Denaby Main Colliery Village, situated between Mexborough and Conisbrough in South Yorkshire, was the original name given to the village built by the Denaby Main Colliery Company to house its workers and their families. This name was used to distinguish it from the village of "Denaby", situated about 1 km. away on the road to Hooton Roberts and Kilnhurst, which, from that time, became known as "Old Denaby". In due course the "Colliery Village" part of the name was lost, leaving the village to be known as "Denaby Main".

History

Around 1700 poor quality coal was found, close by the surface, just over the River Don from Mexborough and this, in time, lead to the sinking of two shafts, in 1863, for Denaby Main Colliery, the Barnsley bed being reached in 1867.

Around the time the miners were reaching the Barnsley bed the colliery company began building housing to accommodate its workers and their families, not only the housing but even the pub, The Denaby Main Hotel, nowadays one of the few properties from that era still standing. However It is now (2008)a Balti restaurant.

The layout of the village was pure ‘Industrial Revolution’, parallel streets of terraced houses running away from the Mexborough to Conisbrough road which ran through the village, with, in its centre the library and park. It was possible from almost every street to look down to the colliery.

The village gained notoriety at the close of the nineteenth century as a result of a characterisation as "The Worst Village in England" in an edition of the magazine 'Christian Budget' This pejorative piece described somewhere,

...so repulsive that many who have never been near it will probably refuse to credit the story...[where]...nearly all the men, and most of the women, devote their high wages to betting, where religion is forgotten, home life is shattered where immorality and intemperance are rife, where wives are sold like cattle, and children are neglected.(1899 )

The village was served by two railway stations bearing its name, Denaby, some distance away on the Dearne Valley Railway and Denaby and Conisbrough, the southern terminal of the South Yorkshire Junction Railway. The nearest station nowadays is Conisbrough.

Rebuilding

Denaby Main colliery drew its last coal in 1968 and Cadeby Main in 1987. Following these closures the rebuilding of the village took place. All the terraced houses were demolished and replaced with modern semi-detached properties on an open-plan scheme

In 1987 The Miners' Memorial Chapel in All Saints' Church, Denaby, opened, serving as a memorial to all those who had worked in the collieries of the area. It contains a pit wheel, salvaged from Cadeby Colliery, and the altar incorporates a 1 ton block of coal which came from Manvers Main Colliery.

The village did have a relitively successful non-league football side, Denaby United F.C. but were forced to become defunct due to losing their ground in 2002, after Denaby and Cadeby Miners Welfare Scheme took it from them.

See also

List of Yorkshire Pits

References