Woodkirk / West Ardsley / Westerton

No individual entry found for either Woodkirk or West Ardsley in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/SE2825/west-ardsley/] [accessed 22 October 2018]. Norrisson Cavendish Scatcherd's The History of Morley [...], 2nd. (Morley, 1874) refers to Leland's comment that there was "a Cell of Black Canons from Nostel" at Woodchurch; he also refers to a donation recorded in Burton by which "Wodechurch" was given to Nostel Priory "by the hands of Archbishop Thurstin" [NB: Thurstin, formerly the king's [Henry 1?] chaplain was elected archbishop of York after 1115]. An entry in The Antiquary informs of the 17 September 1892 visit by members of the Bradford Historical and Antquarian Society to Woodkirk: "the parish of which was once attached to a cell of Augustinian canons, subordinate to Nostell priory". Unfortunately there is no detailed description of the church or its contents in any of the above sources. Ryder (1993) notes that "Woodkirk is thought to be the Domesday church of 'St Mary in the Wood of Morlege'; it later served a small Augustinian priory, a dependency of Nostell"; Ryder further notes that the tower "is of about 1200" and reports a "?17th-century font" in it. The present stone font consists of an octagonal basin decorated with a thin moulding all around, raised on an octagonal pedestal base with a roll moulding near the top.