Darton is a large village in 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 ...

(part of

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 ...

), on 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 ...

, England. At the time of the 2001 UK census, it had a population of 14,927, increasing to 21,345 for both Darton Wards (East & West) at the 2011 Census.

Parliamentary representation

Formerly part of the now defunct

Barnsley West and Penistone Barnsley West and Penistone was a United Kingdom constituencies, parliamentary constituency in South Yorkshire which returned one Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, Hou ...

borough constituency In the United Kingdom (UK), each of the electoral areas or divisions called constituencies elects one member to the House of Commons. Within the United Kingdom there are five bodies with members elected by electoral districts called " constituen ...

, following the

Boundary Commission for England In the United Kingdom, the boundary commissions are non-departmental public bodies responsible for determining the boundaries of parliamentary constituencies for elections to the House of Commons. There are four boundary commissions: one each f ...

's report on South Yorkshire's Parliamentary constituencies in 2004 and an inquiry in 2005, it is now part of the Barnsley Central borough constituency.

Geography

Darton lies on the

River Dearne The River Dearne in South Yorkshire, England flows roughly east for more than , from its source just inside West Yorkshire. It flows through Denby Dale, Clayton West, Darton, Barnsley, Darfield, South Yorkshire, Darfield, Wath upon Dearne, Bolto ...

, directly to the east of Kexbrough, and is situated about west of Mapplewell, north of

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-west of

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 109,766 in the 2021 census, up from 99,251 in the 2011 census. The city is the administrative centre of the wider Metropolit ...

, south-east of

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 ...

, south of

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 ...

, and north of

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 ...

. It is served by the A637 road and is bisected by the

M1 motorway The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) motorway, A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the count ...

(junction 38 being a mile to the north). Its location is approximately , at an elevation of around above

mean sea level A mean is a quantity representing the "center" of a collection of numbers and is intermediate to the extreme values of the set of numbers. There are several kinds of means (or "measures of central tendency") in mathematics, especially in statist ...

History

The name ''Darton'' is believed to be an amalgamation of ''"Dearne"'' and the

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...

word ''"ton"'' (meaning 'town'). Hence, in ancient times it was known as ''the town on the Dearne''. However, other sources dispute this explanation and claim that the name originates from a description given to a deer enclosure or something similar. In 1086 the hamlet of ''Dertone'' was in the

wapentake A hundred is an administrative division that is geographically part of a larger region. It was formerly used in England, Wales, some parts of the United States, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, and in Cumberland County in the British Colony of ...

of Staincross. The hamlet grew to become a village so the Parish of Darton was founded in 1150, when the first church was built. As elsewhere in England, an official register of baptisms, deaths and marriages did not begin until later, in 1539. The parish was historically within 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 ...

and became a part of the former county of South Yorkshire upon its creation in 1974.

Present day

Darton has its own

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

on Northern's Hallam Line which links train journeys between

and

. The railway station is in South Yorkshire but West Yorkshire Metro tickets are also valid to and from this station. The reason for this is because the West-South Yorkshire boundary ran between the village and its main source of employment, Woolley Colliery. On 15 June 2007, Darton hit the national headlines after 48 hours of torrential rain caused the River Dearne to burst its banks leading to heavy flooding in the village. The main road through the village was rendered impassable and many homes and businesses were damaged, including the village

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

, which re-opened in June 2008. Further flooding occurred in January 2008, although the damage and disruption caused this time was not as bad as the previous year's.

Education

Darton has its own primary school and a secondary school called Darton Academy actually in Kexborough which opened in 2011. The new building (and rebranded school) replaced Darton High School -previously Darton Hall Senior School - that had been on the site since 1957.

Sport

*Darton cricket club plays in the Pontefract and District Cricket League. *North Gawber Colliery F.C. are based in the village and play in the Sheffield and Hallamshire County Senior League Premier Division.

Notable people

* David Booth — manager of

Laos national football team The Laos national association football team represents Laos in association football and is governed by the Lao Football Federation. History As of 2020, Laos has not qualified for the FIFA World Cup, AFC Asian Cup or Asian Games. Since making ...

* Thomas Brackin — English first-class cricketer * Ian Butler — English professional footballer *

Michael Clapham Michael Clapham (born 15 May 1943) is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Barnsley West and Penistone from 1992 to 2010. Early life Born in Darton, in Barnsley, Clapham was educated at the Darton S ...

— Labour Party politician * Jack Grainger — English professional footballer * Ken Knighton — professional footballer, former manager of Sunderland and Orient * Alan Ogley — professional

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

* Jill Scott —

racing driver Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. In North America, the term is commonly used to describe all forms of automobile sport including non ...

and

aviator An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators because they a ...

* Alban Turner — English first-class cricketer * Anna Cotton — nonconformist ironmasterAwty, B. (23 September 2004). Cotton family (per. c. 1650–1802), ironmasters. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 28 December 2017, se
link
/ref> * John Braine — author

References

External links

Darton village

Darton Primary School

Darton College

Darton Cricket Club
{{authority control Villages in South Yorkshire Unparished areas in South Yorkshire Former civil parishes in South Yorkshire Geography of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley