In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Birstall like this:
BIRSTALL, a village in Dewsbury district, and a parish in Dewsbury and Bradford districts, W. R. Yorkshire. The village stands at the terminus of a branch of the Leeds and Dewsbury railway, 7 miles SW of Leeds; has a post office‡ under Leeds; and is a polling-place. The parish includes the townships of Gomersal, Heckmondwike, Liversedge, Wike, Cleckheaton, Hunsworth, Drighlington, and Tong. ...
Acres, 13,656. Real property, £132,020.,-of which £25,594 are in mines, and £2,719 in quarries. Pop. in 1841, 29,723; in 1861, 43,505. Houses, 9,237. The property is much subdivided. Many of the inhabitants are employed in numerous factories, or in handicrafts connected with them; and not a few are miners of coal and ironstone. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Ripon. Value, £480.* Patron, the Bishop of Ripon. The church was erected in the time of Henry VIII., and was not long ago enlarged. The chapelries of Birkenshaw, Whitechapel, Cleckheaton, Gomersal, Wike, Heckmondwike, Liversedge, Robertown, Drighlington, Tong, and Tong-Street are separate benefices. There are several dissenting chapels, and charities £119. Dr. Priestley was a native.
Birstall through time
Birstall is now part of Kirklees district. Click here for graphs and data of how Kirklees has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Birstall itself, go to Units and Statistics.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Birstall, in Kirklees and West Riding | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/997
Date accessed: 20th April 2024
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