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Summary of Dominant Character

Figure 1: Rawmarsh Hill. The irregular terraced buildings here date to the second half of the 19th century as the earlier village (which lies to the far side of the medieval church) was expanded to the south towards Park Gate, largely in response to the growth of the Park Gate Iron and Steel Co.

© SYAS

Figure 2: Pinch Row, Rawmarsh: Early-mid 19th century row housing shown in 1891 and its site in 1999.

Historic mapping © and database right Crown Copyright and Landmark Information Group Ltd (All rights reserved 2008) Licence numbers 000394 and TP0024. Cities Revealed aerial photography © the Geoinformation Group, 1999.

This zone is characterised by the development of settlements constructed primarily for the housing of industrial workers, outside of the boundaries of historic medieval settlement cores. This housing often takes the form of conjoined row housing, often (when dating to the late 19th or early 20th century) similar in form to the housing in the ‘Grid Iron Terraced Housing’ zone, although older examples tend to be of more vernacular character. In contrast to the ‘grid iron’ settlement areas, housing neighbourhoods in this zone are generally fairly irregular in overall plan form. Key trends in the positioning of these industrial settlements include close proximity to railways and canals, ribbon developments along existing roads and sites that exploit land made available for construction by the parliamentary enclosure of former common land. There are some examples of irregular industrial expansion on the edge of an historic core.

In the Rotherham district, coal mining is a frequent influence on the development of this type of housing, for example at Kiverton Park, Greasebrough, Laughton Common, Fence, Silverwood, Treeton and Swallow Nest. However, other industries characteristic of the region, such as iron steel and brass working, glass making, ceramic production, brick making and railway trades, also provided the impetus behind construction of these areas, particularly around Rawmarsh and Swinton. Developments here provide an excellent case study to show the typical development pattern for character areas within this zone.

The first stage in this development typically saw the establishment of small clusters of cottages, often set out in the countryside in order to place the workforce close to isolated rural resources such as coal pits or quarries. Often these resources were exploited on areas of common land – in this case the former Rawmarsh and Swinton Commons where resources of clay, timber coal and stone had a long history of use both before and after its enclosure in 1776, 1781 and 1820 (English 1985). At least three families of colliers are recorded living and working on Rawmarsh Common during the first half of the 18th century on parish registers and a Fairbank map of 1740 (Dodsworth 1996, 188-191). The Fairbank map clearly shows these families ‘crofts’ (small enclosures including a house and a small piece of land) well within the boundaries of the common close by to coal pits- a good indication that they originated as ‘squatter settlements’, a type of settlement known to be occurring on common lands across Yorkshire from the 16th century onwards (Hey 1986, 170).

The erection of row housing was only necessary with the establishment of large more formal industrial concerns, such as the collieries, that emerged during the 19th century. Within the former Rawmarsh Common area, (but again outside the present zone) row housing was present at Pinch Row (figure 2), associated with a sandstone quarry, and at Meadow Pottery to the south of the common. These cottages, still shown on late 19th century 25 inch to the mile mapping, were probably only one room deep (about 5m by 4m) and had been demolished by the 1960s.

By the late 19th century some industrial manufacturers were employing much larger numbers of workers than could be accommodated within the increasingly crowded historic settlement areas or within single rows of 5-10 houses. The development of the ‘Ryecroft and Sandhill, Rawmarsh’ character area (figure 3) shows how by this time rows were built on a larger scale, increasingly featuring the varied institutional and recreational facilities associated with independent communities.

Industrial settlements often feature allotment gardens associated with workers housing. Large areas of these can be seen on historic OS maps (figs 3 and 4) of these settlements, although many are now in neglected conditions or have been overbuilt during the 20th century. Other facilities included football and cricket pitches, recreation grounds and parks. In the mining villages these facilities were generally provided by the Miners Welfare Fund, the product of a levy paid by colliery companies of 1d on every ton of coal produced following the Mining Industry Act of 1920 (Griffin 1971, 170). These developments are often part of a phase of later improvements to the original industrial settlement.

‘Ryecroft and Sandhill, Rawmarsh’ character area in 1851. The future industrial suburb area is dominated by open agricultural and parkland with only very small hamlets at Lane Head and The Dale. Note the presence in the surrounding landscape of Meadow Pottery, quarries and coal pits.

By 1905 suburbanisation is well underway with terraced housing clusters at Rose Hill, Ryecroft and Sandhill. Rose Hill Park has by this time been adopted as a municipal park.

The 1938 OS shows the completed industrial suburb, with remaining spaces either used for further housing, institutional buildings and allotment gardens.

Figure 3: The development of the ‘Rycroft and Sandhill, Rawmarsh’ character area showing some typical characteristics of the ‘Industrial Settlement Zone.

Historic mapping © and database right Crown Copyright and Landmark Information Group Ltd (All rights reserved 2008) Licence numbers 000394 and TP0024

Relationship with Adjacent Zones

The most obvious relationship between this zone and others is with the ‘Industrial’ and ‘Post Industrial’ zones where the sites of the commercial concerns that influenced the development of these settlements are or were located.

Many of the areas within this zone evolved as ribbon developments along the main roads leading into character areas belonging to the ‘Nucleated Rural Settlements’ zone (figure 4).

