Doncaster Family History Society
Hickleton is one of the small villages north of Doncaster, which are situated on the limestone ridge. Hickleton lies about 6 miles west from Doncaster on the main road to Barnsley. Called Chiceltone at the time of the Conquest, it has connections with the manor of Barnard castle. In Roman times it stood an old Roman road from Streethouses to Pontefract, and once boasted a castle on the hill at the north side of the village. The castle has long since vanished but it was recorded by the 17th century antiquary Roger Dodsworth. In the 18th century drovers regularly passed through on their way to Wakefield and Rotherham, and occasionally held cattle fair in the village.
Like its neighbours, Brodsworth, Hooton Pagnell, Owston and Sprotbrough, it was an ‘estate’ village, dominated by a single landowner living in the village itself. In the 16th century the village included the splendid Hickleton Palace which was occupied in the reign of Elizabeth 1 by one Judge Rodes. Hickleton Hall, a splendid eighteenth-century house, was built between 1745 and 1748 and to the south of the Palace (only the dovecote and part of the curtain walls with mullion windows are still visible) for Godfey Wentworth by James Paine, the architect of a number of local projects, including Cusworth Hall (in part), Nostell Priory, Sandbeck Hall, Wadworth Hall and Doncaster’s municipal Mansion House.
Hickleton Hall’s most distinguished owners, the Wood family, did not acquire the house and estate until 1828, when Sir Fancis Lindley Wood of Hemsworth and Garaby purchased the property from the Wentworths of Woolley. Sir Francis’ son, Charles (1800-1885), was a prominent figure in parliamentary politics from the 1840s to the 1870s. Successively chancellor of the exchequer, first lord of the admiralty, secretary of state for India and finally lord privy seal, he was created first lord Halifax in 1866. The political career of his grandson was even more notable, including periods as viceroy of India and British ambassador to the USA, but culminating in his appointment as foreign secretary in Neville Chamberlain’s government from 1937 to 1940, and so making him a major figure in the history of the appeasement of Nazi Germany in the 1930s. He was King George VI’s preferred choice as Prime Minister in 1940.
In between these two politicians is the figure of the second Lord Halifax, a prominent member of the Church of England, and the builder of the remarkable parish church at Goldthorpe. This pioneering reinforced-concrete construction of 1916, was provided by Lord Halifax to serve the mining community which came into being on the opening of Hickleton Main colliery, from which he drew a substantial income as the owner of the mining royalties.
The landscape of South Yorkshire, blighted by coal mining, was no more to the taste of the Halifax family than that of other local gentry families. The Halifaxs preferred their estate at Garrowby to Hickleton and, in 1947, decided to sell the contents of the house and lease the premises to a girl’s school. In 1961, Hickleton Hall became a Sue Ryder Home.
The church dedicated to St Wilfred, has Norman chancel arch and font and is believed to have been begun in the 12th century, although much of today’s building is 15th century. It was a daughter church of Barnburgh and once belonged to the Cluniac Priory of Monk Breton, the second largest monastery in South Yorkshire.
Its earliest rector was William de Braithwell who was presented in 1279. There was no vicarage, the monks engaging a curate for £4 per annum to perform parish duties.
The church, lavishly furnished by the Halifaxs, is situated very close to the Hall. It was considerably restored at the expense of the second viscount Halifax by G. F. Bodley a pupil of Sir Gilbert Scot, the architect of Westminster Cathedral.
Sir Francis Lindley Wood rebuilt the homes of his village tenants in the 1840s in the vernacular style of the Elizabethan and Stuart age, with magnesium limestone and pantile roofs. Local historian John Tunney describes it as “one of the best examples of 18th century estate villages to be seen anywhere, in a superb location on the edge of a limestone plateau above the Deanne Valley”
Hickleton Colliery was sunk in 1893, is not in Hickleton but in nearby Thurnscoe, where its miners also lived. The village today has about 100 houses, many of which have been converted from redundant barns, stables and coach houses into private dwellings.
According to Whites Directory of 1837, Hickleton had 154 inhabitants including a mason, a wheelwright, a shoemaker, a blacksmith, a schoolmistress and four farmers.
Doncaster and District Family History Society has published :
Burial index for Hickleton 1626 – 1940
1871 Census available on CD
The following records of Hickleton, St Wilfrid are available at Doncaster Archives :
Baptisms 1626-1918 Marriages 1695-1979 Burials 1694-1979 Banns 1824-1979
Index: Baptisms 1626-1901 Marriages 1626-1833 Burials 1626-1812
Bishop’s transcripts 1636-186