The name Ackworth is from the Anglo-Saxon, or Scandinavian. It comprises of two words:-
Ake or Aken meaning Oak, and Uurt or worth meaning a clearing, a farmstead or small hamlet.
We can say then that the village was established by Anglo-Saxon times, possibly as an offshoot from the bigger establishment at Pontefract.
By the time of the Domesday book the village had two manors, which were probably the growth centres for High and Low Ackworth.
So, we have a small development, growing in two distinct groups, but nowhere near the size of the present village. Areas like Moor Top and Brackenhill were much later formations. The inhabitants were probably farmers who would trade in Pontefract, around St Oswald's Cross, where the Buttercross now stands.
The Norman Conquest brought Ackworth into the hands of Ilbert de Lacy, a Norman Knight who came over with William of Normandy, and from this time Ackworth's fate was linked with the Castle. The village became part of the Honour of Pontefract, a massive area covering Pontefract, Leeds, Barwick-In-Elmet,
Barnsley and Bradford. Pontefract was the Lord's main seat, though he had to spend all his time touring round his lands, and attending the King.

Ackworth was probably Christian from its establishment, and is a possible site for the visitation of S. Cuthbert's body.
When the Danes attacked the monks took up Cuthbert's body to prevent its desecration and carried it around the North. Tradition states that where the body rested a Church was built in Cuthbert's name. Another link to this may rest in a clue from the nearby pub, The Brown Cow. The monks also took with then a dunn cow, to provide fresh milk for their travels, and 1200 years later the dunn, or brown cow still stands next to S. Cuthbert's.
We'll look for a little while at the spiritual life of Ackworth. Over the years Ackworth has been home to many denominations, predominately Christian. We know there was a Norman chapel built on the site of the present church, though the present building was put up in 1852 following a fire. Until 1534 it would have been a part of the established Roman Catholic faith, until Henry VIII declared himself head of the Church in England. The transition from Rome did not go down well in the North , culminating in the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536. One of our residents called Tempest took part in the march, and paid for it dearly. In the 1640's the church and village ran into difficulties. Dr Bradley, rector of Ackworth was also Rector to King Charles I, and if the king fell, his rector fell. It was probably at this time that the Village Cross was damaged. The cross which presumably stood atop was replaced with a ball. This may be due to the fact that the Puritans felt the symbol of the cross to be idolatrous, and the ball to be a symbol of the world.
The church was a popular part of village life, and at the latter end of the 19th C. a chapel of ease had to be built for the expanding village. Built in 1888 by Sybilla and Julia Wheeler, they died before they could see the fruits of their kindness.

The Roman faith never died out in Ackworth, and the Tempest family continued to practice their faith. At their home, Ackworth Grange they employed Augustus Northmore Welby Pugin, the designer of the interiors of Westminster Palace, to build them a Roman Catholic Chapel. This served as the village Church until 1920 when a new church opened at Eagle House, High Ackworth. The present Church, Our Lady of Lourdes was built in 1939.