Skelmanthorpe
| Skelmanthorpe | |
|---|---|
 Commercial Road |
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 Skelmanthorpe
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| Skelmanthorpe shown within West Yorkshire | |
| OS grid reference | SE233105 |
| Metropolitan borough | |
| Metropolitan county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Police | West Yorkshire |
| Fire | West Yorkshire |
| Ambulance | Yorkshire |
| EU Parliament | Yorkshire and the Humber |
| UK Parliament | |
Skelmanthorpe is a village in West Yorkshire, England with a population of 4,198 according to the 2001 census. It is part of the parish of Denby Dale in the Kirklees borough.
Skelmanthorpe was a site in the Survey of English Dialects. The recording taken was notable both because of the rich form of dialect used and because it discussed a local sighting of a ghost. This stood out in the survey, in which most recordings were of villagers discussing local industries.
A number of different explanations exist concerning the derivation of the name Skelmanthorpe:
Locals know it as "Shat", which appears to be an abbreviation of "Shatterers" which is what the locals were known as. Local labour was taken on during construction of the railway to break or 'shatter' rocks as well as work on the excavations. These unskilled labourers were referred to as Shatterers.
The village was probably created during the Viking invasion in the 9th century, as they moved inland from the North Sea. There is no record of the village in the earlier Roman times.
The entry for Skelmanthorpe in the Domesday Book of 1086 states:
Manors & Berewick. In Turulsetone and Berceworde and Scelmertorp, Alric and Aldene had nine carcucates of land to be taxed, and there may be five ploughs there. Ilbert now has it, and it is waste. Value in King Edwards time 4 pounds. Wood pasture one mile long and as much broad.
The comment "and it is waste." is a direct result of the Harrying of the North of 1069. William the Conqueror had difficulties subduing his northern subjects, leading to the order to "spare neither man nor beast, but to kill, burn and destroy" being issued. This left Skelmanthorpe and much of Yorkshire a wasteland for about nine years.
During the 1770s, Skelmanthorpe Feast was a riotous affair with bull and bear-baiting and organised dog fights on the village green. A quote from John Taylor, who compiled a biography of Skelmanthorpe-born preacher Isaac Marsden (1807–1882), records that "Public houses were crowded with drunken revellers, who caroused all day and made night hideous with quarrels and disturbances ... Among these scenes of revelry were mountebanks, showmen, fortune telling Gypsies, vagabonds and thieves from every quarter." Skelmanthorpe Feast now happens every year on the field next to The Chartist and across the road from what was the Three Horse Shoes public house and is now shops. It has numerous different fairground rides such as slides and waltzers.
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Wikipedia