Maltby, South Yorkshire
Encyclopedia
Maltby is a town and civil parish of 17,247 inhabitants in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham
, South Yorkshire
, England
, situated in a rural
area about 7 miles east of Rotherham
and 12 miles north-east of Sheffield
. It lies on the A631
between Hellaby
and Tickhill
at the junction with the A634 from Blyth
, close to Junction 1 of the M18 motorway.
times, and there are several local examples of Roman road
s running through the town. Maltby is mentioned in the Domesday Book
as "by-malt", and was for centuries a very small village with the benefits of a fairly large stream nearby and very rich land for farming
available. Since the discovery of coal
in the area in the late 19th century, however, the population of Maltby has risen from around 500 at the turn of the 19th century to about 17,980 by the 2007 census
.
Maltby Main Colliery
was the site of mass protests during the 1984-1985 miners' strike, and remains today one of only three collieries still open in the area, the only one within Rotherham Metropolitan Borough.
During the Second World War, a munitions factory, ROF Maltby
, was established on the outskirts of Maltby close to the colliery, though this has long since been closed. Maltby also had a very successful factory, Byfords, which produced knitwear for such companies as Pringle
- this has long since closed and the new police station
was built on the site.
Maltby railway station
on the South Yorkshire Joint Railway
served the town from 1910 until 1929.
There is a historic feature just outside of Maltby called Roche Abbey
, which was ruined during the Dissolution of the Monasteries
in the reign of Henry VIII
.
Maltby has a large Roman Catholic congregation, predominantly first or second generation Irish immigrants, many of whom were navvies
and "sunk" Maltby Colliery in the early 20th century. There is a working men's club
for Catholics, Maltby Catholic Club, situated on Millindale.
The Maltfriscans are a lay community, predominantly Roman Catholic, that began with a group of punk rockers and other young people in Maltby. The name comes from Maltby franciscans, as they take St Francis of Assisi
as one of their inspirations. There are very few remaining now in Maltby.
The town is served by a variety of shops and businesses. There is a large Tesco
in the town centre
on the site of what was once an indoor and outdoor market.
There are several pubs in the town, the oldest of which is the White Swan (16th century). The Queen's Hotel was once frequented by the Maltby Mortis, an outlaw biker motorcycle club. Unfortunately the Queens now lies boarded up and in a very bad state of repair. Other pubs include two owned by the Tadcaster
based Samuel Smith's Brewery
, the Lumley Arms and the Manor.
Maltby Comprehensive School on Braithwell
Road (B6376). The school closed at the end of December 2009, and Maltby Academy opened in January 2010. There is a Roman Catholic primary school in Maltby - St Mary's Primary School.
The ancient game of "beck ball" was revived in the mid 1980s to some success; this is a sort of rugby game, where opposing teams generally fight a turf war in the local stream.
The town lies in the South Yorkshire constituency of Rother Valley, currently held by Labour MP Kevin Barron
, a seat which he has held continuously since 1983. At local level, the town is governed by several Labour
councillors, and some independent councillors.
and particularly the 1950s, it has seen a massive increase in its population. Many "new" housing estates were built in the 1970s and 1980s for private ownership. Maltby's main council housing
stock went into serious disrepair during the 1980s with areas like "White City" becoming near-slum
dwellings. These hard done-by areas were rejuvenated in the 1990s and Maltby has benefited from local government funding since 1997.
With a history dating back to 1907 when work on sinking the original shafts began, Maltby today has the most modern equipment and the highest quality coal extracted from the Parkgate seam some 1,040 metres below ground.
Access to the reserves is gained by two shafts, No.2 984m deep and No.3 991m deep, with the capability of winding up to 1,500 tonnes of mineral an hour to the surface.
Output serves a range of markets, including sales for the production of coke, quality smokeless fuels, industry and power stations.
