HISTORY OF THE SOUTH YORKSHIRE COUNTRYSIDE

Much more than just a guide book, this is a study of how our ancestors shaped the South Yorkshire countryside over the centuries, not only with monasteries, castles and parish churches, but also with farms of peasant farmers and industrial buildings. It looks at navigable rivers, coppicing and woods, fields and intriguing place-names. It takes Tickhill, a country town as an example, Roche Abbey, Cistercian possessions, Monk Bretton Priory, granges, long barns at Whiston, cruck barns and Pennine farms at Belle Clive, Langsett, Midhope and Thurlstone, the old surveys and maps of Wombwell Ings, meadow management and the Bulling Dike, drainage and peat workings. Beyond, we go to the old Halls of Worsbrough, Limestone estate villages and gentry halls, coal mining, the Spencer Family, the Iron trade, Wentworth Castle, inland waterways, the Rivelin Valley and Non-Conformist chapels, village schools, weaving and monasteries. Softback. 214pp. Dozens of illus and maps.