Ridgeway is a village in

North East Derbyshire North East Derbyshire is a local government district in Derbyshire, England. It borders the districts of Chesterfield, Bolsover, Amber Valley and Derbyshire Dales in Derbyshire, and Sheffield and Rotherham in South Yorkshire. The population ...

in the county of

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the no ...

in England.

Location

Ridgeway lies just south of the

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. I ...

border, around 5 miles southeast of

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

. The village is surrounded by a number of hamlets and villages with Highlane to the north,

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

, Bramley and

Birley Hay Birley Hay is a hamlet in North East Derbyshire in the county of Derbyshire in England. Location Birley Hay lies just south of the South Yorkshire border, around 5 miles south-east of Sheffield City Centre, and just a mile south of the village ...

to the south,

Plumbley Plumbley is a hamlet in the City of Sheffield borough, within the county of South Yorkshire in England. Location Plumbley consists of a small scattering of farms and cottages with a couple of lanes providing access. It lies in the far southe ...

and

Mosborough Mosborough is a village in the City of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. Historically part of Derbyshire, the village was named after The Moss river which flows through the village. During the late 19th century and 20th century, the villag ...

to the east and Troway and

Geerlane Geerlane is a hamlet in North East Derbyshire, England. The hamlet is located in Moss Valley, by the side of The Moss. It has a farm, called Geerlane Farm, where a farmer was killed in 2010 after being trampled on by his cattle. The hamlet is lo ...

to the west.

History

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

Sherwood Forest Sherwood Forest is a royal forest in Nottinghamshire, England, famous because of its historic association with the legend of Robin Hood. The area has been wooded since the end of the Last Glacial Period (as attested by pollen sampling cores ...

. 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

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 ( ) is an agricultural hand tool for mowing grass or harvesting crops. It is historically used to cut down or reap edible grains, before the process of threshing. The scythe has been largely replaced by horse-drawn and then tr ...

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 Hutton & Co. was a sickle, scythe and tool smiths based in Ridgeway, Derbyshire, England. The company was founded by The Hutton family in 1760 and operated out of a number of locations around the village. The most notable workshop was located at ...

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, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...

(Ridgeway Primary School), a church ( St John The Evangelist Church, Ridgeway), a

Methodist chapel Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...

, four pubs (The Bridge Inn, The Swan, The Queen's Head and The Phoenix Inn), sports facilities ( football,

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball c ...

bowls Bowls, also known as lawn bowls or lawn bowling, is a sport in which the objective is to roll biased balls so that they stop close to a smaller ball called a "jack" or "kitty". It is played on a bowling green, which may be flat (for "flat-g ...

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

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

Notable residents

Clinton Woods Clinton Woods (born 1 May 1972) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1994 to 2009, and held the IBF light-heavyweight title from 2005 to 2008. At regional level he held the Commonwealth super-middleweight title from 1997 t ...

- IBF Light Heavyweight World Champion. * T.L. Platts - (died 1998) Local historian and author.

External links

Ridgway VillageRidgeway Village HistoryRidgeway Primary School
Villages in Derbyshire Eckington, Derbyshire {{Derbyshire-geo-stub

Location

History

Facilities

Notable residents

See also

External links