The name of Thorner is first attested in the 1086 Domesday Book as Torneure, Tornoure and Tornoura. The name comes from the Old English words þorn and ofer, and thus meant "thorn bank". The township and parish of Thorner also included Eltofts, whose name comes from the Old English masculine personal nameElla and the Old English word toft, which meant 'curtilage, messuage, plot of land with a building'. Thus the name once meant 'Ella's plot of land'.
History
There is archaeological evidence of Bronze Age and Anglo-Saxon settlements, while the name St Osyth's Well, just West of the church, refers to a Viking Age saint. The ancient parish of Thorner covered 4400 acres in the wapentake of Skyrack in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The parish included the townships of Scarcroft and Shadwell, which became separate civil parishes in 1866. In 1245 it acquired a market, and the area around Main Street shows a typical Medieval layout of strips leading from a market street. The base of a medieval market cross is on Butts Garth. As well as farming, pottery was a local industry in the Middle Ages, supplanted by the textile industry in the 18th and 19th centuries. Thorner railway station. The church of St Peter is built in the later English gothic style and has a square embattled tower. In the graveyard is the memorial to John Philips, who lived to 118 years. A school was built by subscription in 1787, and is now the Parish Centre. The Wesleyan Methodists have a place of worship on the main street in the village, their nineteenth-century chapel having been converted to flats.
Geography
Thorner is situated close to the A1, A58 and A64trunk roads. It is 8 miles north-east of Leeds city centre and 7 miles to the south-west of Wetherby. The underlying rock is limestone, some of which was burnt into lime and flagstone and slates were quarried. Travel to and from the village by public transport is via the number 7 bus route. The journey takes roughly half an hour from Leeds, 20 minutes from Wetherby and an hour from Harrogate.
Features
Thorner has no street lighting. The village has two public houses, the Mexborough Arms and The Fox. There is no longer a post office or a village shop, but there is a delicatessen, a hairdresser's and a restaurant, formerly The Beehive pub. Social amenities include the Parish Centre next to the church, the Victory Hall in Carr Lane, an over-60s centre, a bowling green, tennis courts and cricket and football pitches.
