Kirkheaton

Village in West Yorkshire, England

Human settlement in England

Kirkburton

Metropolitan borough

Kirklees

Metropolitan county

West Yorkshire

Region

Yorkshire and the Humber

CountryEnglandSovereign stateUnited KingdomDialling code01484PoliceWest YorkshireFire West Yorkshire AmbulanceYorkshire

List of places: UK; England; Yorkshire

53°39′19″N 1°43′44″W / 53.6552°N 1.7290°W / 53.6552; -1.7290

Kirkheaton (English: /ˈkərkhiːtən/) is a village in the parish of Kirkburton, in the Kirklees district of West Yorkshire, England, Historically, it is part of the West Riding of Yorkshire. It is 3 miles (5 km) north-east of Huddersfield, in the Dalton ward of Kirklees Council. In 2021 it had a population of 3,496.^[1]

History

The name Heaton comes from Old English "heah" meaning high and "tun" meaning settlement and the Old Norse "kirk" meaning church.^[2] In 1931 the parish had a population of 2,610.^[3]

Governance

From 1894 to 1938 Kirkheaton was an urban district.^[4] On 1 April 1938 the urban district was abolished and merged with Kirkburton.^[5]

Religion

The parish church in Kirkheaton,^[6] dedicated to St John the Baptist, is one of the earliest churches in the area, there was a stone church on the site before the Norman Conquest. In the churchyard is a memorial to a disaster that shook the nation in 1818, a horrific fire in a local cotton mill, Colne Bridge Mill, in which 14 workers, all girls and many of them very young, were trapped and died.^[7]^[8]

See the 'External Links' below for a survey of burials and transcripts of the parish registers.

Education

Kirkheaton Primary School is on New Road.^[9]

Notable people

England cricketers George Herbert Hirst, Allen Hill and Wilfred Rhodes were born in the village and played cricket for Kirkheaton Cricket Club. The cricketers, William Bates, John Thewlis Senior, and Lewis Wrathmell, were all born in the village and played for Yorkshire County Cricket Club.^[10]
Richard Reed, Co-founder of Innocent Drinks.^[11]

References

^ "Kirkheaton". City Population De. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
^ "Kirkheaton Key to English Place-names". The University of Nottingham. Retrieved 3 February 2022.
^ "Population statistics Kirkheaton CP/AP through time". A Vision of Britain through Time. Retrieved 3 February 2022.
^ "Kirkheaton UD through time". A Vision of Britain through Time. Retrieved 3 February 2022.
^ "Huddersfield Registration District". UKBMD. Retrieved 3 February 2022.
^ "St.Johns Kirkheaton". www.kirkheatonchurch.org.uk. Retrieved 7 November 2019.
^ The names and ages of the victims, and a description of the disaster, are carved into the monument.
^ "Tragedy at Atkinson's Mill". 2 March 2018. Retrieved 7 November 2019.
^ Kirkheaton Primary School. Department for Education: EduBase. Retrieved 4 February 2018
^ Woodhouse, A. (1989). The history of Yorkshire County Cricket Club. London: Christopher Helm. pp. 3, 9, 101, 122, 133, 183, 558, 562, 565, 567, 569. ISBN 0-7470-3408-7.
^ "A Bit About Us". Innocent Drinks.