For many years during the 20th Century, from 1912 until it closed in 1970, the beating heart of Carcroft was Bullcroft Pit, (pictured right). The colliery itself, is long gone.
In 1921, the Census shows a population in Carcroft of 3551. (An increase of over 4 times since 1911). Most of the employees shown on the census pages were working at the Bullcroft Colliery. These new residents came from far and wide, all to work at the new pit.
All these people had to be housed and we see many of the sites mentioned below appearing on the maps of the time. They were oppertunistic building developments, terraced housing, typical of the period. Overcrowding of the houses was not uncommon.
Their construction or siting, (or both), was not up to standard. There was a good deal of criticism, even then, of the poor quality of the drainage and of the housing itself. The unsanitary conditions of much of the housing lead to the subsequent poor health of many of those living there.
You find them on old maps and in the Census records, but go the location today and there are blank spaces, or the site has been built upon or totally redeveloped.
This poor housing has gone, but, by comparison, 200 additional homes were provided from 1920, under the 1919 Housing Act by the enlightened Bullcroft Housing Association. These became Paxton Avenue, New Street and Markham Avenue, etc. These were much better builds and have withstood the test of time. The story of the development of the inadequate housing at Brooklands and that between Ea Beck and Adwick Station, is told in much more fascinating detail, in Dave Fordham's booklet called 'Bullcroft Colliery, Carcroft and Skellow'. (Fedj-el-Adoum Publishing 2009)
Brooklands
Typical of these sites is Brooklands. Straddling Station Road, just South of the railway bridge, not only were there houses in the 1920's, there were shops on Station Road and also a Club that they called 'The Slip'. The club building still exists, but the houses and shops have all gone.
The 1929 map (right), shows the railway bridge at the top, with Station Road, running North to South, with the Brooklands houses, about 34 in all, on either side. Note that the map hints that there was a Level Crossing there originally, before the bridge was built.
On the right of the map, there are about 32 houses on Bentley Moor Lane, that runs from Brooklands to the East. The photo shows these houses. (Note the pools of water where the man is standing). These houses have all disappeared too.
The demolition started in the 1960's with some residents moving to the new estates in Carcroft.
As an aside, a Mr. George Lunnies, (the owner of Earthstrip, a plant hire business on Askern Road), built a bungalow on the site, close to the old club. This was removed in the mid 1980's and the industrial site developed, as we see it today.
The Prefabs
The Prefabs were on Queens Road and King Street.
The Prefabs were located on land which is now the Eastern end of the Asda car park. There was a row on the West side of Queens Road and more on another road parallel called King Street. There was also a spattering of prefab homes around where Queens Road met Skellow Road.
All that is left of King Street is the gap between the buildings, leading on to the High Street, with the Dentist on one corner.
There were more Prefabs in Skellow along Skellow Road, near Repton Road.
Prefabricated houses, known as ‘Prefabs’, were an interim solution after World War 2, until the country could return to constructing permanent homes with traditional building materials. They were intended to last no more than a decade, providing clean, dry homes with some modern amenities.
Elsewhere, many survive today and many are much loved, though all those at Carcroft and Skellow have gone, possibly around the 1970's. An example of a prefab can be seen at the popular Eden Camp Modern History Museum near Malton.
The Terrace that became a Lay-by
These cottages were situated on the North side of Skellow Road between the Officials Club, (known as the Stick & Tape) and Gas House Lane. The cottages would have stood in the shadow of the colliery chimney and the stockyard was located immediately behind them.
The cottages were demolished in the early 1960's, the land left unoccupied until the colliery closed in 1970. It was then that the space was used to build a lay-by for the lorries carrying material for the sealing of the shafts. They would wait there until they could tip their loads. The material for the back fill was collected from the overflow tip.
East View and West View Treherne St. & Newsum St.
East View and West View, above where it says 'High Street' on the map, were a group of about 20 dwellings, off the High Street.
