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Badsworth
By Geraldine May
 It’s been described as `beautiful’ and `quintessentially English’ - there’s no doubt that the West Yorkshire village of Badsworth is simply charming.
With a history dating back to the Domesday Book, Badsworth is well known for its beauty, its church and its hunt.
Although Badsworth shares its parish with the neighbouring villages of Thorpe Audlin and Upton, the village itself with its sleepy streets, mature trees and gardens is probably the way the locals like it. Driving through, you could almost blink and miss it but the people who live here no doubt enjoy the relative peace and quiet.
Many years ago the village was made up of several thriving farms, although some of these have long gone. Many of the previous barns and farm buildings have been turned into impressive houses, home to West Yorkshire people who gratefully return to their sleepy village after long hard days at work.
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 Located about halfway between Wakefield and Doncaster, and not far from Pontefract and Featherstone, it really is a tiny rural retreat in the midst of some of Yorkshire’s most impressive large towns and cities.
So conveniently centrally located however twixt the M62 and the A1 that the world’s largest hotel chain Best Western decided to operate the very successful Rogerthorpe Manor Hotel in Thorpe Lane leading out of the village.Visitors to the hotel will be pleased to know that the newly opened Robin Hood Airport is only nine miles away.
The origins of the name Rogerthorpe were again registered in the Domesday Book under information gathered about local estates. It seems reasonable to assume that in early times, Badsworth was the main settlement of the immediate area with records of a church, the settlement thought to be in the middle of a Saxon/Danish estate prior to the Norman Conquest.
After conversion to Christianity, it is believed that landowners provided a church for their estate and it was this that eventually gave way to the Parish which today includes Badsworth, Thorpe Audlin and Upton.
Historical records indicate that Badsworth was the centre of power with the origin of the name translating as Baeddi’s worth, the name of the settlement being associated with the first person associated with the area and `worth’ meaning an enclosure around a village.
Upton is believed to be the up town relative to Badsworth, being on the hill, and Thorpe means a farm or small outlying settlement relative to a larger village (Badsworth).
Rogerthorpe is believed to be a settlement probably associated with a person name Ruger.
Information from records reads: “In Badsworth, Upton and Rogerthorpe, two brothers had nine carucates and five bovates of land taxable where six ploughs are possible.
A church is there and a priest. Meadow is 1.5 acres, woodland pasture one league long and three furlongs wide.’’
 The names of the brothers who owned the land are unknown but were probably two brothers who inherited it from their father.
In early times our ancestors banded together for their own defence and to maintain law and order in their own society. In the North of England they were often referred to as `wakentakes’ and it seems likely that this particular group of people was made up of Upton, Badsworth and Rogerthorpe.
Shortly after the compilation of the Domesday Book, the de la Val family acquired the estate and six areas of land in this region were granted to the Augustinian Canons at Nostell Priory in 1166 by Huge de la Val.
Moving on to the 1600s and the man thought to have built the present manor house is recorded as being Samual Saltonstal. In 1709 Susan Saltonstal married into the Sunderland family and records show that a Sunderland family lived at the house until 1720.
 After any number of owners over the years, the house eventually was taken over by a leisure business and much effort was put into landscaping the ground and restoring derelict areas.
Today it is a busy hotel and in more recent times has enjoyed the addition of a Jacobean style pub to cater for people in Badsworth and the surrounding areas.
Badsworth is also well known for its colourful church windows. As part of the church restorations, local fundraisers worked long and hard to raise thousands of pounds to replace one of the church’s main windows.
The church’s various windows of all ages and styles are one of the building’s biggest attractions. Several windows were designed by the Victorian designer Charles Kempt and each one carries Kempt’s mark of a corn sheaf in the bottom left hand corner.
 Another window, erected by the Badsworth Hunt shows the figures of St Hubert, St George and St Aegidius, better known as St Giles. Some of the other windows are much earlier and contain original Medieval glass.
Many claim this is only folklore but some of the St Mary’s church stained glass windows were said to have been removed and buried during the Civil War. According to the legend, those involved were killed in battle and so the windows have never been found.
The current church is believed to be the third on the site and the bulk of the modern structure dates from about 1350 although a few parts of the earlier church are still visible.
Another major part of the village is the Badsworth Hunt, formed in 1729, and originally based at Badsworth Hall, founded by the hall’s then owner Thomas Bright who remained the Master of the Hunt until 1735.
In more recent times in 1941 the former arched carriage entrance and stables for the hall were converted into a family home, shortly after the hall itself was demolished.
 So that’s a little of the history of Badsworth, a village which has seen turbulent times and changed from a farming background into today’s popular residential area.
Rest assured that today’s residents are quite happy with their quiet way of life, away from the hustle and bustle of their neighbouring towns and cities.
Just one thing however – legend has it that Rogerthorpe Manor has a ghost! Murder mystery events at the hotel over the years have proved a great success and included ghost stories from the past.
Published Summer 2006. All information correct at time of print
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