Anston

Prehistoric Settlement

Anston is one of the few settlements in the areas where we have evidence of prehistoric settlement. In the 1967, excavations in Dead man’s cave at Anston Stones uncovered a number of Cresswellian flint blades of c.8000BC with bones of bear reindeer and horse, although there was no evidence of permanent settlement in the cave.

A few fragments of Romano-British pottery were also uncovered. In the 19th century a small hoard 16 Roman silver coins was found at North Anston .

In the late 1960s, archaeological fieldwork revealed a Romano-British field system with a possible farm house site, to the south of Anston Church. Excavations on the site uncovered a quantity of pottery and bones of cattle, pigs, sheep and deer. The finds led the archaeologists to conjecture that there was a considerable population in the areas but they were not very affluent.

Domesday

No trace now remains of the solitary stone that gave its name to the twin settlements of North and South Anston. As with so many villages the first documentary reference to the parish is found in the Domesday Book of 1086. Roger de Busli was lord of the manor of Laughton that included both North and South Anston but no separate details are given of the two settlements. William de Warenne, lord of Conisbrough had a separate estate at North Anston with four freemen and one plough team. The two villages grew up on the hills either side of the valley of the Anston Brook, avoiding the boggy land in the valley bottom.

12th - 14th Century

In the 12th century, Leo de Manvers gave land at Anston to Roche Abbey. The Manvers family had a substantial estate in Anston, possibly as tenants of the Saint Pauls. With the death of Michael de Manvers in the late 13th century, the manor of Anston passed through his daughter Annora to the family of her husband, Henry de Pierrepont. In the 14th century, the former Warenne estate in North Anston was held by the Deyvile family.

The 1379 Poll Tax return for Anston lists 130 tax payers in both villages, which would indicate a total population of around 500. The list is headed by Edmund Perpount and Margaret his wife who paid 20s. followed by Goslin Dayvill, and Isabel his wife, paying 2s.

Monnoux Family

By the early 16th century, Anston had passed to the Monnoux family, George Monnoux died in 1538, holding the manors of North and South Anston and Harthill. He was a citizen and merchant of London and had been Lord Mayor in 1514. In 1701 Sir Phillip Monnoux sold Anston to Thomas Osborne, Duke of Leeds. Anston remained part of the Leeds estates until they were sold off in the 1930s.

Parish Church

The date of the foundation of the church at South Anston, dedicated to St. James, is uncertain. The first documentary evidence dates from the reign of Henry I when the church was given to the Canons of York Minster. The present structure dates mostly from the decorated period of the 14th century but earlier stones have been incorporated in the tower.

Pevsner states that the nave arches can be no later then 1350. Hunter suggests that the south aisle gave every appearance of having been a private chantry chapel, proposing that the early 14th century monumental effigy of a lady and child formerly lay under the arch in this chapel. A gallery was inserted in the 18th century. The church at Anston remained subordinate to the mother church at Laughton until the mid-19th century. The church was extensively renovated in 1886 and a new porch added in 1890. The lyche gate was added in 1920 as a memorial to the local men who fell in the Great War.

In the 16th century there are references to North Anston as “Chapel Anston”. There is, however, no physical or documentary evidence to suggest that there was ever a chapel there. The alternative name for South Anston was Church (or Kirk) Anston.

Methodists

The house of Thomas Smith at South Anston was licensed for the holding of Methodist services in 1771. Services were held in various private houses during the next 70 years until, in 1846, the Methodists found a more permanent home in a room over the stables of the “Leeds Arms”. After a move to a room in Maltkiln Yard, a permanent chapel was erected in South Anston in 1871. This served until a new chapel was built in 1935.

A Methodist chapel had been erected in North Anston in 1826. The Primitive Methodists, whose congregation was founded in 1838, had a small chapel at hillside, North Anston, replaced with a new chapel at the Wells in 1912. A Congregational congregation was established at North Anston in 1818 but did not erect a chapel until 1911.

Wright Family and Anston Hall

In the late 17th century the Wright family came to live at Anston, establishing an estate centred on Anston Hall. In 1881 Charles Wright and his wife were served by a staff of nine live-in servants. His two sons were both killed in 1917, serving in Palestine with the Lincolnshire Yeomanry. Charles’s daughter, Miss Constance Wright, was the last of the family to live in Anston. When she sold the estate in 1947, the Hall was converted into apartments.