Investment of around £12m is planned during 2004/5, including nearly 5,000 metres of strategic drivages to reserves in the north east area of the mine, two surface boreholes and the refurbishment of equipment. The colliery employs 520 people.http://www.rjb.co.uk/
During the 1984-1985 miners' strike, there was a degree of poverty among the large local mining population and some children went without adequate food and clothing due to government denial of social security
benefits to the strikers. A riot occurred when thousands of miners picketed the colliery as agency workers were bused into the mine (see BBC News item). The rioting and violence was not at the same level of the Battle of Orgreave
, but left a bitter division between the police, the strikers and the miners who returned to work ("scabs"). The scars of the strike have not healed in many people's minds and some still hold on to their resentment towards the families of strike-breakers, more than twenty years after the end of the strike.
The local NUM delegate for Maltby Colliery, Bob Mounsey, featured in many of the pickets at various collieries and was pictured in major books and newspapers being attacked by police at Orgreave.
Many such miners went on to win compensation from the police in 1992.
The Miners' Welfare Institute (locally known as the "stute"), a working mens club for miners, is still open to this day.
In 2007 the colliery was guaranteed a future when it was bought by Hargreaves Services, for £21.5m, safeguarding around 500 jobs http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/south_yorkshire/6400421.stm.
Maltby used to be the home to the Chuckle Brothers
and cricketer Fred Trueman
was educated at Maltby Hall School. He moved to Maltby from Stainton with his parents and lived just off Morrell Street. Fred also worked at Maltby Colliery as also did his father.
Maltby was also the home to Lynne Perrie
, an actress who played the role of Ivy Brennan in Coronation Street
for 23 years. She lived in the Cliff Hills area until her death in March 2006. Her brother Duggie Brown
, also an entertainer (ex Brookside
) lived in the Maltby area before moving away during the 1970s.
Bill Waddington
, who played Percy Sugden (again a Coronation Street
character), married the sister of the Chuckle Brothers and died in a retirement home in the centre of the town.
Maltby was the setting for the book Welcome to Everytown, by writer and philosopher Julian Baggini
, who lived in the area for six months. This stay was to uncover the English mind as the area is demographically a representation of English.
Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham
The Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham is a metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. It is named for its largest town, Rotherham, but also spans the outlying towns of Maltby, Rawmarsh, Swinton, Wath-upon-Dearne, as well as a suburban and rural element composed of hills, escarpments and...
, South Yorkshire
South Yorkshire
South Yorkshire is a metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It has a population of 1.29 million. It consists of four metropolitan boroughs: Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham, and City of Sheffield...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, situated in a rural
Rural
Rural areas or the country or countryside are areas that are not urbanized, though when large areas are described, country towns and smaller cities will be included. They have a low population density, and typically much of the land is devoted to agriculture...
area about 7 miles east of Rotherham
Rotherham
Rotherham is a town in South Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Don, at its confluence with the River Rother, between Sheffield and Doncaster. Rotherham, at from Sheffield City Centre, is surrounded by several smaller settlements, which together form the wider Metropolitan Borough of...
and 12 miles north-east of Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
. It lies on the A631
A631 road
The A631 is a road running from Sheffield, South Yorkshire to Louth, Lincolnshire in England. It passes through the counties of South Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire. The road has many towns on its route including Rotherham, Maltby, Gainsborough and Market Rasen. It is mostly single...
between Hellaby
Hellaby
Hellaby is a village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham, in South Yorkshire, England. It is the location of Hellaby Hall hotel, a four star hotel with extensive leisure facilities set in a 17th century mansion built by the Fretwell family...
and Tickhill
Tickhill
Tickhill is a small, wealthy town and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster in South Yorkshire, England, on the border with Nottinghamshire. It has a population of 5,301.-Geography:...
at the junction with the A634 from Blyth
Blyth, Nottinghamshire
Blyth is a village in the Bassetlaw district of the county of Nottinghamshire, in the East Midlands, north west of East Retford, on the River Ryton.-Geography:...
, close to Junction 1 of the M18 motorway.
