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CENSUS NIGHTS:

2nd April 1911
31st March 1901
5th April 1891
3rd April 1881
2nd April 1871
7th April 1861
30th March 1851
6th June 1841
Name Meaning for "Horsfield"
Recorded in the spellings of Horsfield and Horsefield, this is an English residential surname which
seems, at first glance, to be quite straight forward. It appears to describe a person who lived by
fields used by horses or more likely from a village of the same name. The problem is that there is
no such place as Horsefield or Horsfield, and logically it is very unlikely that land would be kept
specifically for horses unless it was either a race course, or a stud. Even then the land would,
almost certainly, have been used for other animals in the grazing cycle practised since time
immemorial. An alternative suggestion which has much merit is that the name relates to a now 'lost'
medieval village or possibly villages. Over five thousand British surnames are believed to originate
from places, whose only memory today lies in the surviving surname. This may well be one of them.
Canon Charles Bardsley, the famous Victorian etymologist suggested that the name was from the north
of England, and thought that it might have been from Yorkshire, as he was certain that it was not
from Lancashire. It seems however that the name is quite rare wherever it is found, there were only
eight recordings in Lancashire and six in Yorkshire in the year 1880, and even fewer in London.
These London records may however hold a clue to the name origin as the first known recording may be
that of William Horsefold, as spelt, at the famous church of St James Clerkenwell, in 1596. Was a
Horsfield originally a Horsefold? We do not know, but certainly in 1795 there was no argument,
Elizabeth Horsefield marrying a Richard Thornton at St Georges Chapel, Hanover Square, London, in
that year. 
It is a northern name across Lancashire, Cheshire, Derbyshire and Yorkshire. Bear it
in mind that between Manchester and Yorkshire lay the north-east of Cheshire, right up to the Ashton
boundary of Stalybridge. Plenty of connections to Mann Horsfield, landowner, of Thorp Green (York),
High Sheriff of Yorkshire in 1774 and his grandfather Robert Horsfield High Sheriff of York 1672-3
whose father came from Hemsworth (Barnsley). Lots of Horsfields were in the cotton industry.
According to Middleton in the Annals of Hyde 1888 the cotton spinning Horsfields came from Newton
(in Hyde). 

Only one place name reference, Mary Tunnicliffe (now there is a Derbyshire name) came from Horsfield and Holing Clough, Staffs. Holing Clough is a legitimate variant on Hollinsclough, in fact historically it looks more accurate. It provides a possibility if there is a single place name reference for Horsfield.


Surname Summary Data for HORSFIELD
Frequency Comparisons
                                         Total   Rank    Frequency %  Per million people
United Kingdom (current)         2305    2615      0.005             50
United Kingdom (1881 census)  2010    2196      0.007             67
Change since 1881                +295    -419     -0.002            -17