Conisbrough () is a town within the

City of Doncaster The City of Doncaster is a metropolitan borough with city status in South Yorkshire, England. It is named after its principal settlement, Doncaster, and includes the surrounding suburbs of Doncaster as well as numerous towns and villages. The di ...

, in

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and metropolitan county, metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of City of Doncaster, Doncaster and City of Sh ...

, England. It is roughly midway between

Doncaster Doncaster (, ) is a city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, it is the administrative centre of the larger City of Doncaster. It is the second largest settlement in South Yorkshire after Sheffield. Doncaster is situated in ...

and

Rotherham Rotherham () is a large minster and market town in South Yorkshire, England. The town takes its name from the River Rother which then merges with the River Don. The River Don then flows through the town centre. It is the main settlement of ...

, and is built alongside the River Don at . It has a ward population (Conisbrough and Denaby) of 14,333.

Etymology

The name ''Conisbrough'' comes from the Old English (first recorded ) meaning "king's stronghold" or "king's fortified place". Its derivation has a very similar route to

Kingsbury Kingsbury may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Kingsbury, London, a district of northwest London in the borough of Brent ** Kingsbury tube station, London Underground station * Kingsbury, Warwickshire, a village and civil parish in Warwickshi ...

History

The historian

David Hey David G. Hey (18 July 1938 – 14 February 2016) was an English historian, and was an authority on surnames and the local history of Yorkshire. Hey was the president of the British Association for Local History, and was a published author of seve ...

describes Conisbrough as appearing to be the most important place in Anglo-Saxon and

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

South Yorkshire. In a will of around 1003, Conisbrough was bequeathed by Wulfric Spott, founder of

Burton Abbey Burton Abbey at Burton upon Trent in Staffordshire, England, was founded in the 7th or 9th century by St Modwen or Modwenna. It was refounded in 1003 as a Benedictine abbey by the thegn Wulfric Spott. He was known to have been buried in the abbey ...

. At this point, it appears to have been the centre of a major former royal estate, reaching

Hatfield Chase Hatfield Chase is a low-lying area in South Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire, England, which was often flooded. It was a royal hunting ground until Charles I appointed the Dutch engineer Cornelius Vermuyden to drain it in 1626. The work involve ...

. The manor became royal again under

Harold II of England Harold Godwinson ( – 14 October 1066), also called Harold II, was the last crowned Anglo-Saxon English king. Harold reigned from 6 January 1066 until his death at the Battle of Hastings, fighting the Norman invaders led by William the C ...

, and by the

Norman Conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Con ...

, 28 townships in what is now South Yorkshire belonged to the Lord of Conisbrough.

William the Conqueror William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first House of Normandy, Norman List of English monarchs#House of Norman ...

gave the whole lordship to William de Warenne. The name of Conisbrough relates to a king's stronghold and this is usually presumed to have either been on the site of Conisbrough Castle, or of the parish church. At the time of the Norman Conquest, the manor of Conisbrough was held by Harold II - he was defeated at the

Battle of Hastings The Battle of Hastings nrf, Batâle dé Hastings was fought on 14 October 1066 between the Norman-French army of William, the Duke of Normandy, and an English army under the Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godwinson, beginning the Norman Conque ...

. Conisbrough Castle is contained within an artificial oval-shaped enclosure similar to one used as

wapentake A hundred is an administrative division that is geographically part of a larger region. It was formerly used in England, Wales, some parts of the United States, Denmark, Southern Schleswig, Sweden, Finland, Norway, the Bishopric of Ösel–Wiek, ...

meeting-places at

Gringley on the Hill Gringley on the Hill, Nottinghamshire, is an English village and parish. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 699. It is on the highest part of the road from Bawtry to Gainsborough, six miles east-southeast of the former, ...

and

East Markham East Markham, historically also known as Great Markham, is a small village and civil parish near Tuxford, Nottinghamshire. The population of the civil parish taken at the 2011 Census was 1,160. It lies about 8 km south of Retford. It is sa ...

