Dunford Bridge is a remote

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

in the civil parish of Dunford, in

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. It is the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. The town's population was 71,422 in 2021, while the wider boroug ...

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, from the border with

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a Metropolitan counties of England, metropolitan and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and east, South Yorkshire and De ...

and from the border with

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

. It lies in the

Peak District The Peak District is an Highland, upland area in central-northern England, at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire, it extends into Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire. It is subdivi ...

, west of

Penistone Penistone ( ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England, which had a population of 13,270 at the 2021 census. Historic counties of England, Historically in ...

and south of

Holmfirth Holmfirth () is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England. It is located south of Huddersfield and west of Barnsley; the boundary of the Peak District National Park is to the south-west. The town is sited on t ...

, within the

Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley The Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley is a metropolitan borough in South Yorkshire, England; the main settlement is Barnsley and other notable towns include Wombwell, Worsbrough, Penistone and Hoyland. The borough is bisected by the M1 mo ...

. Before the

Local Government Act 1972 The Local Government Act 1972 (c. 70) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974. It was one of the most significant acts of Parliament to be passed by the Heath Gov ...

the area covered by South Yorkshire was 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 ...

. The settlement, consisting of a few houses, lies beneath the Winscar Reservoir. Water draining from the moorland around Grains Moss forms small rivers that join together to form the source of the River Don, which feeds into the reservoir. The reservoir had suffered from leakage for many years, until

Yorkshire Water Yorkshire Water is a British water supply and treatment utility company servicing West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, the East Riding of Yorkshire, part of North Lincolnshire, most of North Yorkshire and part of Derbyshire, in England. The company ...

, the reservoir owners, employed a construction company to correct the problem, using £400,000 worth of specialist

grout Grout is a dense substance that flows like a liquid yet hardens upon application, often used to fill gaps or to function as reinforcement in existing structures. Grout is generally a mixture of water, cement, and sand, and is frequently employe ...

ing and

artificial membrane Artificiality (the state of being artificial, anthropogenic, or man-made) is the state of being the product of intentional human manufacture, rather than occurring naturally through processes not involving or requiring human activity. Connotati ...

. The eastern end of the

Woodhead Tunnel The Woodhead Tunnels are three parallel trans-Pennines, Pennine long railway tunnels on the Woodhead Line, a former major rail link from Manchester to Sheffield in Northern England. The western portals of the tunnels are at Woodhead, Derbyshire ...

is in the centre of the hamlet. The site of the former railway station is now a parking area with the old rail line forming the route of the

Trans-Pennine Trail The Trans Pennine Trail is a long-distance path running from coast to coast across Northern England on a mixture of surfaced paths, with some short on-road sections, and with gentle gradients (it runs largely along disused railway lines and c ...

. In 1974 the two terraces of railway cottages at the eastern tunnel portal, comprising 19 houses, were bought by the Lifespan Educational Trust to establish a commune based on the principles of

Summerhill School Summerhill School is an independent (i.e. fee-charging) day and boarding school in Leiston, Suffolk, England. It was founded in 1921 by Alexander Sutherland Neill with the belief that the school should be made to fit the child, rather than ...

. The Lifespan Community Collective, which set up a registered

housing cooperative A housing cooperative, or housing co-op, is a legal entity which owns real estate consisting of one or more residential buildings. The entity is usually a cooperative or a corporation and constitutes a form of housing tenure. Typically hou ...

and in 1976 opened a wholefood shop in

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confl ...

(the cooperative was dissolved in 1987). In the 1980s the community launched a

worker cooperative A worker cooperative is a cooperative owned and Workers' self-management, self-managed by its workers. This control may mean a Company, firm where every worker-owner participates in decision-making in a democratic fashion, or it may refer to one ...

in printing and publishing. The community continues today with about 20 residents; it farms according to

permaculture Permaculture is an approach to land management and settlement design that adopts arrangements observed in flourishing natural ecosystems. It includes a set of design principles derived using Systems theory, whole-systems thinking. It applies t ...

principles and produces the quarterly ''Communes Network'' magazine. The Stanhope Arms Public House (former hunting Lodge belonging to the Stanhope Family) was the only public house in the hamlet of Dunford Bridge. The Stanhope Arms closed down in the early 2000s. It was used as a theatrical and drama training workshop for a short time afterwards but has been a private residence since 2015. Windle Edge Road leads 1.5 miles southwest from the hamlet to the Woodhead Pass A628 and northeast to the B6106

road. The A628 gives access westwards to the M67 and

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

and east to the M1 at

, and southeast to the

A616 The A616 is a road that links Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire, to the M1 motorway at Junction 30, then reappears at Junction 35A and goes on to Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. The road originally ran continuously from Newark to Huddersfield, vi ...

and Northern

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

. Dunford Bridge is a centre for watersports enthusiasts. It benefits from walkers exploring the Pennine

moorland Moorland or moor is a type of Habitat (ecology), habitat found in upland (geology), upland areas in temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands and the biomes of montane grasslands and shrublands, characterised by low-growing vegetation on So ...

surrounding the hamlet, using it as a base. There is a car parking area next to the road bridge and further parking along the side of the Winscar Reservoir on Dunford Road, to the north. The reservoir is used by a local sailing club. On 15 September 2015 the National Grid announced a plan to bury underground electricity cables and remove seven overhead pylons from the village. This was completed in October 2022 when the pylons were removed. Dunford Bridge was for hundreds of years within the ancient Wapentake of Staincross, an area that almost corresponds with the borders of the modern day Barnsley Metropolitan Area. File:Dunford Bridge (RLH).jpg, Dunford Bridge File:Dunford Bridge Aerial (RLH).JPG, Aerial photo of Dunford Bridge and Winscar Reservoir

References

External links

{{Commons category, Dunford Bridge
Yorkshire Water - Winscar Reservoir

Pennine Sailing Club
Hamlets in South Yorkshire Towns and villages of the Peak District Geography of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley