Holdworth is a small rural hamlet situated within the boundary of the City of

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

, England. It is located northwest of the city centre at an altitude of 280 metres above sea level, giving it extensive views south over the upper Loxley valley. The hamlet falls within the Stannington ward of the City. It is an ancient farming settlement which was mentioned in the ''

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

'' of 1086.

History

Prior to the

Norman conquest of England The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Normans, Norman, French people, French, Flemish people, Flemish, and Bretons, Breton troops, all led by the Du ...

, Holdworth was a small Ango-Saxon farming community. Settlements which end in "worth" signify a farmstead that is thought to have

Mercia Mercia (, was one of the principal kingdoms founded at the end of Sub-Roman Britain; the area was settled by Anglo-Saxons in an era called the Heptarchy. It was centred on the River Trent and its tributaries, in a region now known as the Midlan ...

n origins with "Hold" being an

Old English Old English ( or , or ), 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 developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

personal name. It was located in the Strafforth

wapentake A hundred is an administrative division that is geographically part of a larger region. It was formerly used in England, Wales, some parts of the United States, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, and in Cumberland County in the British Colony of ...

and was owned by the

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

Lord Healfdene or Aldene, who also held land in the nearby settlements of

Wadsley Wadsley is a suburb of the City of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. It stands north-west of the city centre at an approximate grid reference of . At the 2011 Census the suburb fell within the Hillsborough ward of the City. Wadsley was f ...

Worrall Worrall is a small rural village in the civil parish of Bradfield, South Yorkshire, England, north west of Sheffield city centre. It has an area of 233 hectares, and population of 1,306 as of 2006, and borders the Sheffield suburbs of Wadsl ...

and

Ughill Ughill is a small, rural hamlet within the City of Sheffield in Bradfield Parish in England. It is 5 mi (8 km) west-northwest of the city centre. It stands in a lofty position at 918 ft (280 m) above sea level, on a ridge between Bradfield Dal ...

. After the Conquest, ownership of Holdworth passed to

Roger de Busli Roger de Busli (c. 1038 – c. 1099) was a Anglo-Normans, Norman baron who participated in the Norman conquest of England, conquest of England in 1066. Life Roger de Busli was born in or around 1038. His surname comes from the town now known as B ...

(Roger of Bully) who had been given extensive lands by

William the Conqueror William the Conqueror (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), sometimes called William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England (as William I), reigning from 1066 until his death. A descendant of Rollo, he was D ...

across

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated ''Notts.'') is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. The county is bordered by South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. Th ...

and

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

for his part in the Conquest. The ''Domesday Book'' states that in 1086 Holdworth consisted of one

ploughland The carucate or carrucate ( or ) was a medieval unit of land area approximating the land a plough team of eight oxen could till in a single annual season. It was known by different regional names and fell under different forms of tax assessment. ...

with some woodland with a taxable value of two geld units.''"Historic Hallamshire"'',

David Hey David G. Hey (18 July 1938 – 14 February 2016) was an English historian, and was an authority on surnames and the local history of Yorkshire. Hey was the president of the British Association for Local History, and was a published author of sev ...

, Landmark Collectors Library, , pages 57, 60, 72, 76 & 77, Gives historical details. Open Domesday
Gives details of Holdworth in Domesday Book. Holdworth from Storrs 2

Between 1270 and 1314, the name of Thomas de Haldeworth was recorded in the area on three occasions. In 1393 John Smallbeehind acquired eleven and a half acres of land in Holdworth, he built this up to a farm holding which was to remain in the family name until the middle of the sixteenth century. The Moorwood family rose from humble beginnings in the 13th century to become one of

Hallamshire Hallamshire (or Hallam) is the historical name for an area of South Yorkshire, England, approximating to the current City of Sheffield local government area. The origin of the name is uncertain. The English Place-Name Society describe "Hall ...

’s aristocracy 400 years later, it is recorded that they held land at Holdworth in 1411 through John de Moorwood. Another eminent Hallamshire family with connections to Holdworth were the Steads, Thomas Stead, the builder of

Hillsborough House Hillsborough House, later called Hillsborough Hall, is a large, stone-built mansion constructed in the Adam style in the latter part of the 18th century. It stands miles north-west of the centre of Sheffield at grid reference in the suburb of ...

, held an estate of over 2,000 acres on his death in 1793, including land at Holdworth.''"Medieval South Yorkshire"'', David Hey, Landmark Collectors Library, , page 31, Gives historical details.

Present day

The oldest building in present-day Holdworth is Far House Farm, the farmhouse and attached cow house dates from the late 17th century and is a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

. British Listed Buildings
Gives details of Far House Farm. Other buildings in the hamlet include Green End Farm, Heather Bank, Trickett Edge Farm, White House Bungalow and Holdworth Hall.

Low Holdworth

Low Holdworth is situated just under a kilometre to the south of the main farming hamlet. It stands at a lower altitude on the B6077 road (Loxley Road) and includes the Grade II listed Holdworth Cottage which dates from 1752. British Listed Buildings
Gives details of Holdworth Cottage.

References

External links

* {{coord, 53.420313, N, 1.569479, W, scale:5000_region:GB, display=title Villages of the metropolitan borough of Sheffield Towns and villages of the Peak District