The story of Thurgoland Welfare Hall says so much about this community. In 1926, Robert Mountain Swift donated four acres of land for a Miners Welfare Recreation Ground. Many men in the village worked in the local pits. The original hall was just a wooden hut. When the community decided to build a proper hall, they set up a 'Village Pool' lottery sold in pubs around Thurgoland. Nearly everyone participated and the new hall opened in May 1974.
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The recreation ground is still managed by the Miners Welfare Group
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Walking through Thurgoland Tunnel is a real experience. The original bore was built in 1845 for the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway. A second bore was added in 1947-48 during electrification of the Woodhead Line. Look for the twin inscriptions on the portals: 'LNER 1947' and 'BR 1948', marking railway nationalisation. Trains stopped running in 1983 and now it is part of the Trans Pennine Trail.
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Huthwaite Hall on Huthwaite Lane is a hidden gem of architectural history. Built in 1748, it was the very first surviving design by John Carr of York, who went on to become the most important architect in northern England for over half a century. He built it for John Cockshutt, the owner of the Wortley Ironworks. Carr later designed Harewood House. Grade II* listed.
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Holy Trinity Church was designed by George Edmund Street, the same architect who designed the Royal Courts of Justice in London. Consecrated on 8th August 1871, it replaced an earlier church from 1843 that had fallen into decay. The stained glass windows by John Hardman & Co and the marble pulpit are well worth seeing.
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Thurgoland was a centre for wire-drawing from the 1600s onwards. Three wire mills operated in the parish: the Old Wire Mill (thought to date from 1624), the New Wire Mill (built around 1717), and the Tilt Mill. They produced cast steel wire for sewing machine needles, fish-hooks, springs and more. You can still walk the heritage trail along Old Mill Lane where the mill sites are now residential properties.
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Did you know Thurgoland appears in the Domesday Book of 1086? It is listed as 'Turgesland', which comes from Old Norse meaning 'Thorgeirr's cultivated land'. Nearly a thousand years of history in this small Yorkshire village!
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