Thorner is a rural
village and
civil parish in the
City of Leeds in
West Yorkshire, England, located between
Seacroft and
Wetherby. It had a population of 1,646 at the 2011 Census.
Etymology
The name of Thorner is first attested in the 1086
Domesday Book as ''Torneure'', ''Tornoure'' and ''Tornoura''. The name comes from the
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 settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
words ''þorn'' ('thorn') and ''ofer'' ('bank, slope'), and thus meant "thorn bank".
[Harry Parkin, ''Your City's Place-Names: Leeds'', English Place-Name Society City-Names Series, 3 (Nottingham: English Place-Names Society, 2017).]
The township and parish of Thorner also included Eltofts, whose name comes from the Old English masculine
personal name
A personal name, or full name, in onomastic terminology also known as prosoponym (from Ancient Greek πρόσωπον / ''prósōpon'' - person, and ὄνομα / ''onoma'' - name), is the set of names by which an individual person is known ...
''Ella'' and the Old English word ''toft'' (itself borrowed from Old Norse ''topt''), which meant '
curtilage,
messuage, plot of land with a building'. Thus the name once meant 'Ella's plot of land'.
History
There is archaeological evidence of
Bronze Age and
Anglo-Saxon
The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...
settlements, while the name St
Osyth's Well, just west of the church, refers to a
Viking Age saint.
The
ancient parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority. ...
of Thorner covered in the
wapentake of
Skyrack
Skyrack was a wapentake of the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. It was split into upper and lower divisions and centred in Headingley, Leeds. The Lower Division included the parishes of Aberford, Bardsey, Barwick-in-Elmet, Kippax, Thorner, ...
in the
West Riding of Yorkshire.
The parish included the
townships of
Scarcroft and
Shadwell, which became separate civil parishes in 1866.
In 1245 it acquired a market, and the area around Main Street shows a typical
Medieval layout of strips leading from a market street.
[ The base of a medieval market cross is on Butts Garth.][
Thorner railway station (which also served nearby Scarcroft and was originally called Thorner & Scarcroft, opened 1876 and closed 1964 under the Beeching cuts and was demolished and the area developed into housing. It was on the Cross Gates to Wetherby Line, which thereby gave access to Leeds and Harrogate, with some services running between these two extremes.][ with a substantial number of shops.][ However, from the 1950s local businesses declined as the village population increasingly commuted to larger centres such as Leeds.][
The former Bishop's House at Eltofts, to the west of Thorner, was the Dower House of the Earls of Mexborough.]Conservation Area
Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...
by Leeds City Council: in 2009 the area was extended to include the area of Sandhills to the south.[ This has essentially limited industrial development and restricted new housing to the surroundings.][ Many of the properties on Main Street are listed buildings along with St Peter's Church (grade II).]Methodist church
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related Christian denomination, denominations of Protestantism, Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John W ...
es in Thorner are now closed, the nineteenth-century former chapel having been converted to flats.[
]
Geography
Thorner is situated close to the A1, A58 and A64 trunk roads. It is 8 miles (13 km) north-east of Leeds city centre
Leeds city centre is the central business district of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is roughly bounded by the Leeds Inner Ring Road, Inner Ring Road to the north and the River Aire to the south and can be divided into several quarters.
C ...
and 7 miles (11 km) to the south-west of Wetherby. The underlying rock is limestone, some of which was burnt into lime and flagstone and slates were quarried.[
Travel to and from the village by public transport is via the number 7 bus route (operated by the Transdev Harrogate & District bus company). The journey takes roughly half an hour from Leeds, 20 minutes from Wetherby and an hour from Harrogate.
]
Features
Thorner has no street lighting. The village has two public houses, the Mexborough Arms and The Fox.
There is no longer a post office or a village shop, but there is a delicatessen, a hairdresser's and a restaurant, formerly The Beehive pub. Social amenities include the Parish Centre next to the church, the Victory Hall in Carr Lane, an over-60s centre, a bowling green, tennis courts and cricket and football pitches.
File:The Mexborough Arms.jpg, Mexborough Arms
File:The Beehive at Thorner.jpg, The Beehive
File:The Fox Inn at Thorner.jpg, The Fox
File:Thorner - Ford.jpg, Thorner ford
See also
*Listed buildings in Thorner
Thorner and Wothersome are civil parishes in the metropolitan borough of the City of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The parishes contain 34 listed buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England
The National Heritag ...
References
External links
Thorner Parish Council web page
Thorner Village Website
*
{{Authority control
City of Leeds
Civil parishes in West Yorkshire