Places of interest in South Yorkshire

Barnsley is situated to the south of Wakefield and to the north of Sheffield and its history dates back to the Anglo Saxon times, but its greatest influence was in the Victorian era. It is best known as being the heart of South Yorkshire coalfield with many surrounding villages. Barnsley is known mainly for the coal and iron it produce in the Victorian times with its rapidly growing population due to the abundance of work.

With the demise of the mining industry in the 1980s Barnsley has had to, like many other mining towns, rebrand its self. It now emphasises the sport and leisure amenities in the area and its historical buildings to attract visitors.

Famous people such as Michael Parkinson (journalist), Dickie Bird (cricketer umpire) and Arthur Scargil (former miners' union leader) are all from Barnsley.

Bawtry is known as the Gateway to the North because of its location and with major rail and road links running through it. It has been a market town since the 1200s and with the River Idle close became an important port. In 1759 when the Turnpike Act was established the roads around it improved and then the coming of the railways (where part of the river had to be diverted) the port was no longer needed for transportation of goods. It has many historical buildings such as Bawtry Hall and St Nicholas' church.

Braithwell is in the borough of Rotherham, South Yorkshire . Braithwell is largely a rural area but does have delightful narrow streets and traditional stone properties; the oldest building in the parish is St James church and dates back to the Norman times. It is an ideal location if you want to explore the surrounding areas with its quaint shops and the noted pub, The Butchers Arms, making visitors very welcome.

Brinsworth is located to the south west of Rotherham and has convenient road connections to Sheffield . There is evidence it dates back to the 2 nd century and until the 1800s it was mainly a rural area. In the 1900s Brinsworth Strip Mill was built (part of the Templeborough Steel complex) and British Oxygen also settled near by providing employment and in the 1960s the M1 was built to the south side of Brinsworth. Today Brinsworth is mainly residential because of its convenience to Rotherham and Sheffield and it has a large number of sports ground to the northwest.

Cawthorne is a parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley in South Yorkshire and its history dates back to the Anglo Saxon times. The parish has been dominated by different families over the years, firstly the Barnby family, who built Barnby Hall, then the Spencers who came in the 1600s from Wales looking for coal and Iron and by marriage to the Hartley Family were able to acquire Cannon Hall and surrounding land thus changing Cawthorne from a predominately agricultural village to and industrial one. With the change in the economic climate the village began to decline with local businesses not being able to compete with larger chain stores and less children in the local school, bur with its caring attitude and good results saw parents from outside the village sending their children there thus helping to revive the village.

Today Cawthorne is a surviving village with a grocery store, post office and newsagents (which has been in the same place for over a hundred years). It has local clubs and restaurants and lots of local activities for all to enjoy. The village has two churches who work closely together to plan for activities and help solve any problems in the area.

Conisbrough is a parish in the borough of Doncaster, South Yorkshire and dates back to at least the 2 nd century with St Peter's Church dating back to the 700s and the castle to the 1000s. With mining tightly linked to the area from as early as the 1400s, with a mine shaft being built in 1867. Being the largest employer in the area the Denaby Colliery Co. built houses for their workers near to the colliery. The biggest disaster in the area was in 1912 at the Cadeby Pit where 91 workers died. Other industries did run alongside the mining industry with the main contender being agriculture.

Cudworth is a friendly relaxing place that has been rejuvenated by the local community, it has a good range of café, shops and services for all to enjoy. It was once part of the borough of Barnsley but is now thought of as a place in its own right especially by the locals.

The railway played a big part in its history as it was on the Midland Line and it was a terminus which helped transport coal to the Alexandra Docks at Hull . It was shut down in 1968.

There are many things to do to keep entertained here, with a library, community centre, the Dorothy Hyman Sports centre (named after the notable national and international athletic star Dorothy Hyman, who was born and raised here).

Dinnington Is in the area of Rotherham but it has the postal address of Sheffield and the dialling code of Worksop. It is about 10 miles south east of Rotherham with the village of Throapham to the north.

It dates back to as early as the Iron Age and was known as Dinnington and Mason. Again for the area the coal mines have had a major influence as an employer and its history with the Dinnington colliery opening in 1715.

Although keeping its heritage very few old buildings remain in Dinnington, notably the public houses which date back to 1828 and the only survivor of the old street is Fenwick Cottage. The building of new houses in the 1950s bought about the demolishing of the old stone houses but this helped recreate the village green. Today the Parish council remains and deals with all local matters.

