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Revision as of 16:34, 16 March 2007 by Pit-yacker (talk | contribs) (Convert Infobox using AWB)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) Human settlement in EnglandWath-upon-Dearne, also known as Wath-on-Dearne or simply Wath, is a small town on the south side of the Dearne Valley in South Yorkshire, England, lying 5 miles (8 km) north of Rotherham, close to mid-way between Barnsley and Doncaster.
History
Wath can trace its existence back to Norman times, having an entry in the Domesday book. For hundreds of years it remained a quiet rural settlement astride the junction of the old Doncaster-Barnsley and Rotherham-Pontefract roads. Until the 1840s the town was home to a racecourse of regional importance, linked to the estate at nearby Wentworth; the racecourse later fell into disuse although traces of the original track can easily be found between Wath and Swinton and its memory is left in local street names. There also was a pottery at Newhill, close to deposits of clay, although this always lived under the shadow of the nearby Rockingham Pottery in Swinton.
High quality bituminous coal had also been dug out of outcrops and near-surface seams in primitive bell-pits for many hundreds of years, and it was the development of the deep-mining industry from the 19th Century that was to affect the area the most. Several high-grade coal seams are close to the surface in this area of South Yorkshire, including the prolific Barnsley seam. The population of the area swelled and the local infrastructure was developed for the coal industry. The local economy became overly reliant on this one single industry; this was to store up problems for the future.
The Dearne and Dove Canal was built to access the local collieries and passed through the town just to the south of the High Street on a large embankment with a large turning pound known locally as the 'Bay of Biscay'. This was closed in stages from 1934 to 1961 and much of the line of the canal was used for road improvement works in the late 1960s and again in 1985 (named 'Biscay Way').
By the 20th century, heavy industry was evident in the area with many large, busy collieries and a large modern colliery complex, coal preparation and coking plant at nearby Manvers, which was visible and detectable by nose from miles around.
Rail took over from the canal as a means of transporting coal out of the area, and Wath-upon-Dearne became a railfreight centre of national importance. One of the biggest and, for its time, most modern railway marshalling yards in the UK was built north of the town in 1907. It was one of the eastern ends of the trans-Pennine Manchester-Sheffield-Wath electrified railway (also known as the Woodhead Line), a project which spanned the Second World War. It also once had three railway stations, all on Station Road - Wath Central, Wath (Hull and Barnsley) and Wath North in order of distance from the town centre. This most distant station was the last to close in 1968.
The local coal industry was at the forefront of the sudden dramatic decline of the British coal mining industry, which was precipitated by a change of government economic policy in the early 1980s. This had very severe knock-on effects in the many reliant local industries, and caused much local hardship. The 1985 miners' strike was sparked by the impending closure of Cortonwood Colliery in Brampton Bierlow, a neighbouring village. Along with the whole of the Dearne Valley, Wath was classified as an impoverished area and received much public money, including European funds. These were put into regenerating the area from the mid-nineties onward causing a certain amount of economic revival, and changing the character of the area to be more rural as large areas of ex-industrial land were turned back into scrub-land and countryside, dotted with light industrial and commercial office parks.
Today
Wath-upon-Dearne is centred on Montgomery Square, where the town's main shops, library and bus station are located. Immediately West is the substantial Norman All Saints Church, in a small leafy green with the Town Hall, the Montgomery Hall and a campus of the Dearne Valley College. There are several busy pubs in the town centre.
Today Wath is still emerging from the hardship caused by the sudden collapse of its major industry. However over the past decade jobs and a certain albeit relatively low level of affluence have returned to the area. In very recent years, after a hiatus when the area felt rather rural, the construction of several very large distribution centres to the north of the town is once again bringing an industrial feel to the area, although without the pollution issues that were connected with the coal industry. A significant amount of new housing is also being built at Manvers, which should increase the town's population in future years.
The town no longer has a direct rail link, although there has been talk of opening a station on the Sheffield-Wakefield-Leeds line at Manvers, roughly a mile from the town centre.
Held every May Bank Holiday, Wath Festival is the biggest folk festival of its kind in the region, with a growing national reputation. Some of the biggest names in the folk scene have appeared in recent years. It is also very much a community festival with traditional dancing, street performances, workshops, children's festival and the famous throwing of the bread buns from the Parish Church Tower.
Population
Population figures vary from roughly 15,000 to the figure of 7,545 given in the infobox. This latter figure is the population of the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham Wath-upon-Dearne ward at the 2001 census, minus one area that is geographically a part of Swinton but included in the Wath ward for convenience. The former figure appears to include the neighbouring settlements of West Melton and Brampton Bierlow which were included the former Wath-upon-Dearne urban district.
Famous people with links to Wath
- William Hague, the former leader of the Conservative Party and current shadow Foreign Secretary, was a pupil at Wath-upon-Dearne Comprehensive School at the time when he made his famous maiden political speech at the Conservative Party conference, aged 16.
- Peter Hardy, Baron Hardy of Wath was born and educated in Wath, and was the local Labour MP for many years.
- Ian McMillan, poet and so-called Bard of Barnsley, was educated at the town's secondary school in the days when it was a Grammar School.
- Lucy Clarkson, former Lara Croft Tomb Raider model, was born in Wath-upon-Dearne and educated at Wath Comprehensive School.
External links
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