Chapeltown is a small town in

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 ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. It lies half way between Barnsley and Sheffield approximately 7 miles from both. It is part of the civil parish of

Ecclesfield Ecclesfield is a village and civil parish in the City of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, approximately 6 miles (9 km) north of Sheffield City Centre. Ecclesfield civil parish had a population of 32,073 at the 2011 Census. Ecclesfiel ...

. Chapeltown is

historically History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some theorists categ ...

within the

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire was one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the riding was an administrative county named County of York, West Riding. The Lord Lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire, lieu ...

. Up until April 1st 1974, Chapeltown was part of the

Wortley Rural District Wortley was a rural district in the West Riding of Yorkshire from 1894 to 1974. It was abolished in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, with the parishes of Bradfield and Ecclesfield going to the metropolitan borough of Sheffield and t ...

, after which, it was made part of the new administrative county of South Yorkshire and the Sheffield City Council area.

Geography

Chapeltown is located 7 miles (11 km) south of the centre of Barnsley and approximately north of the centre of the city of Sheffield, it lies on the railway between Barnsley and Sheffield. Chapeltown railway station is served by the Penistone Line and Hallam Line. Two junctions of the

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

also serve the area. The A6135 road passes through the town from north to south and is joined near the town centre by the

A629 road The A629 road is an intra-Yorkshire road that runs from Skipton to Rotherham through Keighley, Halifax, Huddersfield and Chapeltown in Yorkshire, England. The road runs through North, West and South Yorkshire, but before 1974, the entire leng ...

from the south-east and the B6546 road from the west. Although near the M1 motorway, there is a large amount of greenspace in and around Chapeltown. The town centre has a

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 ...

ground and a wooded

park A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are urban green space, green spaces set aside for recreation inside t ...

on either side of it. Between Chapeltown and

the land is used for residential purposes on one side of the main road and

agricultural Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created f ...

on the other. There is also a

brownfield site Brownfield is previously-developed land that has been abandoned or underused, and which may carry pollution, or a risk of pollution, from industrial use. The specific definition of brownfield land varies and is decided by policy makers and l ...

above the park.

History

Until industrial expansion, Chapeltown was a hamlet that originated at the intersection of the roads between Sheffield and Barnsley and between Rotherham and Wortley. In the late 16th century a blast furnace was installed there which initially used charcoal, and from 1780 was fired with coke. Chapeltown was part of the ecclesiastical parish of Ecclesfield and had a population of 4063 persons around 1870. Coal mining was one of the main occupations of the inhabitants. The works of Newton, Chambers & Company were first established in Chapeltown in 1793.Jones 1999:148 Initially they were an iron works specialising in cast iron products, but over time the company expanded into related mining industries and products from the fractional distillation of coal, including the Izal disinfectant range. In the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

they produced

Churchill tank The Tank, Infantry, Mk IV (A22) Churchill was a British infantry tank used in the Second World War, best known for its heavy armour, large longitudinal chassis with all-around tracks with multiple Bogie#Tracked vehicles, bogies, its ability to ...

s. The company's site is now Thorncliffe Industrial Estate, where most of the industry in Chapeltown is located.

References

Bibliography

External links

Sources for the history of Chapeltown and High Green
Libraries, Archives and Information, Sheffield City Council, 2013 (PDF) {{Districts of Sheffield Suburbs of Sheffield