Hemsworth
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hemsworth is a small town on the edge of West Yorkshire in the Wakefield district.
It was a one-industry town, where coal mining employed the vast majority of residents, and the closure of the pits under Conservative governments led to huge levels of unemployment and deprivation in the area. Hemsworth, along with nearby villages such as South Kirkby, South Elmsall, Ackworth, West Yorkshire, Havercroft, Ryhill and Fitzwilliam, was made into a special regeneration area, and fortunes have improved as a result.
The Hemsworth constituency is famous for being the place where Labour votes were said to be "weighed, not counted" during the 1960s and 1970s.[1], but the town is not even so heavily Labour-voting as it once was. The town's Member of Parliament is Jon Trickett a former leader of Leeds council.
In May, 2005, the Office for National Statistics estimated that unemployment in Hemsworth was just 2.8%. This marks great progress from periods in the previous two decades when it could reach as high as 50%.
The local newspaper for the area is the Hemsworth and South Elmsall Express, which gives local residents the ability to voice their opinions on local topical concerns.
