Horsforth

History

Horsforth was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Horseford, Horseforde, Hoseforde; but late-ninth-century coins with the legend ORSNA FORD and OHSNA FORD may have come from Horsforth. The name derives from Old English hors or, to judge from the coins, *horsa ('horse') in the genitive plural form horsa/horsna + ford 'ford', thus meaning 'horses' ford'. This refers to a river crossing on the River Aire (possibly at Newlay), that was subsequently used to transport woollen goods to and from Pudsey, Shipley and Bradford. The original ford was situated off Calverley Lane, but was replaced by a stone footbridge at the turn of the 19th century. The three unnamed Saxon thegns who held the land at the Conquest gave way to the king who granted it to lesser Norman nobles, but not long after most of the village came under the control of Kirkstall Abbey, a Cistercian house founded in 1152 on the bank of the River Aire downstream of Horsforth. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539, Horsforth was partitioned and sold to five families, one of them – the Stanhopes – achieved supremacy and controlled the village for the next 300 years. The estate record of the Stanhopes is regarded as one of the most extensive and important collections of its kind, complementing the extensive medieval record associated with Kirkstall Abbey. Until the mid 19th century, Horsforth was an agricultural community but it expanded rapidly with the growth of the nearby industrial centre of Leeds. A tannery business was founded at Woodside in about 1820 by the Watson family. It was on the eastern edge of their small farm, and memorialised by Tanhouse Hill Lane. The business became a soap manufacturer and moved to Whitehall Road in Leeds in 1861 and under the chairmanship of Joseph Watson…

Most-observed species

• Common Wood-Pigeon

  Columba palumbus Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  12,779
• Eurasian Magpie

  Pica pica (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  11,434
• Carrion Crow

  Corvus corone Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  10,607
• Eurasian Blackbird

  Turdus merula Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  9,996
• European Robin

  Erithacus rubecula (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  9,284
• Eurasian Blue Tit

  Cyanistes caeruleus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  8,634
• Mallard

  Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  8,325
• Black-headed Gull

  Chroicocephalus ridibundus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  8,303

Most recent

• M 3.4 — 2025-12-03
  0 km ESE of Carnforth, United Kingdom
• M 2.7 — 2023-06-28
  2 km SE of Cheadle, United Kingdom
• M 2.8 — 2020-01-23
  1 km NW of Stockton-on-Tees, United Kingdom
• M 2.6 — 2014-10-28
  2 km NNE of Hucknall, United Kingdom
• M 3.6 — 2011-01-03
  5 km S of Masham, United Kingdom
• M 3.7 — 2009-04-28
  3 km WSW of Flookburgh, United Kingdom