood, Wike, Wigton, Weeton, and Dunkeswick. Acres of the district, 43, 254. Poor-rates in 1863, £4, 766. Pop. in 1851, 17, 572; in 1861, 18, 669. Houses, 3, 813. Marriages in 1863, 119; births, 572, of which 35 were illegitimate; deaths, 408, of which 146 were at ages under 5 years, and 15 at ages above 85. The district was originally more extensive than now; so that the returns o statistics of earlier date than those already given, treat it as having had a pop. of 28, 644 in 1851. Marriages in the ten years1851-60, 2, 221; births, 9, 592; deaths, 6, 288. The places of worship, in 1851, were 19 of the Church of England, with 6, 567 sittings; 3 of Independents, with1, 215 s.; 1 of Baptists, with 420 s.; 1 of Quakers, with250 s.; 1 of Moravians, with 300 s.; 34 of Wesleyan Methodists, with 7,046 s.; 1 of New Connexion Methodists, with 200 s.; 8 of Primitive Methodists, with 1, 165s.; 1 of the Wesleyan Association, with 354 s.; 1 of Wesleyan Reformers, with 212 s.; 4 undefined, with320 s.; and 1 of Roman Catholics, with 170 s. The schools were 35 public day-schools, with 2, 540 scholars; 49 private day-schools, with 1, 325 s.; 57 Sunday schools, with 5, 111 s.; and 5 evening schools for adults, with141 s. The workhouse is in Carlton; and, at the census of 1861, had 76 inmates.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a town, a township, a parish, a sub-district, and a district"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Otley AP/CP/Tn       Otley SubD       Otley RegD       Yorkshire AncC
Place names: OTHELAI     |     OTLEY
Place: Otley

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