Aston Area
Aston - Aston Common - Aughton - Fence - Netherthorpe - Swallownest - Woodhouse Mill
The villages of Aston, Aston Common, Aughton, Fence, Netherthorpe, Swallownest and Woodhouse Mill are situated in the south of the borough of Rotherham. For the purpose of postal addresses they are situated in Sheffield, the telephone dialling code is for Sheffield, but none the less they have been part of Rotherham since 1894. The villages of Aston and Aughton are shown and named quite separately on my maps but for a long time were lumped together under the name Aston cum Aughton which I believe is the name of the parish.
The parish was a settled farming area from Saxon times, with a church at Aston and manors at Aston and Aughton. By the 14th century it seems to have been prosperous and well-populated. The rural economy dominated the area until the 19th Century. The common lands within the parish of Aston cum Aughton were enclosed in 1768 when most was awarded to the Earl of Holderness.
The two main roads through the parish, the Rotherham-Pleasley Road and the Attercliffe and Worksop Road, were both turnpiked in 1764. Just to the west of where the two roads met the hamlet of Swallownest grew up. At the end of the 18th century, Aston and Aughton were still villages separated by fields.
Coal was mined in the area from the 18th century from bell-pits and shallow mines. In the mid-19th century the coal reserves under the parish began to be exploited. Collieries in the area were:-
- Aston Colliery was sunk on Aston Common in the 1840s but soon superseded by North Staveley.
- Beighton Colliery on Park Lane, adjacent to the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway, was sunk in 1920. Though I'm not sure if this was in Rotherham or Sheffield.
- Brookhouse shaft was sunk to the south of North Staveley Colliery in 1929.
- Fence sunk 1842.
- North Staveley Colliery, opened in 1864.
- Pit House West Open Cast site.
- Waleswood Colliery.
Housing for the miners and workers in associated industries was developed in many parts of the parish. The first census in 1801 showed that the combined population of the parish (Aston, Aughton and Swallownest) stood at 586. The population rose gradually to 995 by 1861, and then to 1667 by 1871. The population increased steadily, reaching 4,583 in 1939, 10,489 in 1981 and 14,122 in 1991. During the 20th Century the villages have coalesced into one virtually continuous urban sprawl very convenient for Rotherham and Sheffield and all points north and south along the M1.