Some history of Anston
....Anston is a large village (using the definition of a village as a single parish) but is probably better described as a small township. The present population is between 10,000 and 12,000. Anston has its own parish council but most local services are provided by the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham in the Metropolitan County of South Yorkshire. Anston is located 13 miles east of Sheffield, 10 miles southeast of Rotherham amd 7 miles west of Worksop. The A57 trunk road passes through South Anston. Although Anston is a single parish there are two distinct areas called North Anston and South Anston. Until 2004 the Post Office just used 'Anston' for both areas. This often caused confusion with nearby Aston. Thankfully, mainly due to the efforts of one resident, the Post Office accepted the use of 'North Anston' and 'South Anston' for the official addresses.
....North Anston appears in The Domesday Book (1086) as Anestan and South Anston as Litelanstan. There is some debate as to whether this Saxon name might refer to a local feature known as "One Stone". Along with most settlements in the present South Yorkshire the first inhabitants would have been Anglo-Saxon. The lands are listed as belonging to Roger de Busli, a Norman knight, the lands being taken from their previous owner, Edwin (an Earl of Mercia), by William the Conqueror to reward his supporters.
....The attraction of North Anston as a site for settlement came from the spring of water (now known as The Wells) in the hillside just north of the River Ryton (known locally as Anston Brook). South Anston is similarly located on a hillside on the south side of Anston Brook. The river between the two settlements was easily forded and later crossed by a stone bridge (Anston Bridge). The light and well-drained soil made good agricultural land. The local magnesian limestone rock made an attractive building stone and there wer large quarries in North Anston. The infilling of one of them with rubbish has created Greenlands Park off Quarry Lane. This is used by football and cricket teams. A health centre and children's play area can be found next to the car park at the Quarry Lane entrance. The local stone has been used not only in Anston, but also for the Houses of Parliament and the Geological Museum in London, both built in the 19th century.
....The most impressive building in the village is the parish church of St James in South Anston, which is a grade 1* listed building. Its commanding position makes it readily visible to the approaching traveller from east, west or north. The oldest part of the church is the nave which dates from the 12th century. This was extended by the addition of the north aisle in the 13th, the south aisle and the new chancel in the 14th and the tower in the 15th century. The style of achitecture is mainly Early English. The Victorians reordered the interior and added the porch. Today's generation is responsible for further internal reordering and for the meeting room extension. When first built the church was a chapel to the church at Laughton en le Morthen, which continued to make the provision of a chaplain until the ecclesiastical parish of Anston was formed in the 1860s.
....Other buildings of note to be found in South Anston are the Manor House and the Methodist church (the James Turner Memorial Church). Some may also appreciate the Loyal Trooper pub which was once a farmhouse. In North Anston there is Anston Hall (now partitioned into small units) and some fine houses on Main Street and Hillside. Also in North Anston is The Wells, a feature restored by the erstwhile Anston Conservation Society and now maintained by the Parish Council.
....Farming and quarrying were the main activities in Anston until the development of coal mining in the area at the beginning of the 20th century which saw collieries open at Kiveton Park, Dinnington and South Anston (Harry Crofts). Railways were built to serve this part of the 'concealed' coalfield (the South Yorkshire Joint Railway), with the railway to Dinnington Colliery, passing through Anston, opening in 1904 and extended through to Doncaster in 1911. Anston's population began to increase at that time but not as rapidly as those villages more directly affected by the collieries eg Dinnington and Wales/Kiveton Park. Anston's later rapid growth started in the 1950s with the building of council housing in both North and South Anston. This was followed by considerable private development in the 1960s onwards which eventually saw a 4-fold increase in population. New schools, shops and pubs were built to cater for the 'new comers'. The green fields that once separated Dinnington, North Anston and South Anston, have now all but gone to give a continuously built-up area. Most residents work in the neighbouring towns of Sheffield, Worksop or Rotherham, making Anston a 'dormitory' town with few residents taking an interest in its history or its distinctive identity. Those qualities that attracted people to settle in Anston in the first place are slowly being destroyed.
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