Smithies is an area of

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 ...

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. It lies about two miles north-east of the town centre. Smithies was historically a village in the

township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Ca ...

Monk Bretton Monk Bretton is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley in South Yorkshire, England. It lies approximately two miles north-east from Barnsley town centre. History Monk Bretton has been a settlement since medieval times and was origin ...

in the parish of Royston 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 ...

, on the border with the township of

Carlton Carlton may refer to: People * Carlton (name), a list of those with the given name or surname * Carlton (singer), English soul singer Carlton McCarthy * Carlton, a pen name used by Joseph Caldwell (1773–1835), American educator, Presbyterian ...

. Monk Bretton became a separate

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 1866, and in 1921 was absorbed into the

County Borough of Barnsley The County Borough of Barnsley, and its predecessor, the Municipal Borough of Barnsley, was a local government district in the West Riding of Yorkshire, West Riding of Yorkshire, England, from 1869 to 1974. Barnsley became a municipal borough ...

. In 1974 the county borough was abolished, and Smithies became part of 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 ...

in the new county of South Yorkshire.

Coal mining

A number of

collieries Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use c ...

were worked in Smithies between 1856 and 1929. East Gawber Hall Colliery, located to the north of the village, opened in 1856 and was worked until the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. The remains of the colliery's Guibal fanhouse, built around 1875, are listed as a historic monument. The Wallsend Main Colliery was sunk before 1901. and was worked with the adjacent Primrose Main Colliery, which was working before 1891. The Wallsend Main Colliery Company was wound up in January 1921. The Central Silkstone Colliery was sunk in 1907. It was purchased by the East Barnsley Colliery Company (based in Smithies) around 1919, and continued in use until at least 1924. Wharncliffe Carlton Colliery on the south edge of Smithies was notorious for an explosion in October 1883 that killed 20 miners. While the inquest was being held about the initial explosion, a second underground blast severely injured two more men. The colliery was connected underground with East Gawber Hall, and after the disaster, Wharncliffe Carlton was sealed off from East Gawber Hall and flooded to quench the underground fires, before it could be re-opened. By 1929, all of the collieries had closed and been demolished.

Facilities

Smithies is home to a

Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in th ...

express shop, a bakery, Fish and Chip Shop, Unisex Salon, Local Shop,

KFC KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) is an American fast food restaurant chain headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, that specializes in fried chicken. It is the world's second-largest restaurant chain (as measured by sales) after McDonald's, with 2 ...

(on the border), and has a 2005 Harron Homes housing estate, split between here and

. Smithies is connected to

Barnsley Interchange Barnsley Interchange is a combined rail and bus station in the centre of Barnsley, South Yorkshire. It was first opened in 1850 as ''Barnsley Exchange'' railway station and is north of Sheffield. It is on the Hallam and Penistone Lines, both ...

7 days a week by the number 12 bus service, which operates every 15 minutes Monday-Saturday and every 30 minutes on Sundays. Monday to Saturday, bus 34 and 34a run hourly and are both loop buses, alike no.12, operating via

, Cudworth and

Shafton Shafton is a civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Barnsley (borough), Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley in South Yorkshire, England, on the border with West Yorkshire. At the 2001 census it had a population of 2,840, increasing to 3,44 ...

. 34 operates the loop in the direction of Barnsley to Shafton via here and 34a operates via Monk Bretton and Shafton first, before entering Smithies and returning to town. The 34 and 34a bus services stopped operating for several weeks after Tates Travel went into liquidation, this route was soon taken over by

Stagecoach A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are draw ...

, the only bus operator serving Smithies (except school bus routes). Smithies has two schools, Springwell Community School, catering for this with special needs. Alongside

Holy Trinity Catholic and Church of England School Holy Trinity Catholic and Church of England School is a coeducational all-through school for pupils aged from 3 to 16. The school is under the joint jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Hallam and the Church of England Diocese of Le ...

which has both a primary and secondary school in one. Holy Trinity is served by a bus service to

Grimethorpe Grimethorpe is a large village in the metropolitan borough of Barnsley in South Yorkshire, England. Historically within the West Riding of Yorkshire, it had a population of 4,672 at the 2011 census. Grimethorpe is located to the east of Barnsl ...

operated by Waterstones and several coach companies operate services to Royston, Cudworth and Baurgh Green.

References

External links

{{Commons category-inline, Smithies, South Yorkshire Geography of Barnsley Coal mines in South Yorkshire Coal mining disasters in England History of South Yorkshire Underground mines in England