A New Village For Bentley

 

The Avenue 1914

The Story of Bentley New Village

Bentley New Village is the name given to an area of Bentley which was built to house the large influx of workers who came to work here after the sinking of Bentley Colliery. Despite most of the houses being over a century old now the name has stuck, and although the miners have now all gone, the area still provides homes for the ever changing population of Bentley.

In this article we look at how the area was developed, the amenities supplied and the people who lived there in the early days.

Contents

• Rural Bentley Before the Pit
• The Beginning of Change
• The Benefits of Providing Homes
• Building a New Village
• Inside the Houses
• Unbuilt Houses
• Villas
• Shops and Amenities
• Sports Facilities
• Bentley Colliery Miners Welfare Club and Institute
• A Church for New Village
• New Village School
• Further Expansion
• Bentley With Arksey Urban District Council
• Post War Development
• The Magnet Hotel
• Public Transport
• Trolleybuses
• Later Development
• Scawthorpe
• Post Colliery
• Early Residents of New Village
• Analysis
• Legacy
• New Village Photos

Rural Bentley Before the Pit

Bentley 1903

The map above shows how rural Bentley was just a few years before the sinking of the colliery. Surrounded by fields, Bentley was a small agricultural village consisting of cottages, farms, shops and a handful of small industries. The village had grown slowly over the previous centuries, largely in the shadow of neighbouring village Arksey. With its imposing Norman church and rich agricultural lands, Arksey was the principle village consisting mainly of farms and cottages. 

Bentley High Street at the turn of the century

With less fertile land, Bentley had to diversify in order to survive. Trade directories of the 1830's show a variety of trades going on in Bentley, including milling, blacksmithing, brewing, mustard making as well as shop keeping, boot and shoe making and wheelwrighting. This kind of subsistence was maintained right up to the early years of the twentieth century, and by 1901 the population of the parish of Bentley with Arksey stood at 2,403. Little did the people of the parish know then that Bentley was sitting on a rich seam of black gold that would change their little rural village forever.

The Beginning of Change

In 1906 Barber Walker & Co. were successful in sinking a shaft in land to the north of Bentley in an area known as Daw Lane Plantation.

 

Daw Lane Plantation on a map of 1903. Bentley lies to the south with
Askern Road at Rostholme just visible in the bottom left corner.

By the end of 1908 two shafts had been sunk, both reaching the Barnsley coal seam, headgear had been constructed and construction of surface buildings was progressing. By early 1909 there were 700 men employed at the colliery and maximum production wasn't far off. It was around this time that Barber Walker & Co. decided to provide housing for the growing workforce.

The Benefits of Providing Homes

At a time when local authority housing was pretty much non-existent, company owned housing was an affordable alternative to renting from private landlords. It also benefitted the company who, despite the initial construction costs, could have greater control over the workforce. Workers who rented from the company had their rent deducted from their wages making them less likely to default on their payments. It also meant that workers were tied to their employers and less likely to leave, even at a time when many other collieries in the region were desperate for workers. Another advantage to the company was that if workers should strike, the threat of eviction could be used against them.

Barber Walker & Co. must have considered these advantages when deciding to provide their workers with homes; and so it was, in 1908 that Doncaster architect Philip Brundell was commissioned to draw up plans for a new estate of houses and amenities close to the new colliery.

Building a New Village

The area chosen for the new estate was the land that lay between the colliery in the north and Arksey Lane in the south. A road had already been built from Arksey Lane to the colliery which was named The Avenue; this road was almost a mile long and cut across land owned by Sir William Cooke. It was decided to purchase the land from Sir William Cooke and to construct the new village either side of The Avenue. The map below shows roughly where the new development was to be built. 

Map of 1849 showing where New Village would be built.

The planned construction was to build 802 houses, comprising 776 miner's cottages, 24 villas for colliery officials, and two large detached houses for the colliery manager and agent. The estate would also include a school, cricket and football pitches, allotments and playing fields. Shops were also planned for the entrance to the estate at the Arksey Lane end. Barber Walker referred to their new estate as Model Village, although that was popularly changed to New Village quite early on.

Ten houses had already been built at the top of The Avenue, close to the pit gates. The houses, built to house pit officials were completed in 1907 and can be seen on this photo below:

Houses built for pit officials in 1907

Building on the first phase of miner's cottages began in 1909 at the northern end of The Avenue. Houses were built on the western side of The Avenue with Arthur Street, Arthur Avenue and Arthur Place being laid out as shown in this map of 1930, Elm Crescent on the eastern side was built at a later date.