History
Maltby has its historical roots in RomanRoman Britain
Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...
times, and there are several local examples of Roman road
Roman road
The Roman roads were a vital part of the development of the Roman state, from about 500 BC through the expansion during the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. Roman roads enabled the Romans to move armies and trade goods and to communicate. The Roman road system spanned more than 400,000 km...
s running through the town. Maltby is mentioned in the Domesday Book
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
as "by-malt", and was for centuries a very small village with the benefits of a fairly large stream nearby and very rich land for farming
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
available. Since the discovery of coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
in the area in the late 19th century, however, the population of Maltby has risen from around 500 at the turn of the 19th century to about 17,980 by the 2007 census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
.
Maltby Main Colliery
Maltby Main Colliery
Maltby Main Colliery is a coal mine situated on the eastern edge of the township of Maltby, South Yorkshire, some 7 miles east of Rotherham. It is presently the only colliery in production in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham.-History:...
was the site of mass protests during the 1984-1985 miners' strike, and remains today one of only three collieries still open in the area, the only one within Rotherham Metropolitan Borough.
During the Second World War, a munitions factory, ROF Maltby
ROF Maltby
ROF Maltby was a Royal Ordnance Factory rifle manufacturing plant in Maltby, South Yorkshire which manufactured weapons such as the Lee-Enfield rifle and Sten submachine gun during World War II....
, was established on the outskirts of Maltby close to the colliery, though this has long since been closed. Maltby also had a very successful factory, Byfords, which produced knitwear for such companies as Pringle
Pringle of Scotland
Pringle of Scotland is a luxury knitwear manufacturer and importer. The brand is worn by the likes of Madonna, DB7 , Nicole Kidman, Sophie Dahl, Claudia Schiffer, the television character Alan Partridge and British bands such as The Kooks, Dirty Pretty Things and The Twang...
- this has long since closed and the new police station
Police station
A police station or station house is a building which serves to accommodate police officers and other members of staff. These buildings often contain offices and accommodation for personnel and vehicles, along with locker rooms, temporary holding cells and interview/interrogation rooms.- Facilities...
was built on the site.
Maltby railway station
Maltby railway station
Maltby railway station was located on the South Yorkshire Joint Railway on the eastern edge of Maltby, South Yorkshire.The station was opened in 1910, built by the Great Central Railway , who operated the passenger service over the SYJR between and jointly with the Great Northern Railway...
on the South Yorkshire Joint Railway
South Yorkshire Joint Railway
South Yorkshire Joint Railway was a committee formed in 1903, between the Great Central Railway , the Great Northern Railway , the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway , the Midland Railway and the North Eastern Railway to oversee the construction of a new railway in the Doncaster area of South...
served the town from 1910 until 1929.
Roche Abbey
Roche Abbey is a now-ruined abbey located near Maltby, South Yorkshire, England. It is situated in a valley alongside Maltby Beck and King's Wood.-Early history:...
, which was ruined during the Dissolution of the Monasteries
Dissolution of the Monasteries
The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their...
in the reign of Henry VIII
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
.
Community and governance
In order to house its workers the colliery company built a large estate known as the 'Model Village' to the east of the town centre.Maltby has a large Roman Catholic congregation, predominantly first or second generation Irish immigrants, many of whom were navvies
Navvy
Navvy is a shorter form of navigator or navigational engineer and is particularly applied to describe the manual labourers working on major civil engineering projects...
and "sunk" Maltby Colliery in the early 20th century. There is a working men's club
Working men's club
Working men's clubs are a type of private social club founded in the 19th century in industrial areas of the United Kingdom, particularly the North of England, the Midlands and many parts of the South Wales Valleys, to provide recreation and education for working class men and their families.-...
for Catholics, Maltby Catholic Club, situated on Millindale.
The Maltfriscans are a lay community, predominantly Roman Catholic, that began with a group of punk rockers and other young people in Maltby. The name comes from Maltby franciscans, as they take St Francis of Assisi
Francis of Assisi
Saint Francis of Assisi was an Italian Catholic friar and preacher. He founded the men's Franciscan Order, the women’s Order of St. Clare, and the lay Third Order of Saint Francis. St...
as one of their inspirations. There are very few remaining now in Maltby.