Education

The original church school lay on Ryton Road between the two villages. In 1838 the master was teaching 4 free scholars and 27 others, at the expense of G. and C. Wright. The girls’ school was added by the Misses Roberts of Anston and Sheffield in 1850. They also paid for the repair of the boys’ school (erected in 1827) in 1851. The old building were replaced by the new Council School nearby in 1908. The original Girls school building remained in use as an overflow annex until 1972.One school served both villages until 1957 when Anston Park School was opened on Nursery Road, North Anston. South Anston got its first school in 1969 when the opening of Anston Hillcrest School meant that South Anston children no longer had to cross the A57. A further school, Anston Greenlands was opened in 1973.

Roads

Contact with the outside world improved after 1764 with the turnpiking of the Attercliffe to Worksop road (now the A57) through Anston. The road ran through South Anston village, with a number of awkward bends. The three tollgates within the parish were demolished in 1881. A new road bypassing the village was constructed in 1923-4.

Agriculture and Industry

The parish remained largely agricultural, the only industry being the quarrying of the local limestone. There were formerly three mills serving the needs of the parishioners. The windmill on Woodsetts Rd, erected in 1720, was demolished in the 1930s. The position of Anston Steam, Mill, next to the brook on Mill Lane, suggests that there may have been an earlier water mill on the site. There was another water mill at Lindrick Dale Bottom.

The quarries at Anston were worked at an early date and both Roche Abbey and Tickhill Castle were constructed from Anston stone as were many of the local houses. At one time over 200 people were employed in 15 quarries within the parish but most closed in the 1920s. The quarries came to national prominence when Anston Stone was selected for the new Houses of Parliament in 1840. The contract called for nearly 500,000 cubic feet of stone to be delivered over four years. The stone was taken to the Chesterfield Canal at Kiveton Park and loaded onto barges for transport to London via the Trent. Unfortunately much of the stone was incorrectly laid, with no attention being paid to the original bedding. As a result it weathered rapidly. A further 800,000 cubic feet of Anston Stone was used in repairs to the Palace of Westminster in the early years of the 20th century. In 1973 a statue in Anston Stone, removed from the Palace of Westminster during restoration work, was returned to Anston and place in the Kiveton Park RDC offices. Harry Croft Quarry, to the east of South Anston, remains in production and is now operated by Redland.

Coal Mining

Seams of coal lie beneath Anston but have not been heavily exploited from within the boundaries of the parish. The sinking of Kiveton Park Colliery in 1866 provided an alternative occupation for Anston men. Further employment opportunities were provided by Dinnington Colliery where sinking began in 1906.

The only colliery within the parish, Harry Croft, was sunk in 1924-6 but ceased to work in 1930. The shaft remained in use as a ventilation shaft for the Kiveton Park pit.

The sinking of mines in the area led to the development of railways to serve them. One line, the South Yorkshire Joint Railway, was built jointly by the Great Central and the Midland Railways from Potteric Carr, near Doncaster, to Brancliffe Junction near Shireoaks. Anston Parish Council lobbied successfully for there to be a station at Anston and the line was opened in 1910. Although its primary purpose was to serve the collieries at Dinnington and Maltby, there was also a passenger service from Doncaster to Shireoaks (extended to Worksop in n1920). Passenger services were withdrawn at the end of 1929 but the line remains open for colliery traffic. The wooden station buildings at Anston was removed during the War to replace a blitzed station in Scotland.

Population Growth

The 19th century saw a steady growth in the population of the two villages. From 625 in 1801 the population grew to 1,013 in 1851 and 1,394 in 1901. This growth continued in the present century, reaching 2,293 in 1931 but the greatest growth came in the post-war era when continued house building saw the figure rise to 7,091 in 1971, 10,468 in 1981 and 10,459 in 1991.

(Extracted from:- R.M.B.C, Patchwork of parishes, 1997)

For further information on Anston look at the Anston Bibliography link which lists further printed sources available from the Archives and local Studies Service.

Useful Links

 Anston Bibliography
 Map of Anston
 Junction 31 Local History website

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