Toponymy

Shitlington has Anglo-Saxon origins. It possibly began as the settlement, tun, connected with scyttel (either a personal name or a bar or gate which bolts shut) or might mean a farm or settlement on a steep slope.^[8] The village is recorded as "Schelingtone" in the Domesday Book. Other spellings have included Shytlington, Sittlington, Schetlinton, and Scyllinton.^[9]

Netherton was recorded as Schiteliton Inferior in the 13th century and subsequently as Nether Shitlington. It means the "lower town". Middlestown was Midelshitelington in the 14th century and a 15th-century document records it as Mydleston. Overton was recorded as Overshitlyngton in the 11th century. Midgley was Migelie in the 12th century and could mean either the "large pasture" or "midge infested clearing". Coxley, recorded as Cockesclo at the end of the 12th century, meant a "dell where there were cocks". Hollinhurst possibly means the "holly wood".^[9]

Medieval

Shitlington was part of the extensive Manor of Wakefield. At the Domesday survey its six oxgangs of land was described as waste. Within the township were three manors, Netherton, New Hall and Overton belonged to a family named Everingham. New Hall, once a moated manor house became the property of Sir Thomas Wortley and subsequently the Earls of Wharncliffe. Land changed hands frequently and the Armitages bought land in Middlestown and Overton in 1598. ^[10]

Mining

In medieval times monks from Kirkstall, Rievaulx and Byland Abbeys and St John's Priory in Pontefract obtained ironstone from Sitlington. The seam of ironstone lay between the Joan and Flockton coal seams in the area. Ironstone was mined at Emroyd from 1798. A blast furnace powered by a steam engine built there closed around 1821. Emroyd was then exploited for its coal.