Figure 4: ‘Greaseborough Industrial Settlement’ (pink) grew up to the south of the historic settlement core (brown) around early squatter settlement on a former green near ‘Chapel Houses’. It is of noticeably more irregular and varied plan form than either the historic core or the municipal estates to the south (purple).

© and database right Crown Copyright and Landmark Information Group Ltd (All rights reserved 2008) Licence numbers 000394 and TP0024

Inherited Character

Characteristics of older landscapes have survived within this zone due to the piecemeal development patterns of the later 19th and early 20th century shown clearly on figure 3. Many of the early phases of these developments took place along existing roads – as a result, the courses of these roads became fossilised in the developments and persist today (figure 5). Elsewhere, existing rural enclosures often provided convenient development plots, especially the narrow units typical of post medieval strip enclosures. Good examples of such strips fossilised by the 19th century development of workers terraces survive across this zone with good examples at Queen Street, Swinton and throughout the Parkgate, Rawmarsh character area.

Inherited Character

Characteristics of older landscapes have survived within this zone due to the piecemeal development patterns of the later 19th and early 20th century shown clearly on figure 3. Many of the early phases of these developments took place along existing roads – as a result, the courses of these roads became fossilised in the developments and persist today (figure 5). Elsewhere, existing rural enclosures often provided convenient development plots, especially the narrow units typical of post medieval strip enclosures. Good examples of such strips fossilised by the 19th century development of workers terraces survive across this zone with good examples at Queen Street, Swinton and throughout the Parkgate, Rawmarsh character area.

In 1851 the site of the later ‘Bradgate’ Industrial Settlement area was a small hamlet, typical of others in South Yorkshire though to have originated as squatter settlement around a small area of common land. Industrial activity was already present in the form of coal pits and quarries locally.

By the 1890s the settlement had been enlarged by building further row housing along the edges of existing roads and also along a newly built east west road.

The modern settlement of Bradgate has legibility both of the assarted common in addition to the 19th century row housing despite its later enveloping by 20th century housing.

Figure 5: Development of Bradgate.

Historic mapping © and database right Crown Copyright and Landmark Information Group Ltd (All rights reserved 2008) Licence numbers 000394 and TP0024: Modern maps © Crown copyright. All rights reserved. Sheffield City Council 100018816. 2007

Later Characteristics

The 1970s and 80s saw the closure of many of the industries that these settlements were established around, leading to significant hardship in the region. After a period of neglect, the 1990s and early 21st century have seen a concerted effort to improve and regenerate former industrial settlements. This has involved further demolition of cramped housing, sometimes leading to replacement homes being built but often the land is left as an urban green space. This pattern can be seen at Parkgate (figure 6) where the early phase of the industrial has largely been demolished and the terraced housing replaced with hundreds of new homes.

Figure 6: The ‘Parkgate Rawmarsh’ Industrial Settlement character area using HEC data to shade the image according to the date of individual units. The yellow area shows surviving largely terraced development clustered around the main road dating from 1855-1919. The grey shaded area shows inter-war (1919-1945) terraces and allotment gardens. The pink areas show areas of late 20th century (post 1975) housing, mostly municipal developments on the sites of cleared mid 19th century terraces.

Cities Revealed aerial photography © the GeoInformation Group, 1999

As in the ‘Grid Iron Terraced’ zone these areas have been particularly vulnerable to the social changes of the late 20th century. Most notably the now widespread phenomenon of multiple car ownership has had a significant effect of the streetscape of these areas, with off-road opportunities for parking almost completely absent and on road opportunities limited by the inherent short street frontage of each property.

Within properties the most notable change has probably been the introduction of bathrooms and toilets within the main living accommodation rather than contained within the back yard. Changes in property maintenance that has impacted on the general character of the built forms of the area include the widespread replacement of wooden doors and windows with double glazed uPVC units; the replacement of welsh slate roofing with concrete and other composite materials; and the introduction of TV and satellite aerials.

Changes in attitudes and practices concerning religion and schooling are also manifesting themselves in the changing characteristics of former institutional buildings in this zone with the buildings generally provided for these purposes now often put to re-use as community centres, clubs or youth centres.

Areas within this Zone

• ‘Fence Colliery Housing’
• ‘Garrowtree, Bradgate, and Kimberworth Industrial Settlement’
• ‘Greaseborough Industrial Settlement’
• ‘Holmes Industrial Settlement’
• ‘Kilnhurst Village’
• ‘Kiveton Park and Wales Colliery Housing’
• ‘Lane Head, Ryecroft and Sandhill, Rawmarsh’
• ‘Laughton Common Industrial Settlement’
• ‘Melton Green’
• ‘Park Gate, Rawmarsh’
• ‘Piccadilly’
• ‘Ryton Road, Anston’
• ‘Silverwood’
• ‘Swallow Nest, Aughton cum Aston Industrial Settlement’
• ‘Swinton Bridge Industrial Settlement’
• ‘Thorpe Hesley Industrial Settlement’
• ‘Treeton Colliery Housing’
• ‘Whinney Hill, Thrybergh’
• ‘Wickersley Industrial Expansion’

Bibliography

Dodsworth, T.

1996 Rawmarsh Common: A Study in Landscape History. In: M. Jones (ed.), Aspects of Rotherham 2. Barnsley: Wharncliffe.

English, B.

1985 Yorkshire Enclosure Awards. Hull: University of Hull.

Hey, D.

1986 A Regional History of England: Yorkshire From AD 1000. London: Longman.