Wath upon Dearne

Wath can be traced to Norman times. It appears in the 1086 Domesday Book as Wad and Waith. It remained for some centuries a rural settlement astride the junction of the old Doncaster–Barnsley and Rotherham–Pontefract roads, the latter a branch of Ryknield Street. North of the town was a ford across the River Dearne. The name has been linked to the Latin vadum[3] and the Old Norse vath (ford or wading place).[4] The town received a royal charter in 1312–1313 entitling it to a weekly Tuesday market and an annual two-day fair, but these were soon discontinued. The market was revived in 1814.[5]

Until local government reorganisation in 1974, Wath was in the historic county of the West Riding of Yorkshire. Until the mid-19th century the town had a racecourse of regional importance, linked to the estate at nearby Wentworth. This fell into disuse, but traces of it can be seen between Wath and Swinton and it is remembered in street names.[6] There was a pottery at Newhill, close to deposits of clay, but it was overshadowed by the nearby Rockingham Pottery in Swinton.[3] About the turn of the 19th century, the poet and newspaper editor James Montgomery, resident at the time, called it "the Queen of Villages". This rural character changed rapidly in the 19th and 20th centuries, as coal mining developed.[7]

Wath Hall

Blue Murder live at Montgomery Hall, Wath-upon-Dearne, Sunday 1 November 1987 (left to right: Heather Brady, Lal Waterson, Rachel Waterson, Norma Waterson, Martin Carthy, Mike Waterson, Dave Brady, Jim Boyes)

Wath upon Dearne centres on Montgomery Square, with the town's main shops, the library and the bus station. To its west is the substantial Norman All Saints Church,[9] on a small leafy green, with Wath Hall, the Montgomery Hall and a campus of the Dearne Valley College. The several town-centre pubs include a branch of Wetherspoons and Wath Tap, Rotherham's first micro-pub specialising in locally brewed real ale. From 1892 to 1974 Wath Hall served as the local seat of government for Wath upon Dearne.[10]

Today Wath is still emerging from the coal-industry collapse, although jobs and some low-level affluence have returned. After a hiatus between the clearing of former colliery land and recent redevelopment, when the area felt rather rural, the construction of large distribution centres to the north of the town is restoring an industrial feel, but without the pollution issues of coal. Several distribution warehouses for the clothing chain Next have opened. Much new housing is being built on reclaimed land.

Wath Festival, held round the early May bank holiday, is a folk and acoustic music and arts festival founded by members of the Wath Morris Dancing Team in 1972. It has grown to host known names on the folk, acoustic and world music scene. While festival events occur across the town, most larger concerts are held at the Montgomery Hall Theatre and Community Venue. Those appearing have included Dougie MacLean, Fairport Convention, Martin Simpson, John Tams, Frances Black, John McCusker, Stacey Earle and Eddi Reader.

The festival marked its 40th anniversary in 2012. Wath won Village Festival Of The Year in the 2013 FATEA Awards.[11] The festival has been a supporter of young artists such as Lucy Ward, and Greg Russell & Ciaran Algar. It has also hosted the Wath Festival Young Performers' Award, founded by the Sheffield-based musician Charlie Barker in 2011, who handed it over to a festival committee in 2014. Winners have included Luke Hirst & Sarah Smout, Sunjay, Rose Redd and Hannah Cumming.

The event includes dancing by local morris and sword-dancing groups, street performances, workshops, children's events and a Saturday morning parade from Montgomery Hall through Montgomery Square and back to St James's Church, for a traditional throwing of bread buns from the parish church tower. Local schools, organisations and local Labour MP John Healey have joined in festival activities.

The RSPB's Old Moor nature reserve lies a mile to the north-west of the town.[12] It occupies a "flash", where mining-induced subsidence of land close to a river has created wetlands.

Wath Athletic F.C. served the community from the 1880s to the Second World War, playing in the Midland League and reaching the 1st Round of the FA Cup in 1926. No senior team has represented the settlement since the 1950s, and Wath remains one of the largest places in Yorkshire without one. However, it has a Rugby Union team that plays in the Yorkshire Division 2.