The first phase of building on the western side of The Avenue at the northern end

Work on the second phase of New Village started in 1910 at the southern end of The Avenue. This part of New Village would cover a much larger area and see the largest concentration of properties. 

Streets laid out at this time included Alexander Street (which was originally named Alexandra Road), Asquith Road, Balfour Street, Beresford Street, Burns Street, Cawdor Street, and Edward Street, as seen in the map below from 1930. Some of these streets were named after well-known politicians of that time, such as Prime Minister Herbert Asquith, Prime Minister Arthur Balfour, Cabinet Minister Charles Beresford, and the Earl of Cawdor.

For more on Bentley street names go to Bentley Street Names.

The second phase of building at the lower end of The Avenue

The streets were laid out in a simple grid consisting of blocks of houses with service lanes or 'backs' between the blocks. Each property had a small front garden and a yard at the rear which faced out onto the 'backs'.

Children playing in the 'backs' behind Arthur Street.
Photo courtesy of Lewis Timms

Each identical block of houses consisted of a terrace of six properties, built to two external designs. The centre four properties were built like a traditional terrace, while the houses on each end were built sideways, with gable ends projecting forwards of the building line. This can be seen in this early photo (below) of Asquith Road where the identical blocks can be seen stretching into the distance. 

Asquith Road about 1911

In an exception to the block of six were a few blocks of seven houses north of Edward Street. This was caused by a slight bend to the east in The Avenue at that point, and the extra house per block served to fill the extra land created. Six blocks of seven houses were built, five to the west side of the Avenue and one on the east. These blocks differed from the others in that the centre house was constructed with a gable to the front and rear, presumably to break up the building line. The blocks of seven can be seen on the map below bordered in red. Each house was constructed of brick, with rendering and detailing to the gables helping to give the houses a clean modern look. 

New village from Arksey Lane.
Houses bordered in red are blocks of 7, all others are blocks of 6.

Inside the Houses

The middle houses in each block were fitted out with a scullery, living room, a downstairs bathroom and WC, and three bedrooms upstairs. The houses on the gable ends were slightly larger with  extra living room downstairs and larger bedrooms upstairs. These houses were able to command a higher rental value.

Unbuilt Houses

The two main house building phases in New Village ceased in 1911, and of the 776 miner's houses originally planned only 414 were completed.

The original architect's plans had shown that four blocks of six houses had been planned for an area behind the houses on the eastern side of Balfour Road, in an area where White Rose Court exists now. 

Eighteen blocks of four houses were also planned for the area opposite New Village School, north of the houses on Alexander Street, but these were never built either. This land was used for a club and eventually, a children's playground.

The map below shows where the intended housing would have been built. 

The red areas show where the following amounts of houses/blocks were planned for:

A - Three blocks of six houses

B - One block of six houses

C, D, E - Six blocks of four houses in each section

In the north of New Village the architect's plans show that 24 further blocks of six houses had been planned for an area east of The Avenue, where Elm Crescent was eventually constructed. In addition, blocks at the top end of Arthur Street and on to Victoria Road were never completed, although some semi-detached properties were later built on that land.

Another area for planned construction was Home Covert, north of Victoria Road, which lies to the east of The Avenue. This area was not developed until much later in the twentieth century.

The map below shows where the intended housing would have been built.

Again, the red areas illustrate where the following amounts of houses/blocks were planned for.

A - Six blocks of six houses in each section.

B - Two blocks of six houses - later replaced with semi-detached houses.

C - Two blocks of six houses - later replaced with semi-detached houses.

D - Home Covert - Six blocks of six houses in each section, now the site of Positive Steps care home.

Incidentally, the area between the top of the football ground and the red areas marked 'A' was not intended to be built on originally, but later became part of Elm Crescent. That also goes for the section between Arthur Avenue and Arthur Place, just west of The Avenue, which was later developed with semi-detached houses, as visible on the map of 1930 above.

Villas

The last phase of the project was in 1912 with the construction of fourteen villas intended for colliery officials. The number of villas had been reduced from the planned twenty four and these were built along Victoria Road and Daw Lane. These houses were larger and provided four bedrooms as well as an upstairs bathroom.