, leading Malcolm Dolby to suppose the castle site may have once been the meeting-place of the Strafforth and Tickhill wapentake.

Conisbrough contains what is believed to be the oldest building in South Yorkshire: the probably 8th-century Anglo-Saxon St Peter's Church. The church was enlarged in the twelfth century, and

claims that it was a Minster church, forming the centre of a large, early parish covering all or much of the eleventh century Fee of Conisbrough.

Peter Langtoft Peter Langtoft, also known as Peter of Langtoft ( fro, Piers de Langtoft; died 1305) was an English historian and chronicler who took his name from the small village of Langtoft in the East Riding of Yorkshire. Langtoft was an Augustinian canon ...

, writing in the 13th century, claimed that

Egbert of Wessex Ecgberht (770/775 – 839), also spelled Egbert, Ecgbert, Ecgbriht, Ecgbeorht, and Ecbert, was King of Wessex from 802 until his death in 839. His father was King Ealhmund of Kent. In the 780s, Ecgberht was forced into exile to Charlem ...

had been received at "Burghe Conane", which is often identified with Conisbrough.David Hey, ''Medieval South Yorkshire''

Kilner connection

In 1863, the Kilner company opened a glass-making plant in Conisbrough. "The bottles made at Conisbrough are chiefly mineral water, spice, confectionery, wine and spirits, pickle, medicine, and chemists. and druggists bottles of all descriptions." In 1866, Caleb Kilner was sent to manage it, along with his cousin Kilner Bateson. In 1937, the Kilner company went bankrupt. Rights to the Kilner Jar product line were sold to the United Glass Bottle Manufacturers in the same year.

Literature

Geoffrey of Monmouth Geoffrey of Monmouth ( la, Galfridus Monemutensis, Galfridus Arturus, cy, Gruffudd ap Arthur, Sieffre o Fynwy; 1095 – 1155) was a British cleric from Monmouth, Wales and one of the major figures in the development of British historiography ...

wrote about the town, claiming that it had been fortified by

Ambrosius Aurelianus Ambrosius Aurelianus ( cy, Emrys Wledig; Anglicised as Ambrose Aurelian and called Aurelius Ambrosius in the ''Historia Regum Britanniae'' and elsewhere) was a war leader of the Romano-British who won an important battle against the Anglo-Sax ...

, King of the Britons after his victory over the Anglo-Saxon forces of

Hengist Hengist and Horsa are Germanic brothers said to have led the Angles, Saxons and Jutes in their invasion of Britain in the 5th century. Tradition lists Hengist as the first of the Jutish kings of Kent. Most modern scholarly consensus now rega ...

, that the captive Anglo-Saxon leader Hengist was hacked to pieces by

Eldol Eldol () is a legendary king of Britain in Geoffrey of Monmouth's c. 1136 work ''Historia Regum Britanniae'' ("The History of the Kings of Britain"). A 6th century hero called Eidol is mentioned in ''The Gododdin The Gododdin () were a Britto ...

outside the town walls, and was buried at "Hengist's Mound" in the town. In

Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels '' Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy ...

's novel, '' Ivanhoe'', 'Coningsburgh Castle' is based on Conisbrough. Scott's Coningsburgh is an Anglo-Saxon fortress, based (perhaps knowingly) on the mistaken conclusion that its unique style marked it as a non-Norman castle. The great tower is described specifically, so that it is clear that Scott has the Norman version of Conisbrough in mind.

Earth Centre

In the mid-1990s, a new tourist attraction, Earth Centre, opened on the nearby site of the former

Cadeby Main Colliery The Cadeby Main Colliery was a coal mine sunk in 1889 in Cadeby, South Yorkshire, England. It commenced production in 1893 and was worked until it was exhausted in 1986. Cadeby Main pit disaster On 9 July 1912 there was a major pit disaster at ...

. It closed in 2005 after it failed to attract the expected number of visitors. A leisure centre has been built on the site of the former Denaby Main Colliery. In the 2008 drama '' Survivors'', the Earth centre was used as the place Abby was shot and taken in.

