South Kirkby

South Kirkby
Yorkshire West Riding
All Saints, South Kirkby
Location
Grid reference:	SE453111
Location:	53°35’40"N, 1°19’1"W
Data
Postcode:	WF9
Local Government
Council:	Wakefield

South Kirkby is a village in the West Riding of Yorkshire, a child of the Industrial Revolution, though now lost to its former industries.

Beside South Kirkby is the village of Moorthorpe, and the two village have now merged into an indistinguishable whole. South Elmsall is just to the northeast.

This was a coal mining village, though also with a large textile industry. A population of 10,979 was recorded in 2001 for South Kirkby and Moorthorpe together.

The village was first mentioned 1086 in the Domesday Book. The foundations and part of the walls of All Saints Church in South Kirkby are from the Anglo-Saxon period.

For many centuries, South Kirkby was a farming village, but as the Industrial Revolution took hold, it took hold or South Kirkby and of Moorthorpe. In 1881, the South Kirkby Colliery was founded, and this new coal mine caused a swift increase in population and an extention of both villages until at their largest they housed together almost all of the 3,000 workers employed in the mine.

The nearby Upton Colliery closed in 1964 due to loss of life caused by explosions, fires, and serious geological faults. In 1988, the South Kirkby Colliery itself closed, along with many of the other coal mines in the immediate area, and the mine lands were later cleared for redevelopment, as in mansy of the neighbouring villages.

Outside links

• South Kirkby and Moorthorpe Town Council
• Conisbrough Castle Archers - Field Archery Club South Kirkby