Dearne Valley - The Valley Today

The Valley Today

Settlements in the area are becoming more dormitory in nature, as those who remained have found the need to commute further afield to the larger towns and cities in the region to work.

Outside the settlements, primary land use is agricultural: a byproduct of the end of the mining industry is that the area looks more rural and green than it once did. Business parks in the area have been created on brown-field land once used by the mining industry, the most notable and largest is at Manvers.

Although much of the infrastructure related to the mining industry was demolished in the 1980s and early 1990s and the land changed to other uses, remnants of the coal mining heritage remain: large spoil heaps adorn the villages of Great Houghton and Thurnscoe very notably; although landscaping has been attempted, no cosmetic alteration can disguise their size.

The road and rail links to the villages of the area also were implemented mostly to ferry coal out of collieries and although the rails have been removed, the embankments, cuttings and bridges remain. Several of these former railways are now part of the Trans Pennine Trail between Southport and Hornsea. The Dearne Valley is at the centre of the trail with the main West/East and North/South routes crossing over in the area.