Treherne Street, ran Eastward off Park Avenue and at it's end turned North to become Newsum Street. In 1930 there were about 18 houses in Treherne Street and about 6 in Newsum Street. You can see on the map, top left. (The map calls the street Newsum, but should it have been spelt Newsome, to commemorate Newsome Grange at Skellow?)
The junction of Treherne Street with Park Avenue was at the southern end of the Park Avenue terrace, this is where Cooper's Groceries stood, formerly known as the Bytheways Stores. Treherne Street ran parallel, but 30 yards North, to the route of the later spur of Park Avenue.
The two streets were obliterated by modern housing redevelopment. As previously mentioned, a new road was built, the extension to Park Avenue. This runs behind the High Street, past the back of DFS to Owston Road.
Across the Ea Beck
A hundred years ago, between the Ea Beck and the railway station, there were nearly 200 houses. There are now no houses anywhere, it is all light industry. The houses were cleared away due to their unsatisfactory construction and siting, as mentioned above in the 'Brooklands' section.
On the map, a spot height can be seen on Station Road of only 26 feet above sea level, (about 8 metres) . All this land is at about the same level and low lying. After rain, surface water is still slow to drain off Station Road.
In the 1920's, if you followed Station Road across the White Bridge over the Ea Beck, there immediately after the bridge on the West side, was a Club and a Hall, both have disappeared.
On the East side, further down, was a Picture House, the 'Empire Cinema', which is now a Gym. The Cinema, which closed in 1958, became a sewing factory in the 1960's and 70's, the 'Gloucester Clothing Company', employing many girls from the area. It became 'Stagslax' and continued until closure in the 1990's.
Immediately after this is Victoria Road, where there was a terrace of about 15 houses.
Then came Edward Road, where there was another Club, (now the site of the 'Play Pit'), this built in 1913 and was called the 'Adwick Working Mens Club'. In front of the Club on Station Road was a terrace of 10 houses, his was known as 'Domino Row', so called due to the black and white glazed bull nosed bricks under the windows, used as sills. There are tales of very unsanitary conditions in this housing, (see Dave Fordham's booklet).
Across the road there was another terrace of about 28 houses until the junction with Planet Road.
There were a number of shops on both sides of Station Road, also a 'Chippie'.
Planet Road
This area is now one large car scrap yard area and on the east side, a transport depot.
It was formerly known as Ings Lane.
(Ings, from the Norse, means water meadow or marsh. A clue as to why the housing here was badly sited).
Looking around now, you would never believe that 100 years ago, Planet Road had a community of 57 houses, in all.
There used to be 26 houses on the Eastern side.
Further down, there were also two streets running off Planet Road on the Western side. Grove Street (15 houses) and Creighton Street (16 houses).
Adwick Lane
The empty land North of the railway station used to have a small estate of about 78 houses.
There was terraced housing on the North side of Adwick Lane, about 37 homes.
Running North off Adwick Lane, were two more streets. John Street, which had about 20 houses and Alexandra Road, that had about 21 houses.
On the modern aerial photo, above, (c/o Google Earth), you can see Adwick Railway Station below. Alexandra Road is there still, on the right, leading to a small industrial site. The ghost of John Street can just be seen, in the top centre, amongst the rough ground.
The Chimney
An additional feature, now demolished, was this unusual chimney and was a well known landmark in the village.
The structure belonged to the heating sustem of the Trafalgar House community, a housing block for the elderley.
It was all demolished c.2012 and housing association homes were built on the site, the new street is known as Hackett Close.
Carcroft & District Local History Society
The Society meets every Friday afternoon between 13.15 and 15.15.
We have recently re-located to the Community Hall, Edward Road in Carcroft, DN6 8BD.
If you want to contact us, our e mail is CarcroftDLHS@gmail.com
Thanks for visiting this site, we hope you found it of interest.
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Our main site is based on a recently re-discovered set of display boards from a previous exhibition and shows many aspects of Carcroft, Skellow, Adwick-le-Street and Burghwallis.
