Roman Excavation
In 1966 excavations in advance of the extension of a quarry near Kiveton Park Station uncovered large numbers of sherds of Roman pottery and remains of a corn-drying kiln. It has been suggested that these are the remains of a small civilian settlement attached to a temporary military camp of c100AD. The pre-Roman trackway known as Rykneild Street passed through the eastern part of the parish.
Domesday
The name Wales would appear to denote a settlement of Britons who remained after the Anglo-Saxon settlement of the area. Wulfric Spot, a powerful Anglo-Saxon thegn who died c1002, is recorded as having held land at “Walesho”. The parish was divided into two estates with 3 ½ carucates belonging to Edwin, Earl of Mercia’s Soke of Laughton and one carucate held by Earl Morcar of Northumbria, as successor to Wulfric. At the Conquest, Edwin’s share was given to Roger de Busli while Morcar’s was allotted to the Earl of Mortain.
The de Busli portion of Wales passed to Robert de Bellesme, Earl of Shrewsbury. Bellesme supported Robert, Duke of Normandy’s claim to the trone against Henry 1. As a result his lands including Wales, were forfeit to the Crown.
12th - 14th Century
The Crown’s subtenants at Wales in the 12th century were William Taissy and Ralph Ierlum who surrendered the manor to William Crassus (or le Gras) c1175. William le Gras gave his Wales estate to the Priory of Bradenstoke c1200. In 1274 it was reported that the Prior of Bradenstoke had erected a new gallows at Wales. In the Quo Warranto enquiry of 1293-4, the Prior claimed the right to have amends of breaches of the assize of bread and ale by his tenants at Wales. The Priory held the manor until the Dissolution and had a steward based at Waleswood.
As with many Rotherham area manors the 1378 Poll Tax returns show that there was no resident lord at Wales in the late 14th century. The total population at this time was probably around 100.
16th Century
After the Dissolution the manor was sold in 1546 to a speculator, John Pope, who sold it to Sir George Darcy of Aston. Darcy’s descendent, the Earl of Holderness, sold it to the Duke of Leeds in 1775. The Earl of Mortain’s manor of Wales passed through the Paganels to the Lovetots, Lords of Hallamshire, and their successors the Furnivals.
Among the minor members of the population of Wales in the Middle Ages were the Hawot of Hewet family. As the Hewet family they were to become prominent in the 15th and 16th centuries. The stone grave slab of Nicholas Hewtt can still be seen in the church. Sir William Hewet, son of Edmund Hewet of Wales, was Sheriff of London in 1553 and Lord Mayor of London in 1559.
The Hewets built up an extensive estate in the Wales area, including the manor of Waleswood which William Hewet purchased in 1529. On Sir William’s death in 1567, his business and estates passed to his apprentice and protégé Edward Osborne of Kiveton, who had married his daughter, Anne.
Osbourne Family
The Osbornes continued to increase their estates in the area. Sir Thomas Osborne was created Earl of Danby by Charles II and Duke of Leeds by William III. The two manors of Wales were united in 1775 when Francis Godolphin Osborne, later 5th Duke of Leeds, having married Amelia, daughter of the Earl of Holderness in 1773, purchased the Earl’s manor of Wales.
On the death of the 7th Duke in 1859, the manor of Wales passed to his nephew, Sackville George Lane Fox, who became 12th Lord Conyers. His descendants lived at Wales Court which remained a home until the 1950s. The house was then converted into a mental hospital which it remained until 1980.
The main seat of the Osborne family was Kiveton Hall. The first Duke of Leeds marked his elevation to the dukedom by having the house completely rebuilt in 1698-9. Although limestone was easily available locally, brick was chosen as the main building material. Kiveton had a relatively short life as a stately home.
The 6th Duke decided to live at Hornby Castle in North Yorkshire after 1812 and ordered Kiveton to be demolished. The 7th Duke instituted a Chancery case against his father’s trustees, claiming that the value of the estate had been diminished by the demolition. The case ended with the trustees being ordered to pay the Duke £42,000 plus interest. All that remained after the demolition were part of the stables which form part of Kiveton Hall Farm. The Dukes retained an extensive estate in the Wales area until the early 1920s when 21 farms and over 5,000 acres were sold.
