Holmes
Psalters Lane in Holmes is part of the remains of the one of the old salt roads on which salt was carried from Cheshire all over the country. The road seems to have passed through Kimberworth then along the Don Valley into Rotherham.
At the end of the Sixteenth Century there is reference to pastures called the Holmes at Kimberworth. In 1598 the Earl of Shrewsbury was operating two blast furnaces in South Yorkshire one of which was in the Holmes/Kimberworth area using the waters of Holmes Head Goit which left the River Don at Jordan. In 1639 land at the Holmes was leased by Lionel Copley and others for the purpose of setting up a forge. In 1684 Jane Bickerton, widow of the fifth Duke of Norfolk established her household at the Holmes, Masbrough. By the 1720s there was a slitting mill there powered by the water from Holmes (Tail) Goit.
The industrialisation of the area continued apace during the Eighteenth Century. Posh families like the Howards moved further out of town and works were built on the sites of their old homes. There seems to have been a similar pattern ever since with Holmes being an area of works and workers housing. The Holmes estate was bought by the Walkers in 1782. I am told that these derelict buildings were the remains of the Holmes Blast Furnaces. They were there in 2002 but have since been demolished.
We went for a comprehensive walk around Holmes in 2002 and I have to say that the whole area looked incredibly shabby. Along Holmes Lane and Steel Street where many companies have shut down other firms have moved in and there were warehouses, scrap yards, recycling and transport firms. Some of the old areas of housing have been demolished leaving derelict plots, whilst new slums have been built on others. I recently met up with an old acquaintance who has lived on Psalters Lane for the last thirty years. She tells me I am being much too gloomy about Holmes - the area might be shabby, the housing might be tatty, but for the most part the people are great.