Royston is a

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

an village within 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 Wombwell, Worsbrough, Penistone and Hoyland. The borough is bisected by the M1 mo ...

, 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.

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 ...

, the village formed part of 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 ...

, but was incorporated into the Metropolitan borough of Barnsley in 1974 and is now on the border with

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a Metropolitan counties of England, metropolitan and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and east, South Yorkshire and De ...

. It is part of the Barnsley Central

borough constituency In the United Kingdom (UK), each of the electoral areas or divisions called constituencies elects one member to the House of Commons. Within the United Kingdom there are five bodies with members elected by electoral districts called " constituen ...

, and has a population of 10,728. It is situated north-east of

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. It is the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. The town's population was 71,422 in 2021, while the wider boroug ...

, and south-east of

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 109,766 in the 2021 census, up from 99,251 in the 2011 census. The city is the administrative centre of the wider Metropolit ...

History

The village is recorded 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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

as ''Rorestone'' with the name deriving from ''Hror's'' or ''Roarr's'' farm /settlement (''Hror/Roarr-s-tun''). The village was in the

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, Sweden, Finland, Norway, and in Cumberland County in the British Colony of ...

of Staincross. Originally a farming village, Royston joined the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution, sometimes divided into the First Industrial Revolution and Second Industrial Revolution, was a transitional period of the global economy toward more widespread, efficient and stable manufacturing processes, succee ...

with the construction in the 1790s of the Barnsley Canal, and later a branch of the

Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844 in rail transport, 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had ...

. Both are now disused. Royston had a colliery called Monckton Colliery (1878–1966).This was replaced by Royston Drift Mine. There was also, a clay works and brick works but these are all now closed, although a coke works operated until recently on the mine site processing coal brought in by road. Royston Drift Mine opened in 1975 and closed (after a relatively short period in coal mining terms) 14 years later in 1989. The site is now the site of Rabbit Ings Country Park, which is now home to all five species of owls to be found in Britain. A large shirt factory with the brandname ''Valusta'' provided local employment from the 1940s through to the 1980s. Burberrys also had a factory on Midland Road

Geography

Royston lies on the Barnsley Canal, and on the intersection of the B6132 and B6428 roads, due north of

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. Until 1974 it was in the West Riding of Yorkshire. History Monk Bretton has bee ...

at an elevation of around above

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

. The Trans Pennine Trail runs through Royston along the canal bank. The parish is part of the

diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, prov ...

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

Landmarks

The churches in Royston include the

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...

of St John the Baptist, Bethel Church, the Royston

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

Church, and Our Lady and St Joseph, a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

church. The parish church of St John the Baptist was built about the year 1234 and has a clock, a

sundial A sundial is a horology, horological device that tells the time of day (referred to as civil time in modern usage) when direct sunlight shines by the position of the Sun, apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the ...

, a ring of eight bells and is now

grade I listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

. The church is a notable location in Royston as it is one of a few churches in England with an

oriel window An oriel window is a form of bay window which protrudes from the main wall of a building but does not reach to the ground. Supported by corbels, bracket (architecture), brackets, or similar cantilevers, an oriel window generally projects from an ...

, and was used a navigational landmark for guiding travellers.

Notable people

Harry “Shake” Earnshaw was a miner turned racing cyclist who in 1938 was acclaimed the

British Best All-Rounder The British Best All-Rounder (BBAR) competition, organised by Cycling Time Trials, is an annual British cycle-racing competition. It ranks riders by the average of their average speeds in individual time trials, over 50 and and 12 hours fo ...

. The comedian Charlie Williams was born in Royston in 1927. He played football for

Doncaster Rovers Doncaster Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. The team currently competes in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system after winning the 202 ...

and later found fame as one of the comedians on the TV programme '' The Comedians''. The mountaineer

Andy Cave Andy Cave (born 1966) is a British mountaineer, mountain guide, and motivational speaker. He was nominated for the Piolet d'Or for his first ascent of the North Face of Changabang in 1997, and won the Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Litera ...

originates from Royston, and was a coal miner until the 1984–85 miners' strike, at which point he dedicated himself to mountaineering. He is also notable for his research into the dialect of Yorkshire pit villages. His 2001 doctorate stated that Royston had a slightly different accent to the surrounding villages, as many of the miners who came to work at Monckton Colliery on its opening travelled from the

Black Country The Black Country is an area of England's West Midlands. It is mainly urban, covering most of the Dudley and Sandwell metropolitan boroughs, with the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall and the City of Wolverhampton. The road between Wolverhampto ...

, where several mines had closed. This hypothesis was later tested by Kate Burland, who analysed certain vowel sounds in Royston, Wakefield and Barnsley. She found that Wakefield and Barnsley residents had very similar pronunciations for the sounds under consideration, whereas Royston residents had different pronunciations that were more similar to those associated with the Midlands. Yorkshire cricketer Norman Yardley lived in Royston at the Grove, which is now owned by Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council. Football player and manager Ernie Morgan was born in Royston.

References

External links