Flockton is a village in the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

Kirkburton Kirkburton is a village, civil parish and ward in Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It is south-east of Huddersfield. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the township comprises the villages of Kirkburton and Highburton and ...

, in

Kirklees Kirklees is a local government district of West Yorkshire, England, governed by Kirklees Council with the status of a metropolitan borough. The largest town and administrative centre of Kirklees is Huddersfield, and the district also includes ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

, England. It is halfway between

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a market town in the Kirklees district in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confluence into ...

and

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 99,251 in the 2011 census.https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/ks101ew Census 2011 table KS101EW Usual resident population, ...

. In 2020, the population of Flockton and Flockton Green was estimated to be 2,107. Its name derives from Flóki, an

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlemen ...

personal name, and ''tūn'', which is

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...

for enclosure or fence.

History

Flockton grew in a coal mining area, Flockton Collieries are closed. Locals could find mining jobs at nearby collieries such as Bullhouse, Shuttle Eye, Emley Moor, or

Caphouse Colliery Caphouse Colliery, originally known as Overton Colliery, was a coal mine in Overton, near Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. It was situated on the Denby Grange estate owned by the Lister Kaye family, and was worked from the 18th century until ...

when the local pits were closed due to their inability to compete pricewise with collieries that were connected to the railways.

Governance

Flockton was formerly a chapelry in the parish of Thornhill in the

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county County of York, West Riding (the area under the control of West Riding County Council), abbreviated County ...

and from 1866 Flockton was a civil parish and in 1894 an urban district. In 1938 the urban district was abolished and Flockton was added to Kirkburton.

Geography

Flockton contains the once separate areas of Over and Nether Flockton and Flockton Green. The village is about east of Huddersfield and the same distance south-west of Wakefield. The village extends along the A637

Grange Moor Grange Moor is a village in the Kirklees district of West Yorkshire, England. The village is situated between Huddersfield (6 miles (10 km) away) and Wakefield (9 miles (14 km) away). In 2019 it had an estimated population of 1101. The ...

to Barnsley road. At Flockon Green, at the eastern end of the village, there is a junction with the road from Overton. To the west is Flockton Moor, a rural area containing mainly farmhouses. Parkside is an area of council housing. In contrast there are stone-built private developments. House prices are above average for the area. Flockton is a commuter village because of its proximity to the

M1 motorway The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the country was the Preston By-pass, which ...

, which brings with it a large amount of traffic. The village had a population of 800 in 1809, 1,318 in 1951, and 2,107 in 2020.

Amenities

St James the Great Church is on Barnsley Road next to Flockton C of E (C) First School. Flockton has a newsagent/convenience store, a hairdressing salon, a working men's club, a motorcycle shop, and a fish and chip shop. The Dartmouth Arms public house was replaced by an

Indian restaurant Indian cuisine consists of a variety of regional and traditional cuisines native to India. Given the diversity in soil, climate, culture, ethnic groups, and occupations, these cuisines vary substantially and use locally available spices, her ...

in October 2007. The George and Dragon at Flockton Green is one of the oldest public houses in England, dating from 1485.

New Hall Prison

New Hall Prison is in New Hall Wood, east of Flockton. The prison holds female adults, juveniles and young offenders.

Sport

Flockton has a

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

team that plays in the

Huddersfield Cricket League The Huddersfield Cricket League is the premier cricket competition in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. The league has been in existence since 1891 with teams representing suburbs of Huddersfield and villages in the Huddersfield district a ...

. The village football teams play in

Huddersfield and District Association Football League The Huddersfield and District Association League is a football competition based in the area of Huddersfield, England. It was founded in 1898. The league has a total of four senior divisions and four reserve divisions. The highest senior division ...

leagues.

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in West Yorkshire Former civil parishes in West Yorkshire Kirkburton