MIRFIELD, a parish in the lower division of the
wapentake of AGBRIGG, West riding of the county of
YORK, 2 miles (W. by S.) from Dewsbury, containing
5041 inhabitants. The living is a discharged vicarage,
in the archdeaconry and diocese of York, rated in the
king's books at £6. 1. 0., endowed with £400 private
benefaction, and £400 royal bounty, and in the patronage
of Sir G. Armytage, Bart. The church, dedicated to
St. Mary, has lately received an addition of four hundred
and ninety-eight sittings, of which two hundred
and eighty are free, the Incorporated Society for the
enlargement of churches and chapels having granted
£250 towards defraying the expense. There is a place
of worship for Wesleyan Methodists. Richard Thorpe,
in 1667, conveyed to trustees certain houses and lands,
now producing about £53 a year, for teaching fifteen
poor children. This income, with the sum of £2. 10.
a year, given by Joseph Lidgard and Thomas Holdsworth,
are applied to the free instruction of twenty
children, in a school-room erected by the inhabitants.
The river Calder runs through the parish, in which the
woollen manufacture is carried on to a great extent.
Up to 1261, Mirfield formed a part of the Saxon parish
of Dewsbury; but the lady of Sir John Heton, on her
way to Dewsbury church, before dawn on Christmasday,
was attacked by robbers, and her attendant murdered,
in consequence of which, at the intercession of her
husband, then at Rome, the Pope granted permission to
build a chapel here, which became parochial, and is the
present parish church. Near it is a conicalmount, thrown
up by the Saxons for the defence of the ancient mansion,
still called Castle-hall. The plague raged here with
great fury in 1631, and swept off a great number of
persons.