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Orgreave, South Yorkshire

Coordinates: 53°22′12″N 1°22′24″W / 53.37012°N 1.37324°W / 53.37012; -1.37324
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Orgreave
The River Rother at Orgreave
Orgreave is located in South Yorkshire
Orgreave
Orgreave
Location within South Yorkshire
Population739 (2011 Census)[1]
OS grid referenceSK425860
Civil parish
  • Orgreave
Metropolitan borough
Metropolitan county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townSheffield
Postcode districtS13
PoliceSouth Yorkshire
FireSouth Yorkshire
AmbulanceYorkshire
UK Parliament
List of places
UK
England
Yorkshire
53°22′12″N 1°22′24″W / 53.37012°N 1.37324°W / 53.37012; -1.37324

Orgreave is a village and civil parish on the River Rother in South Yorkshire. It is in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham, about 4.5 miles (7 km) east of the centre of Sheffield and a similar distance south of the centre of Rotherham.

The 2011 Census recorded its population as 739.[1] This is a slight decline since the 2001 Census, which recorded its population as 761.[2]

History

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Coal and coke

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Two halls stood at Orgreave, Orgreave Hall, built in 1684 was occupied by John Sorsby of John Sorby & Sons. Rotherwood Hall was later occupied by his son Richard Sorsby (1806-1862), coal producer.[3] The halls were demolished in the 1990s.

Coal mining in the area began with Dore House Colliery in 1820. The first shaft of Orgreave Colliery was sunk in 1851. In the 20th century the Orgreave Coking Plant was established, and the colliery began to supply the plant. The National Coal Board closed Orgreave Colliery in 1981.

In the 1984–85 Miners' Strike, National Union of Mineworkers members picketed the coking plant to prevent employees and coal from entering or products from leaving. On 18 June 1984, three and a half months into the strike, a large number of South Yorkshire Police officers, including mounted units, were deployed against the pickets. There was large-scale violence between police and pickets, which became known as the Battle of Orgreave.

The coking plant closed in 1991. In 1995, British Coal Opencast was authorised to remove the spoil tip of the former colliery and conduct opencast coal mining on a site totalling 700 acres (280 ha). BCO removed some 12 million tonnes of spoil, extracted coal from it, and also realigned almost 34 mile (1.2 km) of the River Rother. In 2005 BCO completed its work at Orgreave and handed over the land for redevelopment.

Redevelopment

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100 acres (40 ha) of the site has been redeveloped as the Advanced Manufacturing Park. In 2008, Harworth Estates submitted a planning application to redevelop 300 acres (120 ha) as the Waverley community, which will include 4,000 homes and some commercial development. 222 acres (90 ha) is being restored as green space including recreation areas, parks, woods, three lakes and a reservoir.

Between 2012 and 2016, housebuilder's Taylor Wimpey, Harron Homes and Barratt Homes delivered the first 500 homes on the site. In 2017, Avant became the fourth housebuilder on site, purchasing two plots of land to build a total of 281 homes, and in the same year, Taylor Wimpey purchased further land to build another 130 new homes. In 2019 Harworth sold the latest residential phase to Barratt Homes to build 177 new homes.[4]

Waverley Junior Academy, located within the redeveloped area, is operated by Aston Community Education Trust.[5]

At the same time further land reclamation activities had increased the size of the Advanced Manufacturing Park to 150 acres (61 ha).[6]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Area: Orgreave (Parish): Key Figures for 2011 Census: Key Statistics". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 10 March 2016.
  2. ^ "Area: Orgreave CP (Parish): Parish Headcounts, 2001". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 31 August 2008.
  3. ^ "Timothy-M-Sorby - User Trees - Genealogy.com". www.genealogy.com. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
  4. ^ "Waverley Development Progress". www.harworthgroup.com. Harworth Group. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  5. ^ Aston Community Education Trust, Waverley Junior Academy, accessed 18 July 2022
  6. ^ "Multi-million pound Advanced Manufacturing Park set to grow further". www.bdaily.co.uk. Bdaily Ltd. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
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