Wales
Wales Bar - Waleswood
The name Wales most likely denotes the presence of Celts who remained after the Anglo-Saxon settlement in around 500. (The Celtic kingdom of Elmet was around here). Wales got its name the same way that Wales (the country) did - it means 'stranger' or 'the Welsh' in Saxon English. The bar in Wales Bar means the tollgate when the road to Mansfield was a toll road. Waleswood is first recorded as 'Walesho' in 1002 when it was owned by the Saxon thane Wolfric Spot (this an interesting example of an early surname). The name Waleswood was recorded in 1293.
The History of Wales
In Anglo-Saxon times the parish of Wales was divided into two estates with 3 ½ carucates belonging to Edwin, Earl of Mercia's Soke of Laughton and one carucate held by Earl Morcar of Northumbria, as successor to Wulfric. At the Conquest, Edwin's share was given to Roger de Busli while Morcar's was allotted to the Earl of Mortain. The de Busli portion of Wales passed to Robert de Bellesme, Earl of Shrewsbury. Bellesme supported Robert, Duke of Normandy's claim to the throne against Henry I and his lands including Wales, were forfeit to the Crown.
During the 12th Century the Crown's subtenants at Wales were William Taissy and Ralph Ierlum who surrendered the manor to William Crassus (or le Gras) about 1175. William le Gras gave his Wales estate to the Priory of Bradenstoke about 1200. In 1274 it was reported that the Prior of Bradenstoke had erected a new gallows at Wales. In the Quo Warranto enquiry of 1293-4, the Prior claimed the right to have amends of breaches of the assize of bread and ale by his tenants at Wales. The Priory held the manor until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1537 and had a steward based at Waleswood. The 1378 Poll Tax returns show that there was no resident lord at Wales in the late 14th century. The total population at this time was probably around 100.
After the Dissolution of the Monasteries the manor was sold by the Crown in 1546 to a speculator, John Pope, who sold it to Sir George Darcy of Aston. Darcy's descendent, the Earl of Holderness, sold it to the Duke of Leeds in 1775. The Earl of Mortain's manor of Wales passed through the Paganels to the Lovetots, Lords of Hallamshire, and their successors the Furnivals. Amongst the minor members of the population of Wales in the Middle Ages were the Hawot of Hewet family. As the Hewet family they were to become prominent in the 15th and 16th centuries. One Sir William Hewet was born in Wales and became Lord Mayor of London in 1559. On Sir William's death in 1567, his business and estates passed to his apprentice and protégé Edward Osborne of Kiveton, who had married his daughter, Anne. The Hewet family later bought out the Keetons of Kiveton so despite the often crippling expenses of that office the Hewets obviously made substantial profits by it.
The Osborne family continued to increase their estates in the area. Sir Thomas Osborne was created Earl of Danby by Charles II and Duke of Leeds by William III. The two manors of Wales were united in 1775 when Francis Godolphin Osborne, later 5th Duke of Leeds, having married Amelia, daughter of the Earl of Holderness in 1773, purchased the Earl's manor of Wales. On the death of the 7th Duke in 1859, the manor of Wales passed to his nephew, Sackville George Lane Fox, who became 12th Lord Conyers. His descendants lived at Wales Court which remained a home until the 1950s. The house was then converted into a mental hospital which it remained until 1980. The Dukes retained an extensive estate in the Wales area until the early 1920s when 21 farms and over 5,000 acres were sold.
Churches in Wales
The church of St John the Baptist in Wales was originally one of several chapels belonging to the the mother church at Laughton-en-le-Morthen. It did not form part of the Wales estate of Bradenstoke Priory but was part of the liberty of St Peter which was owned by York Minster. In 1484 Archbishop Thomas Rotherham gave the prebend of Laughton, with its attendant chapels, to the Chancellor of York. The original church now forms the north aisle of the present church and has a fine Norman chancel arch. The tower dates from the 15th century and contains a bell of about 1425 and two from the 17th century. The chancel contains a marble tablet in memory of Sir Thomas Hewitt, surveyor of works to George I. A new nave and south aisle were added alongside the old church in 1897. It was not until 1933 that sufficient money was available to complete the new chancel.
Methodism had a large following in Wales, starting in the 1830s with meetings in a private house in Waleswood. A Primitive Methodist chapel was erected at Wales in 1868.
Education in Wales
There appears to have been a school in Wales from a fairly early date with a reference to schoolmaster at Wales in 1668. In 1743 the Rev. William Hyde, in answer to Archbishop Herring's Visitation, returned that there was a school supported by charity. It is probable that this school occupied the site on which the new Endowed School was erected in 1873-6. A number of parish charities were amalgamated to support the new school. An 'infants room' was added in 1890 and the school was sold to West Riding County Council in 1908. A separate infants' school was erected in 1910. Kiveton Park Colliery opened a school in 1869, initially in the colliery offices, to serve the new mining population. The colliery continued to pay the teachers until 1911. From 1946 children over 11 attended Dinnington Secondary School or Woodhouse Grammar. This situation persisted until 1970 when Wales Comprehensive School was opened.
Coal Mining in Wales
Shallow seams of coal are near the surface in the Wales area and were mined by lay brothers from Bradenstoke Priory during the Middle Ages. By 1598 Hewet Osborne's mines were producing 2,000 tons a year. The collieries were further developed by the Dukes of Leeds. There was also a small colliery at Waleswood in the 18th century.
The deep coal reserves under the parish were developed in the 19th Century Skinner and Holford sank a new pit at Waleswood in 1858, with houses for the workers being built at Waleswood and Wales Bar. Waleswood Colliery closed in 1948, despite a stay-down strike by 300 miners seeking to keep it open. The Wales pits were part of the giant open casting scheme to clear the land where Rother Valley country Park is now.