| Thurnscoe | |
Togo Street, Thurnscoe |
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Thurnscoe
Thurnscoe shown within South Yorkshire |
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| OS grid reference | SE454057 |
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| Metropolitan borough | Barnsley |
| Metropolitan county | South Yorkshire |
| Region | Yorkshire and the Humber |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | ROTHERHAM |
| Postcode district | S63 |
| Dialling code | 01709 |
| Police | South Yorkshire |
| Fire | South Yorkshire |
| Ambulance | Yorkshire |
| EU Parliament | Yorkshire and the Humber |
| UK Parliament | Wentworth and Dearne |
| List of places: UK • England • Yorkshire | |
Thurnscoe is a village in the metropolitan borough of Barnsley in South Yorkshire, England. The village is approximately half way between Barnsley and Doncaster, but sufficiently far enough from both to be out of their urban sprawl. It is served by Thurnscoe railway station.
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Set in the heart of the Dearne Valley, historically, Thurnscoe was a farming village and in Roman times it was situated on the Roman road Ryknild Street, which ran down a track, (known locally as "the cow track" as it was the route for the dairy herds until the farm closed in recent years), to the east of what is now Rectory Lane. It continues up Southfield Lane by the side of the cemetery and over fields to the south of the village, and up Clayton Lane to the North. Thurnscoe was known in early times as Turnesc, this becoming Terunsc by the time of its mention in the Domesday Book. Parts of the village were owned by Roche Abbey, who dug magnesian limestone. Thurnscoe's oldest building is the (C.of E.) Church of St. Helen on High Street, built in 1087 though only the tower of the original structure remains. Excavations during renovation work( under the former Rector John Hall) on the church revealed Anglo-Saxon remains, including a skeleton, indicating that it was used as a sacred site before the Christian church was established here. The Western side of the village has more history to it, including Thurnscoe Hall[1] (now a nursing home) and the 1715 Blacksmiths Cottage near St Helens Church. Red House Cottage on High Street is the oldest building in the village dating back to the 16th century. Before the mines opened, Thurnscoe was once a wealthy farming community, famous in the Middle Ages for the quality of its cheese. There were a number of historic farms, and arable and livestock fields all around the village, but most of the farms have now gone and most of the fields have been covered by modern housing.
The village is bisected, north/south, by a railway, originally laid to serve the colliery, into Thurnscoe and Thurnscoe East. The residents do not consider the two to be separate villages. Locals refer to Thurnscoe East as "the top end". The Eastern half is characterised by low cost terraced housing (built to serve the former colliery) and a small business park on the site of the former colliery. The Western side of the village is also known as Old Thurnscoe, or "the bottom end" by locals from the "top end".
It was one of many mining villages in the Yorkshire coalfield stricken by poverty when the British coal mining industry was closed in the 1980s under the Thatcher government. Mining began in the early 18th century from small surface mines but exploded along with the population after Hickleton Main Colliery found the Barnsley seam in 1894. Almost the entire of the village east of the railway was built to accommodate the coal miners, including the Church of St. Hilda in 1935. The colliery was merged with Goldthorpe in 1986 before that too was closed in 1994. Hickleton Main pit tips have now been landscaped and converted, with the aid of the environmental body Groundwork, into "Phoenix Park" which contains a climbing wall, picnic areas and many pieces of art which were developed by and in conjunction with the local community. Poems by local resident Desiree Chipp are carved into 3 at the entrances to the site. There is a small car park accessible off Lidget Lane.
In recent years many of the historic buildings have been demolished, including the Victorian primary and infant schools, The Station Hotel (which had an Inn Sign which was featured on a Royal Mail postage stamp), and Broadway Buildings Ballroom. The village once also had a swimming baths, cinema and active market, but although the market place remains it has been derelict for many years.
Thurnscoe's geography is characteristic of glacial moraine, with gentle inclines, good arable clay/loam soil and no irregular boulders. The village was once known for its numerous springs and dykes. The High Street (which is not the main road) is a meandering residential street which was once a river. Many of the dykes were enclosed into pipelines during the 1960s and 1970s as flooding had traditionally been a problem in the lower part of the village. A stream which runs through the western extent, travelling under the village in a pipeline, flooded during the gales and heavy rain of 1987, briefly threatening the local primary school, Gooseacre, and flooding several homes along Merril Road. Litter from the school was alleged to be the cause of the flood, and a grille was installed on the stream's tunnel entrance. Council records show that the water table is very close to the surface in Thurnscoe, as little as 18 inches below the surface in parts. This has led to local concerns about the building of new houses over the green areas of the village and resulted in a petition against this in 2007. Another flood on 26 June 2007 flooded Houghton Road outside the Thurnscoe Hotel and burst the banks of all the dykes in Thurnscoe. Merrill Road was once again flooded and it flooded as far as Westfield Crescent. In parts of Thurnscoe the water was up to waist level. Also the road between Thurnscoe and Great Houghton was flooded severely. Dearnlea Old Peoples home on Welfare Road had to be evacuated - a video of which is on youtube.
The main secondary school in the area is The Dearne High School at Goldthorpe which caters for around 1,300 pupils aged 11–16 years. What was built as Thurnscoe Comprehensive School is now the Robert Ogden School[2] for Autistic Children - one of the largest such in the world.
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