Daw Wood House was the final house to be built. Intended as the home of the colliery manager, this extensive house consisted of eighteen rooms downstairs, thirteen upstairs and also boasted stables and a carriage house. The house was set in large grounds surrounded by a seven foot high wall. In the end it was the colliery agent, Mr Donald McGregor who moved into the property. A different house for the colliery manager, Mr Clive, was built at the junction of Daw Lane and Askern Road.

Shops and Amenities

To service all the extra housing New Village was provided with some local shops, these were completed in 1911 and were sited at the main entrance to the estate on the junction of Arksey Lane and The Avenue. 

On the left (or west side) a row of shops was built to fill the curve of the road from Arksey Lane and on to The Avenue. Opposite, on the right (or east) side, a shorter row of shops partially filled the curve of the junction. 

Map of 1946 showing the location of the New Village shops at the 
junction of Arksey Lane and The Avenue

Among the shops were a branch of the Doncaster Mutual & Co-operative Society and also Hodgson & Hepworth, the well-known Doncaster grocer. 

Photo showing the west parade of shops on Arksey Lane, turning right onto The Avenue.
Hodgson & Hepworth occupy the large store in the centre.
Photo dates to around 1914 when the tram lines were extended to New Village

Sports Facilities

Central to the New Village was an area of land set aside for community use. Lying at about the halfway point along The Avenue, the rows of houses give way to open playing fields and community buildings. These have changed over the decades, but originally they were set out as in the plan below.

Map of 1930 showing the community areas of New Village

With some of the planned housing being dropped, extra land was available for leisure amenities so not only was there space for football and cricket pitches, but also tennis courts, bowling greens, an athletics track, a club, a school and allotments. Here are a few photos with additional information.

The football pitch which became home to the Bentley Colliery Football Club in around 1923.

The cricket pavilion, home to the Bentley Colliery Cricket Team,
later a cricket club called The Jet opened here.

Two crown bowling greens were laid out in 1921/22 behind the Colliery Institute building.
Bentley Colliery Bowls Club used these greens

Bentley Colliery Tennis Club was originally set up by Mr McGregor, colliery agent,
and his wife in 1921

The athletics track, situated in front of New Village School, used for cycling events and by
Bentley school sports meetings

Bentley Colliery Miners Welfare Club and Institute

In 1915 a colliery institute was built by Barber Walker. This wooden building, which was initially a temperance institute, contained meeting rooms, assembly rooms and reading rooms. The building served as a base from which to supervise recreational activities in the area. 

The institute was replaced by the Miners Welfare building in 1921. It was funded by a subscription of 1d. per week from the miner's wages. The Colliery Institute Committee was the parent committee for all colliery sports and pastimes up to 1948 when the Bentley Miners' Welfare Activities fund was created. 

Locally known as 'The Whisper' following the 1926 strike, the name is said to have been adopted as a result of the little 'huddles' that took place in the club when the latest developments in the 1926 General Strike were discussed. These discussions were undertaken in whispers so that management would not hear what was being said.

The club was a popular venue for the social life of the community, however, until the 1940's only men were permitted membership. Following a tide of women's emancipation, the club's administration was forced to allow women to become members. Their membership proved an enhancement and they greatly contributed to the club's function. A new bar and concert room were added as a result of this change. 

The club was affiliated to the C.I.U. in 1952 with six officials and committee members elected by colliery management and a further six elected by ballot at the annual general meeting. This was changed in 1956 when all club officials and committee members were elected solely by ballot. The committee ensured that regular and varied entertainments were available at the club.

The concert room at the institute, or 'Whisper'

 

A Church for New Village

By the time New Village was under construction, Bentley was well served for places of worship. Cooke Street Primitive Wesleyan Methodist chapel had opened in 1857, High Street Wesleyan chapel in 1891, and St Peter's Anglican Church opened between 1896 and 1898. So no immediate plans to provide a place of worship to the new settlement were put in place at first. However, a small group of people in June 1914 began to hold services in a hall made of corrugated iron known as the 'band room', which was sited at the north end of the colliery football field where Elm Crescent now exits on to The Avenue.

The need for an extra church was evident and it was the South Yorkshire Coalfield Churches Extension Committee who brought about the building of one.

The Committee sought to provide for the religious needs of the new colliery districts. They did this by constructing churches paid for entirely by donations.

A plot of land on Victoria Road was donated by Barber Walker for a new church. They also donated £1000 towards construction and agreed to pay the salary of a curate.

Location of St Philip & James Church and church hall on a map of 1930

Built of Scandinavian brick, the outbreak of the First World War led to work on the church ceasing and it was never fully completed, with plans for a bell-tower being discarded.

