Bardsey cum Rigton, West Riding

Description
Bardsey a village and a parish in the W. R. Yorkshire, 197 miles from London, with a station on the N.E.R. The parish includes the townships of Bardsey-with-Rigton, Wothersome,and part of Wike. Leeds is the post town. Acreage, 2748; population, 286; of the ecclesiastical parish, 398. Bardsey Grange was the birthplace of Congreve the poet and dramatist, and was the occasional residence and the deathplace of Francis Thorpe, the notorious Baron of the Exchequer. Castle Hill, immediately behind the vicarage, was the site of a Roman fort. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Ripon ; gross value, £225 with residence. The church is very Early Norman, in the north arcade rude and plain. The south arcade pillars are possibly Saxon. The tower also, in the opinion of many, is Saxon, but this may be doubtful. It is one of the oldest churches in the county.