Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for MORLEY

MORLEY, a small town, a township, a chapelry, a sub-district, and a wapentake, in W. R. Yorkshire. The town stands on the Gildersome branch of the Great Northern railway, 4½ miles SW by S of Leeds; carries on woollen manufacture, and some trade in connexion with mines; is governed by a board of surveyors; and has a post office ‡ under Leeds, a railway station, a mechanics' institute, public reading-rooms, a church, four dissenting chapels, a national school used also as a chapel of ease, and another national school.-The township contains also the hamlets of Bruntcliffe-Thorne, Stump-Cross, FourLane-Ends, and Howley-Hall, and is in Batley parish. Acres, 2,698. Real property, £16,986; of which £2,562 are in mines, £131 in quarries, and £335 in gas-works. Pop. in 1851,4,821; in 1861,6,840. Houses, 1,427. The increase of pop. arose from the extension of the woollen trade and of mining operations. The manor belongs to the Earl of Dartmouth. Morley House, Morley Hall, Springfield House, Bank House, and Cross Hall are chief residences.—The chapelry includes also Chur well township, and was constituted in 1832. Acres, 3,186. Real property, £21,410. Pop., 8,404. Houses, 1,746. The living is a p. curacy in the diocese of Ripon. Value, £300.* Patron, the Vicar of Batley. The church stands at Four-Lane-Ends; was built in 1830; is a plain stone structure; and consists of nave, aisles, chancel, and porch, with tower and spire. A parochial church belonged to Morley before the Norman conquest; became dependent, at a later period, on the church of Batley; was conveyed, in the time of Charles I., by the Earl of Sussex, into the hands of trustees, for the use of Presbyterians; was never restored to the Establishment; and became an Independent chapel. Three Independent chapels, called St. Mary's, Zion, and Rehoboth, are in the chapelry; and one of them was enlarged in 1865.—The sub-district is conterminate with the township, and is in Dewsbury district.-The wapentake is conjoined with Agbrigg, and is noticed in the article AGBRIGG AND MORLEY.


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

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a small town, a township, a chapelry, a sub-district, and a wapentake"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Morley CP/AP/PA       Yorkshire AncC
Place: Morley

Go to the linked place page for a location map, and for access to other historical writing about the place. Pages for linked administrative units may contain historical statistics and information on boundaries.