However, the church of St Philip & St James and was satisfactorily completed and opened on the 1st of May 1915. A church hall was also built on the opposite side of the road in 1921. 

The church is identical in appearance to other South Yorkshire Coalfield Churches Extension Committee churches built in New Rossington, New Edlington and Maltby.

 

The church features Bentley's War Memorial, which consists of a tall white cross inscribed with the war dead of Bentley, it stands in the front grounds of the building. Commemoration services are held at the memorial every Remembrance Sunday.

St Philip & St James was the focus of deep sorrow in 1931 when it held the funerals of many of the victims of the pit disaster. Following the service, the many coffins were transported from the church on flatbed trucks. The funeral procession passed down The Avenue and on to Arksey cemetery on a route lined with hundreds of mourners.

Coffins being conveyed from St Philip & St James following the pit disaster of November 1931

New Village School

The building of a new school for the new settlement began in September 1911 in land adjoining the new sports fields, mid-way between the northern and southern residential blocks of housing, off Asquith Road.

The site of New Village School on a map of 1930

The West Riding County Council bought the site from Barber Walker and commenced the building of the school. A coal strike delayed work for some weeks, but the New Village School was finally opened on the 2nd of January 1913. The building and site had cost £10,000. The new school would take children who had previously attended the overcrowded Cooke Street School.

Mr W Hinchliffe, Chairman of the Bentley Education Sub-Committee, presided over the opening ceremony, which was held in one of the large assembly halls in the school.

New Village School

For more photos of New Village School and information on other schools in Bentley go to Educating Bentley.

More photos of the school are also available in the Old Photo Gallery.

Further Expansion

The decision by Barber Walker in 1911 to cease building houses for their workforce was questionable, especially as the colliery was trying to increase production. It is possible the company experienced financial difficulties following problems with sinking the pit. 

Meeting the housing requirements of families flocking to the area for work fell to the local authority and private builders. Bentley with Arksey Parish Council was not in a position to build its own houses in 1911. They applied to become an Urban District Council that same year, which gave them some limited powers to help with providing housing. It wasn't until the Town Planning Act of 1919 was passed that the UDC was able to fulfil the housing needs of the growing population.

Between 1911 and 1914 private builders constructed traditional terraced houses along Askern Road, West End and at the new settlement of Toll Bar. Some were also built in older parts of Bentley village. The standard of housing built very much depended on the builder and varied greatly. Demand for housing was great, newspapers at the time reported that desperate miners were depositing a week's rent and paying £5 for a key to secure a property before the foundations had even been laid. In 1901 Bentley and Arksey had a total of 548 houses; by 1915 this had increased to 2,435, with a population of 13,000.

Traditional terraced housing on Askern Road

Despite all this private building there was no let-up in the demand for housing. Overcrowding became a problem which led to medical problems. Some tenants were even reportedly living in unfinished houses.

Bentley with Arksey Urban District Council

One of the first projects completed by the new UDC was to provide a comprehensive sewage system. This was completed in 1913 when the UDC then turned their attentions to the critical shortage of housing. 

In 1914 the UDC bought six acres of land from Barber Walker for £1,500. This land lay between Daw Lane and Askern Road, near to the pit manager's house. The new development of ninety nine houses were comprised of blocks of mostly six houses, plus some semi-detached. Houses were also built fronting Askern Road. These were some of the first council houses to be built in the country, and built to a good standard, they were positively received.

Askern Road (left), runs north to south, Daw Lane (right) runs south to northeast.
Fisher Street and French Street lie in the red area.
Map is of 1930 when further development had occurred.

  

Fisher Street during the floods of 1932

Post War Development

Despite the new housing built by the UDC, there were still almost 300 families waiting for homes in Bentley. However, any further developments would have to wait as all house building ceased with the outbreak of World War I. 

In 1919 the Town Planning Act was passed by the Government which meant that grants and loans could be awarded to councils in order for them to provide local authority housing.

There were reportedly 800 families now waiting for houses in Bentley, so the UDC embarked on a major house building project in the early 1920's.

A large council estate was planned in an area between New Village and Askern Road. Work began in 1922 with the building of 514 semi-detached houses, all with three bedrooms, upstairs bathrooms and gardens to front and rear. 

Several streets were laid out at this time which included - Victoria Road, Rosslyn Crescent, Hawthorne Grove, Daw Lane, Holly Drive, Rostholme Square, part of Ansdell Road and Winnipeg Road. 

