Ridgeway is a village in Eckington parish,

North East Derbyshire North East Derbyshire is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in Derbyshire, England. The council is based in the large village of Wingerworth. The district also includes the towns of Dronfield and Clay Cross as well as numerou ...

in the English county of

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

Location

Ridgeway lies just south of the

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the north, the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north-east, Lincolnshire ...

border, around 5 miles southeast of

Sheffield City Centre Sheffield City Centre (referred to locally as simply Town) is a district of the Sheffield, City of Sheffield and is covered partly by the City ward, Sheffield, City ward of the City of Sheffield. It includes the area that is within a radius of ...

. The village is surrounded by a number of hamlets and villages with Highlane to the north, Ford, Bramley and Birley Hay to the south, Plumbley and

Mosborough Mosborough is a village in the City of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. Historically part of Derbyshire, its name being a linguistic blend of 'moor' and 'borough'. During the late 19th century and 20th century, the village was noted for ...

to the east, and Troway and Geerlane to the west.

History

Ridgeway is believed to be around 700 years old, and would once have been part of

Sherwood Forest Sherwood Forest is the remnants of an ancient royal forest, Royal Forest in Nottinghamshire, within the East Midlands region in England. It has association with the legend of Robin Hood. The forest was proclaimed by William the Conqueror and ...

. It is still a self-contained village, within North East Derbyshire, and is in the Moss Valley Conservation Area. Ridgeway originally consisted of three smaller settlements: Sloadlane, Ridgeway and Ridgeway Moor. Also, many people amalgamate the nearby villages of Birley Hay, Ford and Highlane with the above settlements, though they do virtually run into one another today. Ridgeway was once deeply involved in the local industry of sickle and

scythe A scythe (, rhyming with ''writhe'') is an agriculture, agricultural hand-tool for mowing grass or Harvest, harvesting Crop, crops. It was historically used to cut down or reaping, reap edible grain, grains before they underwent the process of ...

manufacturing, like its neighbouring villages. At one time, it had a large industrial scale scythe manufactury known as the Commonside Sickle Manufactory. It has now been converted into apartments. Similar manufactories could be found at Birley Hey, a hamlet built entirely as of industry, at Highlane, where Hutton & Co that ran the Phoenix Works resided and at Mosborough. Grindstones, likely brought in from Millstone quarries from what was to be the Peak district or Rotherham, stand testament to this old industry, and many can be found literally built into people's houses.

Facilities

Ridgeway has a

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

(Ridgeway Primary School), a church ( St John The Evangelist Church, Ridgeway), a Methodist chapel, four pubs (The Bridge Inn, The Swan, The Queen's Head and The Phoenix Inn), sports facilities (

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

bowls Bowls, also known as lawn bowls or lawn bowling, is a sport in which players try to roll their ball (called a bowl) closest to a smaller ball (known as a "jack" or sometimes a "kitty"). The bowls are shaped (biased), so that they follow a curve ...

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

) and a restaurant (The Old Vicarage) that used to hold a Michelin Star.

Notable residents

* Clinton Woods, IBF Light Heavyweight World Champion * Mark Pearson (1939 - 2023), footballer

References

External links