Church
The church at Wales was originally one of several chapels under the mother church at Laughton. Wales Church did not form part of the Wales estate of Bradenstoke Priory as it formed was part of the liberty of St Peter which was owned by York Minster. In 1484 Archbishop Rotherham gave the prebend of Laughton, with its attendant chapels, to the Chancellor of York.
The original church now forms the north aisle of the present church and has a fine Norman chancel arch. The tower dates from the 15th century and contains a bell of c1425 and two 17th century bells. The chancel contains a marble tablet in memory of Sir Thomas Hewitt, surveyor of works to George I. A new nave and south aisle were added alongside the old church in 1897. It was not until 1933 that sufficient money was available to complete the new chancel.
Methodism
Methodism had a large following in Wales, starting in the 1830s with meetings in a private house in Waleswood. Methodist at Kiveton Park met in the messroom at Turner’s quarries before the chapel was erected in 1893. The chapel ceased to be used in 1980 when the congregation converted the manse into a house church. A Primitive Methodist chapel was erected at Wales in 1868.
Education
There is reference to a schoolmaster at Wales in 1668 and in 1743 Rev William Hyde, in answer to Archbishop Herring’s Visitation, returned that there was a school supported by charity. It is probable that this school occupied the site on which the new Endowed School was erected in 1873-6. A number of parish charities were amalgamated to support the new school. An “infants room” was added in 1890 and the school was sold to West Riding County Council in 1908. A separate infants’ school was erected in 1910. Kiveton Park Colliery opened a school in 1869, initially in the colliery offices, to serve the new mining population. The colliery continued to pay the teachers until 1911. From 1946 children over 11 attended Dinnington Secondary School or Woodhouse Grammer. This situation persisted until 1970 when Wales Comprehensive School was opened.
Transport
Transport through the parish improved in the 1760s century with the turnpiking of the road from Rotherham to Pleasley via Wales Bar. A few years later the Chesterfield Canal was opened through Kiveton Park. It was the arrival of the railway in the 19th century that was to change the character of Wales and Kiveton Park. The opening of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway from Sheffield to Retford in 1849 gave direct outlet to the East Coast ports.
Coal Mining
Coal occurs close to the surface at Wales and the shallow seams were worked by Bradenstoke Priory in the Middle Ages. By 1598 Hewet Osborne’s mines were producing 2,000 tons a year. The collieries were further developed by the Dukes of Leeds. There was also a small colliery at Waleswood in the 18th century.
As transport links developed alongside mining technology exploitation began on the deep coal reserves under the parish. Skinner and Holford sank a new pit at Waleswood in 1858, with houses for the workers being built at Waleswood and Wales Bar. The Kiveton Park Coal Company was founded in 1864, with coal being reached in 1866-7. Further shafts were sunk at West Kiveton in 1874-5 and worked until the 1930s.
Waleswood Colliery closed in 1948, despite a stay-down strike by 300 miners seeking to keep it open. Kiveton Park Colliery continued to be developed in the 1960s and 1970s but was finally closed in 1994. The surface buildings were soon demolished with the exception of the colliery offices of 1872-5 and the pit-head baths of 1938, which have been preserved for community use.
The 1970s saw extensive open-cast mining on the west side of the parish. After mining was complete, the area was restored as a public park. Rother Valley Country Park, opened in 1983, contains lakes for water sports and wildlife. The buildings of Bedgreave Mill, where corn was ground from the Middle Ages until the 1940s, are preserved at the centre of the park.
The opening of the collieries had completely changed the character of the parish as the settlement grew. From 305 in 1861, the population rose to 1,359 in 1871 and 2,398 in 1901. Peak population of 6,345 was reached in 1971 but by 1991 it had declined to 5,736.
A new branch library was opened in 1974, replacing the previous branch which was housed in a former air raid shelter. A small market was opened at Kiveton in 1992, following a struggle with Sheffield City Council who initially claimed that it infringed their market rights.
(Extracted from:- R.M.B.C, Patchwork of parishes, 1997)
Useful Links
Map of Wales
Return to the Local Towns and Villages index page
Archives and Local Studies Service
Rotherham Maps Online
Find out more about your area
Sitemap
