Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for WETHERBY

WETHERBY, a small town, a township-chapelry, and a district, in W. R. Yorkshire. The town stands on the river Wharfe, and on the York and Harrogate railway, 12 miles NNE of Leeds; was known to the Saxons as Wederbi; belonged to the Knight Templars, and afterwards to the Knights Hospitallers; was garrisoned by the parliamentarians in the civil wars of Charles I., and repelled two attacks of the royalists; belonged all, till 1824, to the Duke of Devonshire; was then sold in small lots or freeholds, and subsequently underwent very great improvement; is a seat of petty sessions; publishes a weekly newspaper; carries on brewing and agricultural implement-making; and has a head post-office,‡ a r. station with telegraph, two banking offices, two hotels, a six-arched bridge, a town hall of 1846, a reading room, a church of 1842, built at a cost of £4,300, two Methodist chapels, a national school, agriculturaland horticultural societies, a weekly market on Thursday, a horse and cattle fair on every alternate Thursday, and hiring-fairs in Nov.—The chapelry comprises 1,570 acres, and is in Spofforth parish. Real property, £6,816; of which £25 are in gasworks. Pop. in 1851, 1,494; in 1861, 1,682. Houses, 371. The manor belongs to A. Montagu, Esq. An ancient castle stood on high ground, contiguous to the Wharfe; and is now represented only by substructions. A Roman military road crossed the river at St. Helen's Ford, a short distance below the town. The living is a p. curacy in the diocese of Ripon. Value, £120. Patron, the Rector of Spofforth.—The district contains 4 parishes, parts of 7 others, and an extra-parochial tract; and formerly was a sub-district of Knaresborough. Acres, 32,459. Poor rates in 1863, £3,499. Pop. in 1851, 6,518; in 1861, 6,668. Houses, 1,409. Marriages in 1863,31; births, 195,-of which 17 were illegitimate; deaths, 145,-of which 59 were at ages under 5 years, and 4 at ages above 85.


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

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a small town, a township-chapelry, and a district"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Wetherby Tn/CP       Yorkshire AncC
Place names: WEDERBI     |     WETHERBY
Place: Wetherby

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