Wortley, South Yorkshire

The name Wortley derives from the Old English wyrtlēah meaning 'plant/vegetable wood or clearing'. Wortley grew up as a settlement where the Sheffield to Halifax road crossed the Cheshire to Rotherham route. In 1250, a Sunday market was briefly established, but this was quickly suppressed by the monks who owned the right to hold markets in Barnsley. In 1307, the village finally received a Royal Charter to hold a weekly Thursday market and an annual three-day fair at Whitsun. The market and fair both soon ceased, and an eighteenth-century attempt to revive the fair was unsuccessful. St. Leonard’s Church in Wortley forms part of the United Benefice of Tankersley, Thurgoland and Wortley within…