Listerdale & The Brecks
The Brecks is about 2 miles east of Rotherham Centre on the A631 Bawtry Road whilst Listerdale is the next section along. I don't think that either of them were ever villages as such for there was no separate parish or church, and as far as my reading has gone, which is probably not far enough, no manors. I'll just mention The Stag whilst I'm here. Whilst it doesn't appear on any map you'll find Rotherhamites referring to it. It is the area of shops near The Stag public house half a mile before you get to The Brecks.
Listerdale
Listerdale is a modern name for an area of housing within the parish of Wickersley. In 1921 Joe Lister built himself a house on a plot of land overlooking Denes Plantation. In later years he acquired other land in the area and began to build bungalows and houses, aided by a government subsidy of £100 per house and a loan from his employers. In the 1920s and 1930s he erected the Listerdale housing estate consisting of 650 semi-detached and 40 detached houses.
Listerdale is sort of the infill between The Brecks and Wickersley. I must put my oar in the water here and declare that I was born here at Listerdale Nursing Home which used to be a maternity hospital. I'm not sure what is it now. Somebody has informed me that it is an old folk's home.
The Brecks
I don't know where the name Brecks comes from. It's not, I think, named after the pub which is modern unless there was an older hostelry of the same name on the site. Apparently Brecks Farm was previously on the site. Brecks House is shown on the Ordnance Survey Map of 1840. An espondent has pointed out that 'breck' is the Yorkshire way of pronouncing the word break and thinks that it means broken or uneven land. I've found another meaning from the old Saxon indicating a cleared area ie. one got ready for crops.
The town gallows used to be here hence the names Gibbing Greave Wood and Gallow Tree Road but thankfully there are no relics of this piece of Rotherham's past to be seen. The rural past which existed up to the 20th Century has disappeared under modern housing.
There was a tollgate here in the days of turnpiking which was somewhere along the end of Toll Bar Road but this has now gone. Stone was quarried here but the quarries are now disused. There are the substantial wooded areas of Brecks Plantation, Dean Plantation and Black Carr which run around the back of Listerdale.