Sporting links

It has also been a host to the

Olympic torch relay The Olympic torch relay is the ceremonial relaying of the Olympic flame from Olympia, Greece, to the site of an Olympic Games. It was first performed at the 1936 Summer Olympics, and has taken place prior to every Games since. Although in the pa ...

for the

2012 London Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

. Yorkshire saw the Grand Départ for the

Tour de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consists ...

in 2014. After this, Yorkshire hosted Le Tour de Yorkshire. In 2016 the tour came through Conisbrough, passing the famous castle on its way to Doncaster.

Notable people

Cyril Snipe Cyril Snipe (1888-1944) was a British motor racing driver who won the 1912 Targa Florio in Sicily driving an Italian SCAT motor car. Early life Cyril Arthur Snipe was born at Conisborough, Yorkshire, in the first quarter of 1888 to Arthur W Sni ...

(1888-1944) was a motor racing driver who won the 1912

Targa Florio The Targa Florio was a public road endurance automobile race held in the mountains of Sicily near the island's capital of Palermo. Founded in 1906, it was the oldest sports car racing event, part of the World Sportscar Championship between 1955 ...

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

driving an Italian SCAT motor car. *

Tony Christie Anthony Fitzgerald (born 25 April 1943), known professionally as Tony Christie, is an English musician, singer and actor. He is best known for his recording of "(Is This the Way To) Amarillo", a double UK chart success. Career 1960s to 1970 ...

(born Anthony Fitzgerald, 25 April 1943), a singer most famous for his hit single "

(Is This the Way to) Amarillo "(Is This the Way to) Amarillo" is a song written by Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield. It is about a man traveling to Amarillo, Texas, to find his girlfriend Marie. Written by two Americans with a strong country-western lyrical theme, the so ...

", was born in the town.

Education

Conisbrough has one secondary school, the

De Warenne Academy The De Warenne Academy is a secondary school with academy status on ''Gardens Lane'' in Conisbrough, South Yorkshire, England. The Academy is sponsored by Delta Academies trust who also support many other schools in Doncaster. History The sc ...

(formerly Northcliffe School). The

Emmanuel Schools Foundation The Emmanuel Schools Foundation (ESF) is a charitable trust which has been involved in education since 1989. ESF currently run six schools. The four original members of the ESF are: Emmanuel City Technology College in Gateshead (opened 1990), Th ...

's scheme to turn Northcliffe into an academy was scrapped after protests by parents, students and staff, despite the backing of former Conisbrough councillor Aidan Rave and former Doncaster Mayor Martin Winter. Primary education in Conisbrough is provided by Ivanhoe Academy, Castle Academy (formerly Station Road School), Morley Place Academy, Rowena Academy and Balby Street Primary. Further education has been available at the De Warrene Academy from 2010, but some people in the village attend

Dearne Valley College Dearne Valley College is a further education college situated in the Manvers Park area of Wath-upon-Dearne, in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England. It also has a campus near Wath-upon-Dearne Wath upon Dearne (s ...

Doncaster College Doncaster College and University Centre is a further and higher education college based in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. It is an operating division of the DN Colleges Group. History Origins The origin and identity of Doncaster Colleg ...

or other colleges further afield.

Amenities

The town lies at the junction of the A6023 and the A630 Doncaster - Rotherham road. To the west is

Denaby Main Denaby Main is a village situated between Mexborough and Conisbrough in the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster in South Yorkshire, England. The village falls within the Doncaster MBC ward of Conisbrough and Denaby. It was built by the Denaby Ma ...

. Pubs in the town include; The Eagle & Child (now closed and for sale), The Red Lion, The Lord Conyers, The Alma, Castle Bar and The Hilltop Hotel. October 2019 saw the opening of the first microbar “The White Lady” selling real ale and other cocktails. The street formerly known as Butt Hole Road, now Archers Way, is located in Conisbrough.