Doncaster dates as far back as the early roman settlers although it wasn't until the 1100s that Doncaster grew into a town and continued to grow despite the outbreak of plagues in the 1500s. By the 1700s Doncaster became a coaching town where many stagecoaches passed through thus the need for many Inns to be built. It is also known for the horse racing, the St Ledger was first held here in 1776 which was also the year that it got its first theatre.

Railways came to the area in the 1800s which bought new prosperity to the town, although eradicating the need for stagecoaches. The Great Northern Railway moved its works here from Boston and became the main employer of that time. Doncaster flourished as an engineering town, and is also known for its butterscotch.

Doncaster has two shopping centres which were built in the 1970s, the Frenchgate (firstly known as the Arndale) and the Waterdale Centre which have many modern day shops and individual ones.

Dore and its history can be traced back to the Anglo Saxon times, with a small number of old buildings positioned near to the church giving it a sense of community with social gatherings enforcing this. It is fairly close to Sheffield and benefits from its close proximity. Dore is known as one the areas where the industrial revolution began, with Peak District lead being smelted in the area and white coal being produced here, until the coal and steam engines bought more reliable power sources and the industries moved towards Sheffield, thus opening up the village for the wealthy to move here away from the smoke of the city, travelling to Sheffield by train. Due to the creation of the Sheffield Green Belt area, any further expansion of Dore was halted, and so stopping Dore from becoming just another suburb of the city.

Dore has a thriving community today and along with the history and setting at the edge of the Peak Park makes it a must to visit.

Hathersage is believed to be the area in which Robin Hood was supposed to live in the 1200s, Sherwood forest stretched much further north then and many of the local areas have been named with this connection, Robin Hood's Stoop, Little John's Well, Robin Hood's Cave and Little John's Flight.

Industry came to the area in the 1400s in the form of the local stone which was suitable for making millstone and grindstones, with quarries being set up on the surrounding gritstone edges. The finished product was then transported by horse to barges so that it could be sent further afield. Lead was also part of the industry of the area and was smelted on the hills above the village. With the introduction of water powered mills and along with the quarries and smelting the population began to increase, with this also came improved roads for good transportation of goods in and out of the area. This continued on into the late 1800s, with steam taking over from water as an energy source, this bought increased reliability but much more pollution. The last mill closed in the 1950s and two have been converted to residential accommodation. Hethersage became easily accessible in the late 1800s with the railway being built in the area in 1894 and with the increased use of the bicycle. Opening up the area to all, with this, hotels, cafes and boarding houses were built to offer accommodation and sustenance.

Today Hathersage is a nice place to live with local amenities such as the Memorial Hall by organisations and groups, a large playing field for the youngsters to use and an open air heated swimming pool which is popular with all.

Maltby is a ward just north of the Rother Valley constituency, it is a small town and most of it is rural and sparsely populated. It is mention in the Domesday Book and for hundreds of years it was a farming village.

In the early 1900s a colliery opened thus increasing it population dramatically. The colliery is still open today and is the only working colliery in Rotherham .

Penistone the ancient parish of Penistone consisted of eight townships with the settlement of Penistone being little more than a small village. By the beginning of the 1900s Penistone had a population of little more than 3000, with the town of Thurlstone being more popular due to the textile industry.

For some time Penistone has held a market once a week, initially for the farmers to sell their livestock etc but gradually it changed and people sold their wares, food etc. Penistone is also known for giving its name to a heavy woollen cloth made by farmers as it was hard wearing and warm, it was sold locally to give the farmers and labourers some extra money, it became popular thus creating the cloth market. Then in the late 1800s came the rise of the industrial era to the area with the opening of iron and steel works, creating many jobs in the area. The opening of the railway also opened up many opportunities to the area as Penistone became a major junction.

The Victorian era bought many fine buildings to the town which many are still there today. Since the late 1800s Penistone has held a show' every year with the whole town participating, it has grown from strength to strength creating a community spirit in the town.

Rotherham is to the north east of Sheffield and was firstly an important market town in the Saxon era and with the building of The College of Jesus, a place to rival Oxford and Cambridge ; it gained a reputation of a fashionable, modern town but due to political disruption the college closed and the town declined.

Later coal was discovered and mining provided employment to hundreds, then with the steel and iron industries also providing work Rotherham became a booming town. The Templeborough Steelworks produced two million tonnes of steel every year thus giving jobs to thousands of men. It was closed in 1993 and the building is now the Magna Science Adventure Centre.

Due to extensive modernisation in the last century Rotherham has very few historical buildings, the ones that stand out are a 16 th century pub and a 15 th century bridge. The Clifton Park Museum holds an impressive exhibit that documents the changes in Rotherham through the different ages in time.

Sheffield is situated where the point of the river Shear meets the River Don and is mainly the product of the Victorian era. The surrounding areas were important in ancient times with a Celtic fortress located in Wincobank, a suburb of Sheffield and others being found in Hathersage moor near Dore and Scholes Wood near Rotherham . There is a castle and a manor house in Sheffield which housed Mary Queen of Scots for 14 years when she was imprisoned by Queen Elizabeth I.

Sheffield became most famous for the making of steel since at least the 1300s, and by the 1500s became known for specialising in the making of cutlery but later with great improvements to the steel making technique by a mechanic by the name of Huntsman it became more expert in the making of steel springs and pendulums for watches. Improvements continued in the Victorian times with the development of the Bessemer process in the 1850s this was invented by Henry Bessemer who had set up steelworks in Sheffield . Stainless Steel was pioneered at Sheffield in 1903 and during the 1 st and 2 nd WWs Sheffield manufactured armaments, thus making it a target for enemy bombing so suffered much damage. Sheffield is also famous for the making of the Sheffield Plate, which was invented by Thomas Bolsouver in 1742, but was later superseded by the electroplating process which was discovered in 1840.

Old factories, workshops and industrial estates still existed until the mid 1980s which added to the perception of Sheffield being a dirty, grimy place to live, but with heavy investment and redevelopment there now many new housing estates, recreational and shopping areas for all to enjoy. With a large student population Sheffield has a popular social scene, with lots of bars, restaurants and cafes catering for all tastes and budgets. There are a number of museums, galleries and theatres for the more cultural experience.

Sprotbrough is situated to the north of Doncaster divided by the A1. It has a working clock tower that dates back to 1176 which is opposite the Old Rectory which is reportedly the oldest building in the village. This was the childhood home of the famous WWII hero Group Captain Sir Douglas Bader; it is now an excellent B&B.

It has excellent transport links to Doncaster and it is close to the motorway network of that area, thus making it a very popular place to live. With the usual village shops, such a beauty salon, florist, children's clothes shop and a gift shop, there is also an Indian Restaurant (with an excellent reputation), a couple of pubs, which offer good wholesome food.

Stannington was originally a village in the Old West Riding of Yorkshire, while still being a part of the Bradfield parish it is also a suburb of Sheffield . Originally it was not really a town or a village but a series of small habitation areas, the earliest known records are from the roman times. Stannington was mainly an agricultural area with cottage industries, such as pen knife making, clay extraction and paper manufacturing. Today Stannington is a mainly residential place with no local industry.

Thorne is a parish and market town situated about 11 miles from Doncaster and is in the lower division of Strafforth and Tickhill. Its history dates back to the bronze and iron ages. It was mainly an agricultural area back then, where the area to the east was swamp land and marshes so was unsuitable to live on. By the 1600s a drastic change was in place, a Dutch drainage engineer, Cornelius Vermuyden, persuaded the king that he would be able to drain the land making the farm land more valuable.

Thorne also had its own Waterside or Quay where there were ship building yards making the population grow, the ships sailed to York, London, Hull and the continent. Because of this there inns, rope and sail making businesses and warehouses and with the construction of the canal in the 1790s business and trade increased. New turnpike roads were being built in the 1800s so the mainly waterborne traffic began to decline and then with railways being built saw a decline in road travel as the trains were quicker for transporting goods. Town councils began to run the affairs of the towns, building schools for the community's children.

The opening of the Thorne Colliery bought even more people to the area and because of this more houses needed building to accommodate this influx.

Thrybergh is situated on the main road between Rotherham and Doncaster . Its history dates back to the Romans and there is evidence that the A630 was constructed by them. It has a reservoir that was originally constructed to supply water to Doncaster but due to a leakage this never worked. Rotherham Borough Council bought it for £1, 100 years later.

Thrybergh is home to the prestigious golf club, Rotherham Golf Club. The clubhouse was built in the early 1800s originally as a residence for the Fullerton family, the new owners of Thrybergh Park . There are also 3 schools, 2 primary and on senior along with a well established sports centre. The village has two clubs, the British Legion and a Working Men's club along with two village pubs.

Thrybergh was close to the Silverwood Colliery and in the prime of the mining industry was a very thriving community, with the closure of the mines the village businesses also suffered. Today with new housing developments, the amenities and the country park Thrybergh is a lovely place to live and visit.