Thorpe Hesley

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Thorpe Hesley
Yorkshire
West Riding

Entering Thorpe Hesley
Location
Grid reference: SK376961
Location: 53°27’38"N, 1°26’4"W
Data
Population: 4,439  (2015 est.)
Post town: Rotherham
Postcode: S61
Dialling code: 0114
Local Government
Council: Rotherham
Parliamentary
constituency:
Rotherham

Thorpe Hesley is a village in the West Riding of Yorkshire, to the east of the M1 motorway at junction 35. Historically the village was known for coal mining and nail making.[1]

The parish church, Holy Trinity, was built in 1839 chiefly at the cost of Earl Fitzwilliam and the Earl of Effingham.[2]

John Wesley spent some time in the village where he preached. He lodged at Barley Hall (now demolished).

There is no post office, one petrol station and four public houses. At the 2011 Census, Thorpe Hesley had a population of 4,427.

Horse and Tiger pub, Brook Hill

Coal mines

Coal has been mined in and around the area of Thorpe Hesley for at least 800 years. Monks from the Cistercian Abbey of Kirkstead, in Lincolnshire, had forges and other property in this part of the country and mined coal and ironstone locally. Thorpe Hesley had the distinction of having three modern-day coal mines. Which were closed in the 1970s and 1980s and have been completely demolished. The land surrounding the area of the Barley Hall site has been landscaped and is now a small nature reserve.

In January 2013 permission was given for the Hesley Wood colliery spoil heap to be processed to recover fuel, and to restore woodland on the site.[3]

On film and television

In 1975, there was filming in the village for the Walt Disney film Escape from the Dark The film was re-titled The Littlest Horse Thieves for its release in America

The BBC television Series Play for Today had a two-part story titled The Price of Coal filmed at the colliery on Wentworth Road. This mine has now been closed and the colliery demolished.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material
about Thorpe Hesley)

References