Over a period of more than 150 years between the late eighteenth century
and the 1930s the South Yorkshire rural landscape was transformed by
coal mining and the movement of coal. But it was not just the
development of collieries, canals and railways that caused this
transformation. The population of the coalfield grew at a phenomenal
rate and the new mining population, many of them migrants from other
parts of the country, had to be housed near to the collieries where they
worked. Small residential colonies were built near the new collieries,
existing rural villages expanded, new satellite villages were
established and completely new mining communities were created, the
later ones carefully planned and laid out in the form of geometrically
designed estates. This copiously illustrated book explores the history
of the physical and social development of these very varied mining
communities, drawing on a wide variety of sources. It is the first book
to cover this subject and includes topics such as the settlement that
was specifically built for blackleg miners, the development in one
village of a large Welsh-speaking colony, how Earl Fitzwilliam housed
his colliers and their families and the views of well-known writers like
Fred Kitchen, Roger Dataller and George Orwell on the colliery villages.
The book will be of great interest not only to readers living in South
Yorkshire but also to the descendants of South Yorkshire miners now
living in other parts of the country and elsewhere.
