Crofton Today - (9 of 9)

Over the last 50 years, the population of the village has continued to grow. However employment in the immediate locality has declined.

The mines have gone and the employment opportunities of the railways has much reduced since the middle of the 20th Century, with only the railway maintenence depot off Doncaster Road remaining.

But better roads, improved transport availability, it's semi-rural location and close proximity to employment zones in Wakefield, Normanton, Castleford and beyond has left Crofton as a very attactive place to live.

Since the 1970s, new estates have continued to be built. Old housing stock at the “The Lump” has been replaced with modern homes and in the village centre, some older terraces have been demolished to make way for the health centre.

Following the fire in 1995, the high school has been rebuilt.

The Past in the Present

We now have access to a vast range of mapping tools at the touch of a button. Modern maps reveal much about the past, and satellite imagery even shows physical imprints of long-disused features.

The abandoned railway lines are still visible from above. Following the route of The Sidings reveals clear traces leading to surviving lines, or heading south along the disused Dearne Valley line.

Crofton Park, known locally as Coppers Lake, is a lasting reminder of Crofton Hall, with it's fishing lake and it's avenue of trees with the lodge at the end.

The former Walton Colliery site has become a popular nature reserve.

Many of the public footpaths around the village are shown on the oldest maps going back 200 years. Middle Lane, once a track to Nostell Pit, is now a pleasant country walk. Beyond the Community Centre, the path widens, with hedges on either side hinting at it's earlier importance as more than a farm track. The same applies to Ings Lane (Hare Park Lane), shown on the 1849 map; now just a footpath but marked in a similar way to Shay Lane on the old map.

Street names across the village preserve older features, including several former farms.

• The Bedford Farm estate is a reminder of Bedford Farm; The farmhouse still remains at the entrance.
• The (Lord of the) Manor pub was once part of Manor Farm. The Manorfields estate was built behind it.
• Church Hill Farm estate. The farmouse still stands at the entrance.
• A spring where the Spring Hill estate now stands (and not far from Spring Hill on the oldest maps).

The Balk, a feature on many old maps, can still be traced from the Shay Lane end of the village to the point where a public footpath meets the railway near Hare Park.

None of our earlier maps showed the lake at Wintersett to the south of the village. Anglers Country Park lake is the result of opencast mining in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The site closed in 1984 and was transformed into the lake we know today.