Shafton is a

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 authority ...

in the

Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley The Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley is a metropolitan borough in South Yorkshire, England; the main settlement is Barnsley and other notable towns include Penistone, Wombwell and Hoyland. The borough is bisected by the M1 motorway; it is rur ...

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of Doncaster and Sheffield as well as the boroughs of Barnsley and Rotherham. In N ...

, England, on the border with

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 ...

. At the 2001 census it had a population of 2,840, increasing to 3,447 at the 2011 Census. The parish contains the villages of Shafton and Shafton Two Gates. Shafton lies to the north of Shafton Two Gates, on the road to

Ryhill Ryhill is a small village and civil parish situated on the B6428 road in West Yorkshire, England approximately south-east of the city of Wakefield. It has a population of 2,628, increasing to 2,894 at the 2011 census. Like many of the surroun ...

. It is located at approximately 53° 35' 10" North, 1° 24' West, at an elevation of around above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...

. Sceptun in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

of 1086 then later in c. 1160 Scaftona meaning a farmstead marked by a pole, or made with poles. Shafton Two Gates lies to the south of Shafton and north of Cudworth, on the intersection of the A628 and A6195 roads. It is located at approximately , at an elevation of around above sea level. Shafton Two Gates takes its name from the two roads that enter Shafton at this point. The etymology derives from the Old Norse word ''gata'', the equivalent of the modern English word road. The two roads in question are both ancient and locally important. The more southerly of the two is the road between Pontefract and Barnsley, this section of which was made into Turnpike in 1833, with a turnpike gate which was sited slightly to the east of the modern roundabout serving the Cudworth Parkway and Engine Lane. The second more northerly road, is the old Salter's road that runs from Shafton Two Gates via the North Field of Cudworth (Weetshaw Lane) through to Carlton where it continued towards Smithies and eventually up through Penistone to the Salter's Brook Bridge which marked the ancient boundary between Yorkshire and

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

at Longdendale (these days the boundary is between the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and Derbyshire). This was an ancient packhorse route. Today,

Outwood Academy Shafton Outwood Academy Shafton (formerly Shafton Advanced Learning Centre) is a comprehensive secondary school with academy status, located in Shafton, near Barnsley, South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and metr ...

is located in Shafton. Bus services in Shafton: *Waterson's services 35, 36, 37, 38. (35 & 36 go via Shafton Hawthorne Crescent & the Green) *

Tates Travel Tates Travel was a local bus operator based in Barnsley in England, operating services in South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire. History Tates Travel was founded in 2003 by Graham Mallinson in Stocksbridge, when he purchased a minibus to run pri ...

service 34 *

Stagecoach Yorkshire Stagecoach Yorkshire is an operating division of Stagecoach Group. It was formed in 2005 to take over the former Traction Group fleets in Yorkshire by Stagecoach Group, which took over Traction from Frank Carter on 14 December 2005; Yorkshi ...

services 29, 48, X27, N27

Listed building

The parish contains one

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

that is recorded in the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, an ...

. It is a milepost on the south side of Brierley Road, dating from the mid to late 19th century. It is in stone with

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuriti ...

overlay, and has a triangular section and a rounded top. On the top is inscribed "BARNSLEY & PONTEFRACT ROAD" and "SHAFTON", and on the sides are the distances to

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough has ...

and

Pontefract Pontefract is a historic market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England, east of Wakefield and south of Castleford. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is one of the towns in the City of Wake ...

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in South Yorkshire Geography of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley Civil parishes in South Yorkshire