Bentley street map of 1930

The map above shows which streets formed part of the new council estate of the early 1920's. Street names are difficult to pick out on a map of this size, so they have been colour coded thus:-

Dark Blue - Victoria Road

Green - Daw Lane

Brown - Hawthorne Grove

Pink - Holly Drive

Yellow - Rostholme Square

Orange - Rosslyn Crescent

Light Blue - Ansdell Road

Purple - Winnipeg Road

Red - Askern Road

It was during this time that the undeveloped parts of New Village were finally built on. Bentley UDC purchased the land from Barber Walker and this led to Elm Crescent being laid out as well as parts of The Avenue as mentioned earlier.

In addition to the new council estate and the development of unused land in New Village, the UDC also built eighty six houses near the centre of Bentley, and a further seventy four houses were built off Station Road in Arksey. 

Council housing on Staion Road, Arksey in the 1920's.
Photo courtesy of Linda Swain

In the space of three years the UDC had built and rented out 674 semi-detached houses. What Bentley Urban District Council achieved was quite remarkable for such a small local authority.

Private builders also continued to provide new houses, albeit on a smaller scale than before World War I. One such development was The Homestead, a crescent of ninety six houses built off Arksey Lane.

The Magnet Hotel

In 1924 John Smiths Brewery bought the corner plot of Askern Road and Victoria Road. They built The Magnet Hotel there and the first landlord and landlady were Frank and Lily Jones, who ran the premises from 1925 until 1930. 

The Magnet Hotel in more modern times

Public Transport

Public transport came to Bentley in 1887 in the form of horse bus services. These buses were run as private enterprises, usually by large store owners, with the aim of conveying customers from out-lying areas to Doncaster to shop in their stores. Well known grocery store Hodgson & Hepworth were one such company to run horse buses.

Hodgson & Hepworth horse bus

When it was decided that Doncaster would get a tram system in 1899, a track to Bentley was put in place. However, difficulties arose because at that time there was no North Bridge over the railway, just a level crossing at Marsh Gate. They got around the problem by running a 'feeder' service from Clock Corner to the level crossing, where passengers disembarked and used an underpass to pick up the Bentley line on the other side. The Bentley/Doncaster line was consolidated in 1910 when the North Bridge opened to traffic.

A tram crosses the new North Bridge in 1910, while below is the old level crossing route,
now barred by a gate.

At first the trams terminated at Chapel Street in central Bentley where they turned and headed back to Doncaster.

A tram exiting Chapel Street on its return journey to Doncaster

In 1913 or 1914 the tram lines were extended to New Village where they terminated at Alexander Street.

The Bentley tram route was the most profitable on the Doncaster network, but overcrowding was a serious problem. 

Trolleybuses

By 1930 trams were rapidly being withdrawn from service in favour of trolleybuses. The last trams to run to Bentley were withdrawn in 1928 and the route was converted to the trolleybus double wire system.

The advantage for Bentley was that the new trolleybuses were now able to travel further into New Village. A single wire extension loop now ran the entire length of The Avenue, turned left on to Victoria Road and returned to central Bentley via Askern Road.

A trolleybus exiting Victoria Road near The Magnet in 1955.

The move to fully motorised buses began in 1956 with the closure of the Bentley trolleybus service. By the end of 1963 all trolleybus services in Doncaster had ceased and were replaced by motor buses.

For more on Trams and buses go to Please State Your Destination.

Later Development

The boom in house building during the two periods of 1908 - 1914, and 1920 - 1925 did not continue into the 1930's. In the 1920's, with the economy booming, Bentley colliery was producing a million tons of coal a year. However, the depression of the 1930's saw a quota system limiting output put on to prevent the price of coal from collapsing.

Hot on the heels of the depression came World War II, during which all house building ceased. Following the war, the shortage of housing was once again becoming an issue, nationally as well as locally. 

In Bentley, families tired of living in cramped conditions with their parents took matters into their own hands and started a squatter's camp in unused Nissen huts on Queen's Drive. The huts had housed Bevin Boys during the war, drafted in to work in the pits, but now lay empty. 

At the highest point, ninety five families were housed in the huts and a huge effort to get them evicted ensued. This led to a huge march from Bentley to the County Court in Doncaster in 1947. 

The squatters were eventually evicted, and by January 1948 all had left or been forced out.