Shopping

The largest store in Conisbrough is the Sainsburys Local, which serves village residents with products required from an express supermarket. This was formerly the

Kwik Save Kwik Save is a British convenience store chain. Prior to 2007, it was also a discount supermarket chain that had shops across the United Kingdom. It went into administration in July 2007, but was brought back in April 2012. Its shops were sm ...

. The land was formerly the petrol station of the Booth family. Conisbrough had a co-op in the town centre opposite the Sainsburys Store, again used for local conveniences. This closed in September 2016. The site has since been refit and opened as a Go-Local convenience store. The site was originally a cinema. Shopping facilities include chemists (Town Centre & Doctors), florist shops, card shop, vape / smokers' store, news agents, butchers, do-it-yourself / hardware stores, estate agency / financial advisors, clothes store, bookmakers, cafe, charity shops and house clearance shop. Other stores include the Crusty Cob Shop, which has the bakery head office and bake house for their small local chain. The last bank in the town was NatWest. It closed in November 2015 leaving no bank. However, there are cash machines available 24/7 at the old bank site, Sainsbury and the post office. The Go-Local has a cash machine outside but only available during store hours. There is now an agency of

Yorkshire Building Society Yorkshire Building Society is the third largest building society in the UK, with its headquarters in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. It is a member of the Building Societies Association. The society also owns the Chelsea Building Society a ...

situated in Dunstan Estate Agents, this being the only banking facility apart from the post office.

Public transport

Bus services

The main bus operator in the town is

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; Yorkshire ...

, providing an extensive network of services into Doncaster & throughout the Dearne Valley, referred to as "The Dearne Link". Buses run at least every ten minutes into Doncaster &

Mexborough Mexborough is a town in the City of Doncaster in South Yorkshire, England. Situated between Manvers and Denaby Main, it lies on the River Don close to where it joins the River Dearne, and the A6023 road runs through the town. It is contiguo ...

and at least half-hourly through to Barnsley, Wath, Cortonwood &

First South Yorkshire First South Yorkshire is a major bus operator providing bus services within and across South Yorkshire. It is a subsidiary of FirstGroup. History In 1989, South Yorkshire Transport introduced the ''Mainline'' brand on certain bus routes aro ...

also operates a service through Conisbrough, running at least every ten minutes throughout the day between

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire a ...

and Doncaster on its X78 route

Rail services

The town is served by

Conisbrough railway station Conisbrough railway station is a railway station in Conisbrough, South Yorkshire, England. The station is south-west of Doncaster and north-east of Sheffield. It has two platforms and is served by stopping services. Situated to the north-east ...

and the main operator from the railway station is Northern. There are frequent services in both directions from Conisbrough railway station to destinations including Doncaster, Mexborough, Swinton, Rotherham, Sheffield,

Scunthorpe Scunthorpe () is an industrial town and unparished area in the unitary authority of North Lincolnshire in Lincolnshire, England of which it is the main administrative centre. Scunthorpe had an estimated total population of 82,334 in 2016. A ...

Worksop Worksop ( ) is a market town in the Bassetlaw District in Nottinghamshire, England. It is located east-south-east of Sheffield, close to Nottinghamshire's borders with South Yorkshire and Derbyshire, on the River Ryton and not far from th ...

Retford Retford (), also known as East Retford, is a market town in the Bassetlaw District in Nottinghamshire, England, and one of the oldest English market towns having been granted its first charter in 1105. It lies on the River Idle and the Chesterf ...

, Gainsborough,

Saxilby Saxilby is a large village in the West Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England, about north-west from Lincoln, on the A57 road at the junction of the B1241. It is part of the civil parish of Saxilby and Ingleby, which includes the village of ...

and Lincoln. Recently, Stagecoach restored bus services past the railway station after an absence of almost ten years. The X20 links Doncaster and Barnsley.Travel South Yorkshire
/ref>

References

External links

* {{authority control Towns in South Yorkshire Unparished areas in South Yorkshire Geography of the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster