Records relating to Woolley go back to the Domesday Book and earlier – going under the name of Wilueli. The name Woolley is thought to derive from Wulf-laye, a wolf’s lair, and indicates that much of the surrounding land remained wild. Over the years agriculture became the main use for the land, and many working farms remain as well as names recalling now defunct farms.

Woolley Edge, the ridge of high land running through the Parish, separates Woolley Village on the east side from the former mining area and colliery village (known as ‘dirty Woolley’!) and the village of Haigh on the west. Artefacts found on the edge suggest habitation going back 7000 years to the Stone Age.

The Lordship of the Manor, in the hands of the de Wolvelay family in the 12th Century, passed through several local families then to the Woodrove’s. Part of the estate belonged to Sir William de Notton until 1377, when he sold it to John Woodrove, the Royal Collector of rents for the area under Edward IV and Richard III. The Woodrove’s formed a large estate in Woolley, created Woolley Park and remained in control until 1599, when the Wentworth’s bought Woolley, Notton and surrounding land. The Wentworth’s became the village squires and remained owners of the estate and the rebuilt Woolley Hall until well into the twentieth century.

The other prominent family in the area at the time were the Wheatley’s, who lived at Wheatley Hall in Woolley, from perhaps the 13th Century, until mid-1700. The 15th Century Wheatley Hall, in the High Street, was taken down in the 1960’s.

Parts of the building of St. Peter’s Church, which has undergone restoration in recent years, date from the 12th, 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, and the church remains in good shape both physically and spiritually.

As a village owned by the squire during the 19th century, change in Woolley was controlled by the Wentworth’s. Untouched by industrial development, the village retains much of its old village character; stone built houses and many trees. It is now designated a conservation area. The school, which was founded in 1718, had a new building in the 18th century but was closed in 1993. The school building, in the centre of the village, was purchased by the community and is now the village hall. The village pubs, however, were closed by the squire in order to improve the village! In the late 1940’s, the estate was broken up - the Hall was sold and became a College, and the tenants of the estate were able to purchase their properties.

The small village of Haigh, now split by both the M1 and the county boundary, also has a history going back to the Norman invasion. Southange (South Haigh or Upper Haigh) became part of the estates awarded to Admiral Wyatt, who had charge of the Norman fleet when William the Conqueror landed in England in 1066. The Wyatt family, who became squires of the village, included Sir Francis Wyatt, who was the first royal Governor of Virginia from 1621 to 1629, and Henry Wyatt, involved as a Lancastrian in the Duke of Buckingham's unsuccessful 1483 revolt in the West Country in favour of Henry Tudor. Henry Wyatt was imprisoned and tortured in the Tower during the reign of Richard III, and released on the accession of Henry VII. Wyatt was at the battle of Bosworth Field, and as a reward Henry VII raised Henry Wyatt to the highest honours at Court.

The industrial revolution brought mining and transport to the area – coal mines were established at Woolley and Haigh, and in 1850 the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway built the rail line from Horbury to Barnsley with a stop at Haigh. The second half of the twentieth century brought modernisation in the form of closures of Haigh station in 1965 (although the railway line itself is still in use), the Haigh mine in 1968, and the Woolley mine in 1987. The M1 motorway, running alongside the railway, was opened in 1967 with a junction (38) at Haigh.

In 2003, work started on the new community of Woolley Grange on the site of the Woolley Mine. A planned village of 375 dwellings, it adds considerably to the population of the Parish of Woolley.