The Nissen huts on Queens Drive in the 1950's.
Photo courtesy of Graham Westerman

Despite a programme of temporary prefabricated bungalow building known as 'prefabs', the Nissen huts, now properly converted, provided legitimate homes into the mid 1950's.

For more on the story of the Nissen huts go to Huts of War and Peace.

  

Scawthorpe

In 1904 Barber Walker purchased the entire Scawthorpe estate from Sir William Cooke. The estate consisted of mainly farmland, but also Scawthorpe Hall, Scawthorpe Grange and three lodges. Barber Walker farmed this land, putting a farm manager in Scawthorpe Grange, while Mr McGregor, the colliery manager moved into Scawthorpe Hall from his former residence of Daw Wood House.

Scawthorpe in the 1950's

Areas of council housing began to be built on Barber Walker's farmland after the Second World War, but the 1950's saw the biggest development push, when 300 houses were provided by the National Coal Board. Miners from Newcastle and Scotland mainly occupied these houses when they transferred south following pit closures in their own areas. 

For more on the history of Scawthorpe go to Scawthorpe - It's Older Than You Think!

Post Colliery

Bentley Colliery closed in 1993 and was demolished a year later. The legacy left by Barber Walker though is very much alive and well in the housing they initiated. Without the pit there would be no New Village, no Bentley Park, fewer shops, churches and other amenities. Yes, some things have gone, such as many of the public houses in the area, but as communities continue to grow and change, so will they leave their mark on this once rural suburb of Doncaster.  

For more on Bentley Colliery go to Bentley Pit History Part 1 - 85 Years of Mining.

Early Residents of New Village

To gain an understanding of just how New Village was populated in the early days, three sets of residents' lists have been produced from information provided in the 1911 census. From the census we can determine where these families originally came from and the addresses they occupied. 

Elizabeth Huckerby and her daughter Elizabethat their home in
 Asquith Road where she lived in the 1920's and 30's.

Three roads in New village are covered in this study, The Avenue, Asquith Road, and Balfour Road, with two versions of lists for each road. The first list is by house number, with the head of the household named alongside, and the county of his birth in the last column. The second version is A - Z by surname, with the house number alongside. The county of birth column is not included in this list. As virtually all male heads of households were miners, occupations have not been included.

It is hoped that by displaying the lists in two versions that family researchers will be able to quickly establish if any ancestors were living in these streets in 1911.

The first lists are for The Avenue:

*Dr Joseph Walker, from Lanarkshire, lived and practiced in two adjoining properties on The Avenue, numbers 33 and 35.

Lists for Asquith Road:

Lists for Balfour Road:

Note: Anyone wanting further information from these lists, please use the contact form at the top of this blog.

Analysis

From the above lists combined, there were 232 households occupied, of which 38% came from Nottinghamshire; 36% came from Derbyshire; 12% came from Yorkshire, and the remaining 14% came from other counties.

It is interesting to note that the largest percentage of residents had moved from Nottinghamshire to Bentley, a relatively short distance. A similar percentage came from Derbyshire, another close county. Despite these two counties having many coalmines of their own, the choice to move to Bentley was probably led by the attractiveness of working in one of the most modern coalmines in the country, and the security of renting a brand new company house. 

The same pattern of migration would be repeated all over New Village and beyond. Many of these families put down roots in Bentley and brought up their families, often with sons following their fathers into the mine. Descendants of those first migrants can still be found living in Bentley, or nearby, even though the mine has long gone.

Legacy

Bentley Colliery left a lasting legacy in Bentley. New Village continues to provide homes over a century on, and the people make up a thriving community. Amenities established for the mineworkers and their families are still very much in evidence today. Shops and businesses change and move with the times, but still they occupy the buildings that were principally erected because of the colliery.

Bentley Park, laid out as a 'welfare park' for the recreation of miners and their families in 1923, has evolved over the years, but still remains a much loved area of the township.

With continued modernization New Village should continue to provide homes for Bentley people for many decades to come, long outlasting the colliery which built the estate. As new people move in to those streets they may have no idea of how their houses came to be built, but perhaps after reading this history they might appreciate the efforts of one coal mining company to provide homes for its workforce in the small South Yorkshire village of Bentley.

New Village Photos

Balfour Road shortly after construction

Balfour Road

Balfour Road

Cawdor Street

The Avenue before the trams

The Avenue with tramlines

The Avenue
Photo courtesy of Colin Hardisty

More photos can be found in the Old Photo Gallery.

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Alison Vainlo 2021