DEWSBURY, a parish comprising the market
town of Dewsbury, the chapelry of Ossett, and the
townships of Soothill, in the lower division of the wapentake
of AGBRIGG, and the chapelry of Clifton,
and the township of Hartshead, in the wapentake of
MORLEY, West riding of the county of YORK, and
containing 16,261 inhabitants, of which number, 6380
are in the town of Dewsbury, 34 miles (S. W.) from
York, and 188 (N. N. W.) from London. This place
is supposed to have derived its name from Dui, the
tutelar deity of the Brigantes, to whom a votive altar,
dedicated by Aurelianus, is still preserved at Bradley,
said to have been called Duis burgh, or Duisborough,
from which its present appellation is derived.
It was a place of importance during the infancy of the
Christian Church in Britain, and was the mother church
in this part of the county. Edwine, King of Northumbria,
had a royal mansion here, in which his queen
Ethelburga, who had subscribed to the Christian faith,
was attended by Paulinus, first Archbishop of York, by
whom Edwine himself, and subsequently his whole
court, were converted to Christianity, in the year 627;
in memory of which a cross was erected, with the inscription
Paulinus Hie Prasdicavit et celebravit, which
was many years since found buried in the ground
about a foot from the surface; a fac-simile within the
last twenty years was made by order of the Rev. J
Buckworth, and placed in the gardens of the vicarage,
together with several Saxon and Norman antiquities,
which that gentleman had collected. The town is pleasantly
situated at the base of a hill rising from the
river Calder, and consists of several good streets and
well built houses; it is lighted with gas, and well supplied
with water. There is a public subscription library;
and a mechanics institution has been established within
the last five years. For some years Dewsbury has been
rising into importance for its manufacture of blankets,
carpets, and woollen cloths, for which there are numerous
factories (one of which is the largest in the kingdom), giving
employment to more than, five thousand persons in
the town and neighbourhood; the water of the Calder is
peculiarly favourable for the fulling of woollen goods.
Abundance of coal of very superior quality is found in
the neighbourhood. The river Calder and the canals
afford a direct communication between the eastern and
western seas, and with Liverpool, Manchester, Rochdale,
Halifax, and Wakefield, to the Ilumber. The market is
on Wednesday; the fairs are on the Wednesdays before
OldMay-day, and New Michaelmas-day, and October 6th.
The living is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry
and diocese of York, rated in the king's books at
£22. 13. 9., endowed with £200 private benefaction, and
£200 royal bounty, and in the patronage of the Crown.
The church, dedicated to All Saints, a very ancient
structure, having given way in 1767, was rebuilt, with a
due regard to the preservation of its ancient character;
during the progress of the work, part of a Saxon tomb
was found and removed to the parsonage-house. The
church, at Dewsbury Moor, dedicated to St. John, and
containing six hundred sittings, of which two hundred
and forty-eight are free, was erected in 1827, at an expense
of £5502. 16. 8., by grant from the parliamentary
commissioners, who have built similar churches at Earl's-
Heaton and Hanging-Heaton. There are places of worship
for the Society of Friends, Independents, and Wesleyan
and other Methodists. The charity school has an
endowment of £108 per annum, arising from an estate
purchased with donations of Mrs. Bedford, Mr. Thomas
Bedford, and Mr. William Walker: a separate house
for the master, with a large school-room, was built in
1810, at an expense of £1300, defrayed from the sale
of coal on the estate; there are one hundred boys instructed
in this school by a master, whose salary is £ 80
per annum. A school-house has been recently built by
a decree of Chancery, relating to the Wheelwright charity,
at an expense of £600, in which one hundred boys
and one hundred girls are instructed on the National
system; and an infant school has recently been established.
Among the remains of antiquity discovered
here were a spear-head of an unknown metal resembling
gold, one hundred yards from the river Calder, on the
premises of Mr. Halliley; a Roman urn, and other relics.