The town is served by a variety of shops and businesses. There is a large Tesco
Tesco
Tesco plc is a global grocery and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Cheshunt, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest retailer in the world measured by revenues and the second-largest measured by profits...
in the town centre
Town centre
The town centre is the term used to refer to the commercial or geographical centre or core area of a town.Town centres are traditionally associated with shopping or retail. They are also the centre of communications with major public transport hubs such as train or bus stations...
on the site of what was once an indoor and outdoor market.
There are several pubs in the town, the oldest of which is the White Swan (16th century). The Queen's Hotel was once frequented by the Maltby Mortis, an outlaw biker motorcycle club. Unfortunately the Queens now lies boarded up and in a very bad state of repair. Other pubs include two owned by the Tadcaster
Tadcaster
Tadcaster is a market town and civil parish in the Selby district of North Yorkshire, England. Lying on the Great North Road approximately east of Leeds and west of York. It is the last town on the River Wharfe before it joins the River Ouse about downstream...
based Samuel Smith's Brewery
Samuel Smith Brewery
Samuel Smith's Old Brewery, popularly known as Samuel Smith's or Sam Smith's, is an independent brewery in Tadcaster, North Yorkshire, England. It is Yorkshire's oldest brewery, founded in 1758.-History:...
, the Lumley Arms and the Manor.
Maltby Comprehensive School on Braithwell
Braithwell
Braithwell is a village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster in South Yorkshire, England. It is about one mile north of Maltby and three miles south-east of Conisbrough...
Road (B6376). The school closed at the end of December 2009, and Maltby Academy opened in January 2010. There is a Roman Catholic primary school in Maltby - St Mary's Primary School.
The ancient game of "beck ball" was revived in the mid 1980s to some success; this is a sort of rugby game, where opposing teams generally fight a turf war in the local stream.
The town lies in the South Yorkshire constituency of Rother Valley, currently held by Labour MP Kevin Barron
Kevin Barron
Kevin John Barron is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Rother Valley since 1983.-Early life:...
, a seat which he has held continuously since 1983. At local level, the town is governed by several Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
councillors, and some independent councillors.
Hard times
Maltby was once, in modern terms, a small village of only several thousand inhabitants, but since the warWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and particularly the 1950s, it has seen a massive increase in its population. Many "new" housing estates were built in the 1970s and 1980s for private ownership. Maltby's main council housing
Council house
A council house, otherwise known as a local authority house, is a form of public or social housing. The term is used primarily in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Council houses were built and operated by local councils to supply uncrowded, well-built homes on secure tenancies at...
stock went into serious disrepair during the 1980s with areas like "White City" becoming near-slum
Slum
A slum, as defined by United Nations agency UN-HABITAT, is a run-down area of a city characterized by substandard housing and squalor and lacking in tenure security. According to the United Nations, the percentage of urban dwellers living in slums decreased from 47 percent to 37 percent in the...
dwellings. These hard done-by areas were rejuvenated in the 1990s and Maltby has benefited from local government funding since 1997.
Maltby Colliery
Access to the reserves is gained by two shafts, No.2 984m deep and No.3 991m deep, with the capability of winding up to 1,500 tonnes of mineral an hour to the surface.
Output serves a range of markets, including sales for the production of coke, quality smokeless fuels, industry and power stations.
Investment of around £12m is planned during 2004/5, including nearly 5,000 metres of strategic drivages to reserves in the north east area of the mine, two surface boreholes and the refurbishment of equipment. The colliery employs 520 people.http://www.rjb.co.uk/
During the 1984-1985 miners' strike, there was a degree of poverty among the large local mining population and some children went without adequate food and clothing due to government denial of social security
Social security
Social security is primarily a social insurance program providing social protection or protection against socially recognized conditions, including poverty, old age, disability, unemployment and others. Social security may refer to:...
benefits to the strikers. A riot occurred when thousands of miners picketed the colliery as agency workers were bused into the mine (see BBC News item). The rioting and violence was not at the same level of the Battle of Orgreave
Battle of Orgreave
The Battle of Orgreave is the name given to a confrontation between police and picketing miners at a British Steel coking plant in Orgreave, South Yorkshire, in 1984, during the UK miners' strike...
