Village of the Week: Cudworth was the unlikely starting point for a succession of sporting stars

The one that might spring to mind most is Darren Gough, the Yorkshire and England cricketer. Apparently he spent a lot of time in Cudworth – which is actually known more affectionately amongst locals in Barnsley as ‘Cuderth’.

David Hirst, the former Sheffield Wednesday and England footballer hailed from Cudworth and played in the 80s and 90s; Ralph O’Donnell played for Sheffield Wednesday from 1949 to 1951 and Archibald Stinchcombe who won gold at the 1936 Winter Olympics with the Great Britain national ice hockey team despite only having vision in one eye.

The sporting theme continues with Professor John Coyne CBE, chair of British Canoeing and the former Vice Chancellor of the University of Derby also being brought up in Cudworth.

However, one of Cudworth’s most famous sporting successes and one which the village continues to be fiercely proud of is Dorothy Hyman.

A coal miner’s daughter she was born during the Second World War and went on to compete at the 1960 and 1964 Summer Olympics in the 100m, 200m and 4 × 100m events, winning three medals.

She also won individual 100m gold and 200m silver at the 1962 European Championships in Belgrade and, representing England, completed the 100yd/220yd sprint double at the 1962 Commonwealth Games.

Her achievements led to her being announced as the 1963 BBC Sports Personality of the Year award but she retired the following year due to injury.

There is a stadium in the village named in her honour of her and to this day it continues to inspire sport, health and fitness with a running track, astro pitches, gym and social club.

And they are just the sporting stories.

Television presenter Sir Michael Parkinson CBE is from Cudworth as well as the politician Sir Steve Houghton CBE who is leader of Barnsley Council.

Mr Houghton used to work at Shafton Workshops which were connected to Grimethorpe Colliery and this is where much of Cudworth’s history and heritage can be placed.

Roads were built through Cudworth in the Middle Ages that linked Pontefract to Barnsley and these have remained of importance ever since.

It is said they were the main reason for the existence of Upper Cudworth, with heavy passing traffic, providing great opportunities for business and meeting the needs of contemporary travellers.

Possibly the same is still true today.

Modern day Cudworth is a scene that has rapidly developed to meet a need.

The afore-mentioned Barnsley Road is busy and thriving with every shop need you can think of from supermarkets to hair and beauty salons, clothes shops, a florist, a local corner shop, cafes, insurance brokers, jewellers, DIY, pet shop, car garages and more.

There are mixes of housing from town houses and apartments that sprang up in the late 90s/early 2000s property boom. Some of these have been built on the site of a former farm and a Victorian school that was closed not so long ago.

All of this is smattered among rows of Victorian terraces that have stood the test of time and will stand a lot more as well as grander Edwardian houses and even older farm houses.

You can snap up a terrace for easily less than £100,000, they are ideal first time buyer homes and make it so that local people and families have half a chance of being able to afford to stay in their own communities.

There is also a lot more about Cudworth that you can’t say about most places.

It has been represented by the same three ward councillors for 20 years and more, which is also fairly impressive considering the political climate nationally, but shows a consistency and affiliation to its farming and mining links and the working class ethic.

There are three of four working farms still in the area but more noticeable is the green space that surrounds the village from other means and is an indicator of Cudworth’s historic rural economy.

Some is reclaimed land that has been cleaned up and re-purposed following the closure of the collieries, some is open countryside that has been spared the building of homes and bypasses and in the centre of the village is one of the town of Barnsley’s municipal parks.

Unlike many villages, Cudworth still has strong connections to worship.

Father David Nicholson has been at the helm of St John the Baptist Church for 25 years. St John’s was built in 1893 and in 1920 a War Memorial was added to its grounds to mark those from the village who were killed in the First World War. Names would be added for those lost in the Second World War and in more recent times, new research revealed the names of more Cudworth residents lost in conflict – and to modern day wars.

The Roman Catholic church of St Mary Magdelene in Prospect Street was built to serve the growing population of miners, railway and other workers who arrived after 1890 and Methodist traditions have been strong in Cudworth since Charles and John Wesley first set out on their circuits.

Documents from Barnsley Council say that Cudworth is home to 10,977 people, or 4.7 per cent of Barnsley’s total population; 64.7 per cent of residents are of working age, almost exactly the same as the regional average, while 15 per cent of the population are pension age.

There are a number of primary schools, working men’s clubs, pubs, social groups and the like to cater for them and village life here is as important now as it was ten, 20 40, 50 years ago and the rest especially as the local authority is working on a new vision for the village.