Balby is a suburb of

Doncaster Doncaster ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, Yorkshire, River Don, it is the administrative centre of the City of Doncaster metropolitan borough, and is the second largest se ...

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the north, the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north-east, Lincolnshire ...

, England, located south-west of the city centre. Historically part of the

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire was one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the riding was an administrative county named County of York, West Riding. The Lord Lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire, lieu ...

, Balby is within the Doncaster Central constituency and contains the electoral wards Balby South and Hexthorpe and Balby North. Housing stock ranging from terraced housing nearer to Doncaster town centre and post-war suburbs to the south west. There are several new housing developments, including Woodfield Plantation, which is part of an attempt to regenerate the area following deindustrialisation. Economic activity is still centred on

heavy industry Heavy industry is an industry that involves one or more characteristics such as large and heavy products; large and heavy equipment and facilities (such as heavy equipment, large machine tools, huge buildings and large-scale infrastructure); o ...

, especially around the Carr Hill Industrial Estate, home to Bridon, a large rope manufacturer.

History

The earliest written reference to Balby occurs in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

(1086), which records the name as ''Balle(s)bi''. This almost certainly derives from a personal name, ''Balli'', together with the

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

word ''býr'' (meaning a farmstead). This dates the foundation of Balby to some time in the period of Viking settlement, between the late 8th and early 11th centuries. Balby, which then included Warmsworth, was home to several of the early followers of the Quaker faith in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, including Thomas Aldham, whose son William was instrumental in opening the first permanent meeting house in the area, in Quaker Lane, Warmsworth. Balby has long been associated, along with other areas of

, with Quakerism, having a large Quaker community. More recently, the suburban town was a centre for

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

and brass manufacture, especially at the well-known Pegler's Brass Foundry and Bridon Ropery. In the 1830s, St Catherine's House, designed by

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

-based architect John Clark, was built as a retirement home for George Banks, a wealthy cloth merchant and former Mayor of Leeds, in the south of Balby, near to the site of St Catherine's Well, an ancient site of healing and pilgrimage. In the 1920s it was bought by a local health board, together with a substantial area of the estate surrounding it, to operate as a mental health institution, St Catherine's Hospital, which continued to operate within the NHS until the 1980s. It remains owned by the NHS and operates as a not for profit social enterprise, offering conferencing facilities, a cafe and a walled garden.

Education

Astrea Academy Woodfields is the only

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

in the Balby area. Balby Central Primary Academy, Carr Lodge Academy, Mallard Primary School, St Francis Xavier Catholic Primary School, Waverley Primary Academy and Woodfield Primary School are the

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

s in Balby. Sycamore Hall Preparatory School is an independent primary and there is also specialist provision at Maple Medical PRU, incorporating Hospital Tuition, the Young Parents Centre/Link/JASP and the Mulberry unit.

Amenities

Potteric Carr Nature Reserve is a natural wetland near the Lakeside development. The site reopened in 2011 following extensive restoration by Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and charges an admission fee. Carr Lodge Nature Reserve is a low-lying grassland, managed by Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. It is flooded in winter but dries out in summer and is used by local birdwatchers. Flourish Enterprises is a non-for-profit social enterprise based at St Catherine's House in Woodfield Park, which offers extensive grounds for walking and recreation. It runs a cafe based in the house, together with an historic Walled Garden which is free to access and grows and sells its own plants, and fruit and vegetables. A range of services are provided from the site including therapeutic services, an antiques shop, barbers, yoga studio, and squash club.

Popular culture

The external scenes for the BBC comedy '' Open All Hours'' were set and filmed on Lister Avenue, Balby. The shop (Lister Avenue at junction with Scarth Avenue) which served as Arkwright's grocery store was, and still is, a hairdresser's which was converted for the duration of filming.

References

External links