| Woodlands | |
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Woodlands
Woodlands shown within South Yorkshire |
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| Metropolitan borough | Doncaster |
|---|---|
| Metropolitan county | South Yorkshire |
| Region | Yorkshire and the Humber |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | DONCASTER |
| Postcode district | DN6 |
| Dialling code | 01302 |
| Police | South Yorkshire |
| Fire | South Yorkshire |
| Ambulance | Yorkshire |
| EU Parliament | Yorkshire and the Humber |
| UK Parliament | Doncaster North |
| List of places: UK • England • Yorkshire | |
Woodlands is a model village, 3 miles (5 km) north of Doncaster in South Yorkshire, England. It was designed and built in the early 20th century by Percy Bond Houfton as tied cottages for the miners of the neighbouring Brodsworth Colliery. In an era of model villages such as Saltaire, Port Sunlight and Bournville, Woodlands, with extensive open spaces, many different designs of houses and overall living conditions superb for their time, possibly represents the height of the model village movement. The whole of the village is now a conservation area.
Lying between the historic Great North Road (the former A1, now the A638) and a Roman Road, the houses in the village are in short terraces, typically of four, and face each other across wide avenues. At the back they typically overlook a large square open space. The Roman Road is Ermine Street, the branch from Lincoln to York via Doncaster and Tadcaster. Locally, it is colloquially known as the Roman Rigg, more correctly as the Roman Ridge.
Between the village and Highfields there is the former country house of Woodlands, now a social club, and the Woodlands wildlife park with Highfields Lake (an ornamental lake on the Pick Burn) and Hanging Wood (or Highfields Wood). In "The Park" a green of 10 to 15 acres (40,000 to 61,000 m²) is surrounded by about 120 of these houses. The houses back on to woodland or to green open space, and instead of facing each other across a narrow street, look across perhaps 200 yards of parkland to the houses opposite. In Highfields Wood is a stream, known as Robin Hood's stream, which springs near the Roman Rigg, and runs into Pick Burn. The stream may be so named as Robin Hood is reputed to have roamed in Barnsdale Forest, of which Highfields Wood was part. The nearby country house Brodsworth Hall belongs to English Heritage.
All Saints Church (1913), the red brick parish church built for this mining community has a distinctive spire that is visible from central Doncaster, the A1(M), and the main East Coast railway-line. Unusually, the church has a small baptistry positioned behind the font at the back of the church, for baptising adults by immersion (though in practice this baptistry requires baptismal candidates to squat or kneel down in it, and there is barely enough space for the priest to be in the tank with the candidate - though that has not prevented it being used for a number of adults and young people in recent years). All Saints was one of a few late Oxford Movement churches to be built with baptistries.
The local council, DMBC, are using Green Corridor Money to give the Squares a facelift and to give the houses a back garden. 4 Squares had been completed by October 2009. The Brodsworth Informer, a Bi-Monthly, 16 page news journal, is delivered free to almost 4,000 homes in the area. 2003 saw the revival of the old May Festival, started in 1910 when mine owner Sir Arthur Markham was persuaded to give the miners (some 653) a day off with pay for the Festival.
The village was featured on Thursday 30 August 2007 (at 6.30pm) on the BBC Look North's A-Z of the region. (Woodlands on Look North)