Firbeck: The village with ties to a Classic that became a go-to destination for the rich and famous

There’s little evidence of the county’s industrial past in the village, despite it having given its name to a colliery, sited between Langold and Costhorpe, that closed in 1968.

Near the village’s western gateway, Firbeck’s rural character is stamped large with dressed limestone Victorian cottages.

They are among 20 buildings in the parish recorded in the National Heritage List for England, many of which relate to nearby historic estates, such as one developed in the 1760s by Anthony St Leger, an Eton-educated lieutenant colonel who went on to be governor of St Lucia and MP for Grimsby.

While St Leger is credited coming up with the idea of using bone residue as fertiliser to enhance soil quality, his name has become synonymous in a distinct field, having established an oval racecourse for the horses he bred at his stud on the Park Hill Estate, south of Firbeck.

Although some have suggested St Leger staged the first editions of the world's first horseracing Classic in the village, turf historians have concluded rather than hosting it the innovator helped stage the two-mile race for three-year-olds on Cantley Common in 1776, before it moved to its present location on Town Moor, Doncaster, two years later.

As St Leger’s Home, Park Hill House, an Elizabethan farmhouse featuring two Georgian wings, was demolished in 1935, a blue plaque commemorating the founder of the St Leger Stakes horse race, which was unveiled by five-time winner of the race Frankie Dettori at Firbeck’s village hall in 2012, two years after the community hub was renovated after locals won grants from the Big Lottery Fund.

The hall is both geographically and metaphorically at the heart of Firbeck, hosting numerous activities and groups, ranging from table tennis and bowls to the Yorkshire Countrywomen’s Association as well as events that attract visitors to explore Firbeck, such as the bi-annual Scarecrow Festival.

The village hall also boasts another blue plaque, honouring botanist Hewett Cottrell Watson, who was born on the Park Hill Estate in 1804.

Watson, who sketched out the locations of some 1,400 species of plants, exchanged ideas with Charles Darwin and is said to have contributed to the Theory of Evolution.

He angered others in the scientific community by accusing another respected philosophical naturalist of plagiarism.

Opposite the village hall is an other venue that attracts visitors from far and wide – the Black Lion – which while continuing to host events such as quizzes in its bar with a log fire, has been named among the finest of gastropubs.

The inn is one of numerous properties in the centre of the village featuring red pantile roofs, and the architectural continuity is furthered by stone walls lining either side of New Road, the main thoroughfare.

Perhaps the most striking building in the village centre is the large late 16th century Manor Farmhouse, but just to the north of the village it is trumped by Firbeck Hall, which dates to 1594 and has a heritage few properties could rival.

The mansion house, built by Rotherham-based lawyer William West, has been given an £11m revamp and converted into flats, marking the latest chapter for the building which was altered in the 19th century by another Eton alumni, writer Henry Gally Knight, who drew praise from Lord Byron for some of his verses. Knight did not shy away from controversy and in 1828 published a pamphlet titled A Foreign and Domestic View of the Catholic Question, in the middle of the debates on the issue of Catholic Emancipation, before being elected as MP for Aldborough, near Boroughbridge, and later for Malton and North Nottinghamshire.

Regarded as a kind landlord, in 1841 Knight was presented by his tenants with his portrait, painted at a cost of 250 guineas, which is the equivalent to about £13,000 in today’s money.

He was buried in the St Martin’s Church in the village, outside which stands a monumental gravestone to his family, one of just five that lived there before it was gutted by a fire in 1924.

A decade later it was transformed into one of Europe’s most exclusive country clubs, whose visitors included the future King Edward VIII, by Sheffield stockbroker Cyril Nicholson.

He created a mirror-walled ballroom from which the BBC transmitted its Late Night Dance Music show and there was a heated outdoor swimming pool featuring a water filtration system and a stunning art deco fountain, beside which Vogue models once posed, and tennis courts.

There was also an 18-hole golf course, championship-standard squash courts, a restaurant and a riding school where several first-class hunters and hacks were stabled, a cocktail bar and even an aerodrome, behind where the Black Lion pub and a row of 1960s houses now stand.

The airfield was used by the likes of Amy Johnson, the first woman to fly solo from London to Australia, and designed by a winner of the Midenhall-Melbourne Air Race.

Ahead of the club’s opening in 1935, dancer Santos Casini wrote in the Sheffield Independent: “The club which will be opened sometime next month is the only one of its kind in the north of England.”

During the Second World War the hall became an annexe of Sheffield Royal Infirmary and the aerodrome converted into RAF Firbeck and being used for coastal patrols. In 2011, some 250 people turned out for the unveiling of a memorial to those who served at the RAF base.

In 1945, the hall was bought by the Miners Welfare Commission purchased and used Firbeck Hall as the South Yorkshire Miners Rehabilitation Centre, and continued to serve as a hospital for decades before closing in 1990 and becoming derelict.