Holdworth is a small rural hamlet situated within the boundary of the City of

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire a ...

, England. It is located northwest of the city centre at an altitude of 280 metres above sea level, giving it extensive views south over the upper Loxley valley. The hamlet falls within the Stannington ward of the City. It is an ancient farming settlement which was mentioned in the ''

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...

'' of 1086.

History

Prior to the Norman conquest of England, Holdworth was a small Ango-Saxon farming community. Settlements which end in "worth" signify a farmstead that is thought to have

Mercia la, Merciorum regnum , conventional_long_name=Kingdom of Mercia , common_name=Mercia , status=Kingdom , status_text=Independent kingdom (527–879) Client state of Wessex () , life_span=527–918 , era= Heptarchy , event_start= , date_start= , ...

n origins with "Hold" being an

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...

personal name. It was located in the Strafforth

wapentake A hundred is an administrative division that is geographically part of a larger region. It was formerly used in England, Wales, some parts of the United States, Denmark, Southern Schleswig, Sweden, Finland, Norway, the Bishopric of Ösel–Wiek, ...

and was owned by the Saxon Lord Healfdene or Aldene, who also held land in the nearby settlements of

Wadsley Wadsley is a suburb of the City of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. It stands north-west of the city centre at an approximate grid reference of . At the 2011 Census the suburb fell within the Hillsborough ward of the City. Wadsley was for ...

Worrall Worrall is a small rural village in the civil parish of Bradfield, South Yorkshire, England, north west of Sheffield city centre. It has an area of 233 hectares, and population of 1,306 as of 2006, and borders the Sheffield suburbs of Wad ...

and

Ughill Ughill is a small, rural hamlet within the City of Sheffield in Bradfield Parish in England. It is 5 mi (8 km) west-northwest of the city centre. It stands in a lofty position at 918 ft (280 m) above sea level, on a ridge between Bradfield Dal ...

. After the Conquest, ownership of Holdworth passed to

Roger de Busli Roger de Busli (c. 1038 – c. 1099) was a Norman baron who participated in the conquest of England in 1066. Life Roger de Busli was born in or around 1038. His surname comes from the town now known as Bully (near Neufchâtel-en-Bray, mentione ...

(Roger of Bully) who had been given extensive lands by

William the Conqueror William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first House of Normandy, Norman List of English monarchs#House of Norman ...

across

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The trad ...

and

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...

for his part in the Conquest. The ''Domesday Book'' states that in 1086 Holdworth consisted of one

ploughland The carucate or carrucate ( lat-med, carrūcāta or ) was a medieval unit of land area approximating the land a plough team of eight oxen could till in a single annual season. It was known by different regional names and fell under different forms ...

with some woodland with a taxable value of two geld units.''"Historic Hallamshire"'',

David Hey David G. Hey (18 July 1938 – 14 February 2016) was an English historian, and was an authority on surnames and the local history of Yorkshire. Hey was the president of the British Association for Local History, and was a published author of seve ...

, Landmark Collectors Library, , pages 57, 60, 72, 76 & 77, Gives historical details. Open Domesday
Gives details of Holdworth in Domesday Book.. Holdworth from Storrs 2

Between 1270 and 1314, the name of Thomas de Haldeworth was recorded in the area on three occasions. In 1393 John Smallbeehind acquired eleven and a half acres of land in Holdworth, he built this up to a farm holding which was to remain in the family name until the middle of the sixteenth century. The Moorwood family rose from humble beginnings in the 13th century to become one of

Hallamshire Hallamshire (or Hallam) is the historical name for an area of South Yorkshire, England, approximating to the current City of Sheffield local government area. The origin of the name is uncertain. The English Place-Name Society describe "Hall ...

’s aristocracy 400 years later, it is recorded that they held land at Holdworth in 1411 through John de Moorwood. Another eminent Hallamshire family with connections to Holdworth were the Steads, Thomas Stead, the builder of

Hillsborough House Hillsborough House, later called Hillsborough Hall, is a large, stone-built mansion constructed in the Adam style in the latter part of the 18th century. It stands 2½ miles north-west of the centre of Sheffield at grid reference in the suburb ...

, held an estate of over 2,000 acres on his death in 1793, including land at Holdworth.''"Medieval South Yorkshire"'', David Hey, Landmark Collectors Library, , page 31, Gives historical details.

Present day

The oldest building in present-day Holdworth is Far House Farm, the farmhouse and attached cow house dates from the late 17th century and is a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. British Listed Buildings
Gives details of Far House Farm. Other buildings in the hamlet include Green End Farm, Heather Bank, Trickett Edge Farm, White House Bungalow and Holdworth Hall.

Low Holdworth

Low Holdworth is situated just under a kilometre to the south of the main farming hamlet. It stands at a lower altitude on the B6077 road (Loxley Road) and includes the Grade II listed Holdworth Cottage which dates from 1752. British Listed Buildings
Gives details of Holdworth Cottage.

References

External links

* {{coord, 53.420313, N, 1.569479, W, scale:5000_region:GB, display=title Villages of the metropolitan borough of Sheffield Towns and villages of the Peak District