Thurcroft, South Yorkshire: The village with an exact birth date that’s a younger relation

Within four years rows of terraced housing were erected to the south of the colliery for workers. The terraces, including West Street, Peter Street, John Street, Charles Street, Woodhouse Green and Katherine Street, still form the heart of the village, while villa-style housing for pit managers was built close to the colliery. The village is still dominated by rows of redbrick semis once owned by the National Coal Board, some of the leaseholders of which have been involved in legal wrangle after seeing their ground rent soar from £10 a year to more than £2,400 after private firms bought the properties.

As the colliery operation ramped up, Thurcroft’s population exploded to around 2,000 by 1923 and community venues were sorely needed, leading to numerous temporary wooden structures being built, including a church. Stone cottages were fused to form what remains a community focus, Thurcroft Miners Institute, on the junction of Katherine Street and Green Arbour Road. There’s nothing elaborate about the exterior of what is a traditional workingmen's style club, which remains a popular venue known locally as the Bottom Club.

During the coal strike of 1926, a soup kitchen was established on what has become a car park by miners from the club, where dustbins were filled with food to make stews with ingredients donated by shops and residents. It has been estimated some 250,000 meals were given out between May and September. By 1947 the mine employed over 2,000 men.

The village was also saw tough times during the miners strike of 1984. A South Yorkshire Police report the following year, in the face of allegations of police brutality, records numerous disturbances in Thurcroft. Incidents included those outside the homes of working miners, stones being thrown at police officers, arrests and damage to miners' homes and vehicles. Up to 3,500 people a day stood on the village’s picket line during the year-long industrial dispute.

Just 17 years later the coal mine was closed in Thurcroft in 1991, despite efforts by the workforce to buy it. Almost all of the surface buildings were demolished within a year. The colliery area off New Orchard Lane has since been redeveloped as a housing estate. At the junction of Green Arbour Lane and Woodhouse Green there’s a beautifully landscaped remembrance garden on the site of an old stone quarry with a memorial obelisk to the 62 miners killed at Thurcroft Pit between 1911 and 1978. Many of the deaths followed roof collapses or accidents involving coal carrying tubs.

Opposite the gardens and either side of the miners institute is a volume of takeaways, convenience stores and independent charity shops, many small towns would be envious of, interspersed on parades with traders offering dog grooming and African organic groceries.

A premises on Woodhouse Green which has since been repurposed by a family-owned auctioneer and valuer of fine art, antiques and collectables was once a popular venue from the early days of Thurcroft – a cinema. In the 1920s, such was the shortage of venues that the newly-established Thurcroft Parish Council held meetings there. The cinema was built in 1921, more than five years before the imposing Methodist Wesleyan Chapel opened nearby on the junction of Woodhouse Green and John Street. Since the 1980s the building has been home to Rotherham Acro gymnastics club, members of which represented Yorkshire at last year’s national finals.

A newspaper report on Thurcroft from 1923 states: “At weekends one does not witness the drunken brawls for which some colliery villages are notorious but this is perhaps explained by the fact that the drinking facilities are very limited." The shortage of social venues did not last long. Almost opposite on Green Arbour Road stands Thurcroft Welfare Hall, which opened 100 years ago, which alongside being used for community functions is home to activities ranging from martial arts to knitting.

However, it wasn’t until New Year’s Day in 1983 that the Gordon Bennett Memorial Hall was opened offering the community a further venue for everything from crafts to slimming, theatre and yoga. The hall’s name relates to a long-serving Thurcroft councillor, rather than the 19th century US newspaper owner linked to the phrase used to express surprise. The hall is beside a good-sized park, which is also overlooked by the 1937 St Simon and St Jude Church and the rehearsal room of Thurcroft Welfare Band, which has recently performed with aplomb in the Yorkshire Regional Brass Band Championships. The park is also surrounded by Thurcroft Junior Academy, The Willows School for pupils with learning difficulties and the 1993 village surgery on Laughton Road, which was opened by Olympic 1,500m silver medallist Peter Elliott.

The village struck gold in 2012 when it was awarded £1m. The residents invested more than half of their Big Local million in much-needed new sports facilities at Thurcroft Hub, off New Orchard Lane. It has also become the focal point for many other community activities.