, but left a bitter division between the police, the strikers and the miners who returned to work ("scabs"). The scars of the strike have not healed in many people's minds and some still hold on to their resentment towards the families of strike-breakers, more than twenty years after the end of the strike.
The local NUM delegate for Maltby Colliery, Bob Mounsey, featured in many of the pickets at various collieries and was pictured in major books and newspapers being attacked by police at Orgreave.
Many such miners went on to win compensation from the police in 1992.
The Miners' Welfare Institute (locally known as the "stute"), a working mens club for miners, is still open to this day.
In 2007 the colliery was guaranteed a future when it was bought by Hargreaves Services, for £21.5m, safeguarding around 500 jobs http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/south_yorkshire/6400421.stm.
Notable people
The town once had the tallest twins in Britain, Jonathan and Mark Carratt, who earned a mention in the 1980 Guinness Book of Records. Both brothers still live in Maltby today, though are no longer classed as Britain's tallest twins. At the time - they appeared on the local 'Calendar News' programme, and as local football referees were filmed kicking a football on the local Manor Field.Maltby used to be the home to the Chuckle Brothers
Chuckle Brothers
Barry Elliott and Paul Elliott , better known as the Chuckle Brothers, are British comedians. They are best known for their work on their BBC show ChuckleVision, which celebrated its 21st anniversary in March 2010 with a tour called An Audience with the Chuckle Brothers, which started in January...
and cricketer Fred Trueman
Fred Trueman
Frederick Sewards Trueman OBE was an English cricketer, generally acknowledged as one of the greatest fast bowlers in history. A bowler of genuinely fast pace who was widely known as Fiery Fred, Trueman played first-class cricket for Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1949 until he retired in 1968...
was educated at Maltby Hall School. He moved to Maltby from Stainton with his parents and lived just off Morrell Street. Fred also worked at Maltby Colliery as also did his father.
Maltby was also the home to Lynne Perrie
Lynne Perrie
Lynne Perrie was an English actress. She was born Jean Dudley in Rotherham, Yorkshire, and was the sister of comedian Duggie Brown. She was best known for her roles as Mrs. Casper in Ken Loach's 1969 film Kes, and as Ivy Tilsley in Coronation Street from 1971-1994.-Career:After Rotherham Grammar...
, an actress who played the role of Ivy Brennan in Coronation Street
Coronation Street
Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
for 23 years. She lived in the Cliff Hills area until her death in March 2006. Her brother Duggie Brown
Duggie Brown
Duggie Brown is an English comedian and actor. He is the brother of the late Coronation Street actress Lynne Perrie ....
, also an entertainer (ex Brookside
Brookside
Brookside is a defunct British soap opera set in Liverpool, England. The series began on the launch night of Channel 4 on 2 November 1982, and ran for 21 years until 4 November 2003...
) lived in the Maltby area before moving away during the 1970s.
Bill Waddington
Bill Waddington
Bill Waddington , was an English music hall performer and comedian who was born in Oldham, Lancashire. In later life he achieved stardom as the pompous ex serviceman Percy Sugden in Granada Television's long running soap opera, Coronation Street.Waddington was born at Oldham on June 10, 1916, the...
, who played Percy Sugden (again a Coronation Street
Coronation Street
Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
character), married the sister of the Chuckle Brothers and died in a retirement home in the centre of the town.
Maltby was the setting for the book Welcome to Everytown, by writer and philosopher Julian Baggini
Julian Baggini
Julian Baggini is the author of several books about philosophy written for a general audience. He is the author of The Pig that Wants to be Eaten and 99 other thought experiments and is co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Philosophers' Magazine...
, who lived in the area for six months. This stay was to uncover the English mind as the area is demographically a representation of English.