Question from Mike in Cudworth Barnsley
November 2006
Hello Richard
Reflecting
on my early days in Cudworth a question popped into my head the other
day: Why was that space in the centre of the village referred to as the
"pond" is it a corruption of pound (of the
livestock-containing sort) or was there a pond there? Something else
that I need to look into, for purposes of thoroughness, is the origins
of the village. Whereas many of the villages round about seem to have
arisen due to the discovery of coal, Cudworth, I suspect, had a longer
(if undistinguished) history? But even that is a questionable statement.
Did Grimethorpe exist before the pit-head? Come to think of it, it
probably did. The coal owners would develop their pits around a source
of labour an existing village - and if the coal is down there anyway,
it did not matter where the shaft was dug, did it? Then, as the need for
labour grew, the so the village expanded. Am I correct?
Mike.
London
Reply from Richard
Hello
Mike
Cudworth
takes its name from an Anglo-Saxon settler 'Cuda 's enclosure' it was in
Anglian Northumbria (Yorkshire & Northumberland) close to Saxon
Mercia (midland counties), worth is a Saxon place ending. The river Don
was the accepted boundary. Grimethorpe was a Viking/Norse setlement or
Grimr's Thorpe on the edge of Anglo-Saxon Brierley, it never grew
to more than a few farms as the area became part of Brierley Manor
deer park
. So both have a long history. Following the opening of deep coal mines
in the area Cudworth became a dormitory village for the incoming work
force. In 1891 the population was only 1,607, by 1911 it was 6,824. That
was the period when most of the terrace houses were built. There was a
second phase of building c1930 when
Newtown Avenue
,
Birkwood Avenue
, The secondary Modern School, and most of the
Barnsley Road
shops were developed.
regards
Richard
