BURTON (KIRK), a parish in the upper division
of the wapentake of AGBRIGG, West riding of the
county of YORK, comprising the chapelry of Cumberworth-
Half,' the townships of' Cartworth, Foulston,.
Hepworth, Kirk-Burton, Shelley, Shepley, Thurstonland,
and Wooldale, and containing 13,559 inhabitants, of
which number, 2153 are in the township oif Kirk-Burton,
5 miles (S. E.) from Huddersfield. The living is
a vicarage, in the archdeaconry of the East riding, and
diocese of York, rated in the king's books at £ 13. 6. 8.,
and in the patronage of the King, as Duke of Lancaster.
The church, dedicated to St. John the Baptist,
was built in the reign of Edward III. There is a place,
of worship for Wesleyan Methodists. A small sum is
annually paid by the parishioners to the vicar of Dewsbury,
in token of their ancient dependence on that parish.
A school, established by the inhabitants in 1714, was
endowed, in 1721, by the Rev. Henry Robinson, with a
bequest of £ 100 for the instruction of ten poor children
of this township, and three of Thurstonland; and,-
in the following year, with a bequest of £360, for teaching
twenty more of the same places: these sums having
been invested in land, produce about £66 per annum,
which is paid to the master. It is thought that
the Saxons had a fort here, a memorial of which probably
subsists in a small dike called the Old Saxe.