Netherton, ENG - Postcode - NE65 7HS

Description of Netherton, Wakefield

The village of Netherton is located within the City of Wakefield in the English county of West Yorkshire. Specifically, it is 3 miles south of Ossett and 1 mile south of Horbury, making it 4 miles south-west of Wakefield. Wakefield Rural is one of the boroughs that makes up the Wakefield Metropolitan District Council, which includes the settlement. The name of the town appears on a 1646 map titled "Dvcatvs Eboracensis pars occidentalis." In 1929, the county government officially changed the name of the town from Shitlington to Sitlington by dropping the h.

History of Netherton

Historically, the area now known as Netherton (originally Nether Shitlington) was part of the township of Shitlington in the ancient ecclesiastical parish of Thornhill in the wapentake of Agbrigg and Morley in the West Riding of Yorkshire. Other nearby settlements included Over Shitlington (Overton) and Middle Shitlington (Middlestown). In 1963, a Mesolithic axe was discovered next to the Star Inn. Domesday Book mentions Shitlington, then known as Schellingtone, indicating that it was inhabited by Anglo-Saxons. Netherton Hall, a manor house with a Grade II* listing, was constructed for the Perkins family in the 1770s. St. Andrew's Church was constructed in 1881 to J. D. Sedding's plans. 

Netherton was on the mineral line that led from Sir John Lister Lister-Caphouse Kaye's Colliery to the Barnsley branch of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway and the coal staithes on the Calder and Hebble Navigation at Calder Grove. Little London, on South Lane, was traversed, a little town near where the corporation held the Victoria Pit. Located in New Hall Wood, the Prince of Wales Pit (also known as Wood Pit) was dug in 1870, and its shaft was enlarged and deepened in 1882. Twelve years later, a second shaft was dug. Once in 1926, and again 30 years later, a drift was driven. When the mine was nationalized in 1947, it was given the name Denby Grange (Prince of Wales). In 1981, it merged with Caphouse Colliery, and by August of 1991, it was closed. The Earnshaw family, who have run a timber business out of Midgley since 1860, have moved in to the property. South of the Calder and Hebble Navigation, the Hartley Bank Colliery was dug in 1872 and operated until 1968. In May of 1924, five miners were murdered, and another 26 were injured, when firedamp caught fire. 

Geographical Description of Netherton

The settlement sits on a hill above the valley of the River Calder on the B6117, the route that connects Horbury Bridge and Midgley. The South Yorkshire Coalfield's Coal Measures make up the underlying geology.