The Unofficial
Website
Dalton, Dalton Magna & Dalton Parva
Dalton means the dale town i.e. a village or farmstead in a valley. Parva is
Latin for small and magna Latin for great.
At the time of the Domesday Book the manor of Dalton was split between two landowners, William de Warenne and William de Perci. De Warenne's holding consisted of 5 freemen, 13
smallholders, 4 ploughs and woodland pasture 4 furlongs long and 1 wide. I don't think he'd get very rich on that. De Perci's (and I hope I can follow my shorthand) was:-
"In Dalton, Northman had two caracutes and six bovates of land where two ploughs are possible. Now Rozelin has it from William. (Rozelin was the tenant) He has there one plough, meadow 3 acres, woodland pasture half a league long and half wide. ...... Value before 1066 20s now 10s."
There appear to have been small coal diggings around the village of Dalton from about 1400 onwards but other than this Dalton continued as a small agrarian settlement for the next six or seven centuries.
The first major changes came in the Eighteenth Century. The Don Navigation Canal which reached Rotherham in 1744 passed close to Dalton. Both the building of the canal and the barges using it must have impinged on the locals. In 1764 when the main road through Dalton from Rotherham to Doncaster was turnpiked by the Doncaster to Tinsley Turnpike Trust. Improved roads means more traffic through the settlement. I've looked in vain for for an old ale house from this period as I'm very sure there must have been one (or two) but later development must have got them. An espondent has informed me that the Grapes dates from the 1600s so I was wrong there. Then in 1797 an Act of Enclosure was passed for Dalton and Thrybergh. Enclosures meant that previously common land was fenced so that common folk could not use it to graze their animals. I don't know what it did to Thrybergh and Dalton but it devasted the lives of landless labourers in many places.
At the end of the Nineteenth Century the village of Dalton was subject to vast change. Aldwarke Steel works was built on the opposite bank of the River Don and then in 1900 the first shafts were sunk for Silverwood Colliery (then called Dalton Main). This was in production by 1905 and situated well out of Dalton on the lane between there and Ravenfield. However housing was developed in Dalton Brook to provide homes for miners and steel workers (easy walking or bicycling distance).
The population of the village was 187 in 1837, increasing to about 350 in mid century. By 1911 this had seen a sharp rise to 3248 and twenty years later to nearly 5000 persons.
The Villages
Dalton
Dalton itself is situated to the south and south-east of the main Doncaster Road. It was called Dalton Brook on old maps. In the 1890s it consisted of a mill, an inn, a bridge and one other building. The development along the main road and the building of two-up two down houses must have come later. It is disputed territory - part is a very poor and well vandalised area. A lot of the tatty old two-up two-downs have been demolished and the last time I looked there had been new building. You know what they say though - you can take the people out of the tat but you can't take the tat out of the people. Having said that I'm sure that in Dalton as everywhere there are a lot of very decent folk and some who aren't. There are a few buildings on the other side of Doncaster Road, between the road and the river - Asda, two or three sports grounds, the sad relict of the one famous Silverwood Working Men's Club and all these seem to back onto part of the vast electricity substation of Aldwarke Steel.
Dalton Magna
Dalton Magna is not great, actually its very small with some rather nice old houses and as far as I can recall no major new development. It keeps itself at a decently snobbish distance from Dalton village. This was previously called Mekyll (mickle) Dalton and Over Dalton.
Dalton Parva
Dalton Parva seems to be little more than a name on a map skulking around the cricket ground at the back end of East Herringthorpe. It was previously called Alterna Daltune, later Nether Daltone before Parva became favourite.
However the main village was situated here. For a long time Dalton was considered a footnote to Thrybergh but a separate parish was formed in 1848. A new place of worship and rectory were built and the Church of the Holy Trinity was consecrated in 1849. My Ordnance Survey Map of 1893 show a proper village in the bend of Near Dalton Lane with a manor house, school, church, vicarage and pound. I can find absolutely none of these on modern maps only the bend in the road. It looks as if the village has disappeared under the later development of the big housing estates at East Herringthorpe.
Other Pages to Visit
For more about Silverwood Colliery visit onsite at The History of Rotherham >> Other History Pages >> The History of Trade & Industry in Rotherham >> Coal Mining - Silverwood.