The four primary schools for ages 3–11 are Our Lady and St Joseph's Catholic Primary, Wath Central Primary, Wath C of E Primary and Wath Victoria Primary. The two secondary schools are Saint Pius X Catholic High School (for ages 11–16 ) and the larger Wath Academy, which has a sixth form and covers 11–18-year-olds. Both take students from a wider area. Wath (Park Road) Secondary Modern School closed in 1963.

A large further education college, Dearne Valley College, based in Wath, has a main campus at Manvers and a smaller one near the town centre.

Wath-upon-Dearne bus station in Montgomery Road in the town centre provides the main public-transport hub. It has four bus stands on an otherwise pedestrianised section of Montgomery Road, next to Montgomery Square, High Street and the Wath-upon-Dearne Community Library. The bus station's one-way system down Montgomery Road is accessed from the B6097 Biscay Way to the north and feeds buses out into Church Street to the south.

The land is owned by the local council, Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council, not the South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive. As such, it is not listed as an official SYPTE Interchange, despite its relative size, and it lacks a ticket office, waiting room and toilet facilities.

Services

As of January 2021, the stand allocation is:

Stand	Route	Destination
WS1	22X	Barnsley      via Wombwell (Stagecoach)
	226	Barnsley      via Wombwell and Stairfoot (Stagecoach)
WS2	220	Cortonwood      via West Melton and Brampton Bierlow (Stagecoach)
WS3	220	Mexborough      via Manvers and Swinton (Stagecoach)
	226	Thurnscoe      via Bolton-upon-Dearne and Goldthorpe (Stagecoach)
WS4	22a, 22c	Rotherham (circular)      via Manvers, Swinton , Rawmarsh and Parkgate (First)
	22X	Rotherham      via Manvers, Rawmarsh and Parkgate (Stagecoach)
	72, 72a	Chapeltown      via Manvers, Elsecar , Hoyland, Tankersley and High Green (Stagecoach)

• Anthony Arkwright (born 1967), spree killer, was convicted in 1989 of murdering three people in 1988.[13]
• David Bret (born 1954), show-business biographer, born in Paris, was adopted into a family (Spurr) here, and attended Wath Grammar School in 1961–1966.
• Rob Dawber (1956–2001) was scriptwriter for the Ken Loach film, The Navigators.
• Simon Farnaby (born 1973), actor, plays characters in the CBBC TV show Horrible Histories.
• William Hague, Baron Hague of Richmond (born 1961), once leader of the Conservative Party and cabinet minister, was a pupil at Wath Comprehensive School.
• Peter Hardy, Baron Hardy of Wath (1931–2003), longstanding local Labour MP, was born and educated in Wath.
• Daisy Makeig-Jones (1881–1945), sculptor for Wedgwood, was born in the town.[14]
• William Keble Martin (1877–1969), botanist, botanical illustrator and Anglican Vicar of Wath, is remembered in the name Keble Martin Way.
• Ian McMillan (born 1956), poet sometimes called the Bard of Barnsley, attended the town secondary school when a Grammar School.
• James Montgomery (1771–1854), Scottish-born poet and Sheffield newspaper editor, lived in Wath in the early 19th century. He is remembered in Montgomery Hall and Montgomery Square.[7]
• Sir Charles Curran (1921–1980), Director-General of the BBC, 1969–1977, was educated in Wath.
• George Robledo (Jorge, 1926–1989), Chilean national and footballer, lived in a house later held by David Bret and his parents. He played for Huddersfield, Barnsley and Newcastle United, scoring winning goal for the last in the 1952 FA cup final against Arsenal.
• Ted Robledo (Eduardo, 1928–1970), brother of George, also played for Huddersfield, Barnsley and Newcastle United.

• Listed buildings in Wath upon Dearne

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wath upon Dearne.

• Wath-upon-Dearne