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==History== Anglian crosses and other remains indicate that there was a settlement here by the 9th century. A hoard of 27 Roman [[denarius|denarii]] found in Turnip Lane and pottery at the cross indicate a substantially earlier settlement. The tombstone of a high-ranking Anglian, Osberht, was found in the graveyard of Thornhill Parish Church. Some historians claim that the grave bearing the name ''Osbehrt'' is that of [[Osberht of Northumbria]], who was killed on 21 March 867 while fighting the Viking Great Heathen Army led by [[Ivar the Boneless]]. The gravestone, among other contemporaneous high-status Anglian gravestones, is displayed in the church. Local place-names, Ludd Well (shown on a 1602 map) and the Combs indicate Celtic settlement. This is reinforced by the dedication of the Parish Church to St Michael, which is typical for churches in high places in formerly Celtic parts of northern England. The Celtic kingdom of [[Elmet]] that covered parts of modern West Yorkshire collapsed in AD 617. Thornhill is mentioned in the [[Domesday Book]] of 1086 as within the ancient [[Hundred (county division)|wapentake]] of [[Agbrigg and Morley|Agbrigg]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://opendomesday.org/place/SE2418/thornhill/|title=Open Domesday Online: Thornhill (Yorkshire)|access-date=8 August 2023}}</ref> In 1320 [[Edward II of England|Edward II]] granted a charter for a market and a fair.<ref name=tde/> [[File:Thornhill coat of arms.jpg|thumb|right|160px|[[Coat of arms]] of the Thornhill family]] In the reign of [[Henry III of England|Henry III]], [[Thornhill Hall]] was the seat of the Thornhill family, who intermarried with the De Fixbys and Babthorpes in the reigns of [[Edward I of England|Edward I]] and [[Edward II of England|Edward II]]. In the reign of [[Edward III of England|Edward III]], Elizabeth Thornhill, the only child of Simon Thornhill, married Sir Henry Savile. This extinguished the family line of Thornhills of Thornhill which passed its property down the Savile line and Thornhill became the seat of the Savile family.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://midgleywebpages.com/thornhill.html|title = The family of Thornhill of Thornhill, Yorkshire}}</ref> The Saviles intermarried with the Calverley family so that when Sir John Savile died in 1503 in Thornhill, he left provision in his will for his sister Alice, married to Sir William Calverley.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.medievalgenealogy.org.uk/sources/saville/clay2.shtml|title=Medieval English genealogy: The Savile Family|website=www.medievalgenealogy.org.uk}}</ref> [[Sir William Savile, 3rd Baronet|Sir William Savile]], the third [[baronet]] of the family, fortified the hall. ===Thornhill Hall=== The Saviles remained here until the [[English Civil War]] when Thornhill Hall was besieged. A royalist heroine after the siege of [[Sheffield Castle]] in 1644, Lady Anne Savile's troops under Capt Thomas Paulden (brother of [[John Morris (soldier)#Seizure of Pontefract Castle|William Paulden]]) defended the hall against the Parliamentary forces under Col Sir Thomas Fairfax in August 1648. They were forced to surrender and the hall was destroyed.<ref>{{cite book|first=B. |last=Nuttall |title=A History of Thornhill |year=1970}}</ref> Some ruins of the hall and the moat remain in Rectory Park.<ref>{{National Heritage List for England|num=1134729|desc=RUINS OF THE MEDIEVAL THORNHILL HALL IN MOATED ENCLOSURE, IN RECTORY GROUNDS|grade=II|access-date=1 January 2019}}</ref> The moat retains water. The Old Rectory survived and was home to several vicars, notably [[John Michell]],<ref name="EB1911"/> who rose to international prominence by developing an understanding of earthquakes, then devised an experiment to accurately determine the mass of planet Earth, but perhaps most intriguingly, attracted [[Benjamin Franklin]] (founding father of the USA), [[Joseph Priestley]], [[Jan Ingenhousz]], [[John Smeaton]] and others to a scientific meeting and overnight stay in 1771. Benjamin Franklin's stay in Thornhill remained unknown until 2015. Monuments to members of the Thornhill and Savile families are in Thornhill Parish Church.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thornhillparishchurch.org.uk/AboutUs.htm |title=History & Publications β Thornhill Parish Church |access-date=12 February 2006 |archive-date=12 March 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070312020935/http://www.thornhillparishchurch.org.uk/AboutUs.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> ===Industrial Revolution=== Thornhill has close ties to [[Coal mining in the United Kingdom#Industrial Revolution until 1900|coal mining]]. The demand for coal increased due to the development of the [[steam engine]]. The local population increased as more workers were recruited for the mines. In 1893 an explosion at Combs Pit killed 139 coal miners. Thornhill Colliery resulted from the merging of Inghams and Combs Collieries in 1948 but closed in 1971.
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