Dinnington and Throapham
Dinnington – from Dunnatone (Dunna’s Farmstead) – population c 8,000 (1991 census) including Throapham
Click here for a 1948 map (warning – 300kb pop-up)
Dinnington and Throapham were once small villages separated by fields (see 1948 map above). Like most of the villages featured on this website Dinnington had an old core of substantial stone houses clustered around the church (and pub!). Incidentally the Dinnington name derivation has been queried by Roy Armston who emailed: ‘Mr. Roy Young a teacher at Dinnington Primary School in the late 40’s early 50’s taught us that the name came from ‘Dynes Ton’ refering to a local ‘barrow’. He published a booklet for the Festival of Great Britain 1951 which he had researched from archives in York.’
Throapham also had stone farms houses etc. but with a church (St. Johns) that was more or less half way between Throapham and Laughton en le Morthen.
In the 1900s as industrialisation progressed Dinnington started to sprawl towards Throapham, culminating in the opening of the colliery1905 when 10,000 acres were leased to Dinnington Colliery Company. In 1901 there were about 250 villagers in Dinnington but by 1911 there were nearly 5,000. The rows of red brick terraced housing built for the miners and their families are in 1999 in various states of repair and as the photogallery shows, some are near derelict and earmarked for demolition.
Their building plus post WW2 housing closed the gap between old Dinnington and nearby Throapham, and later closed the gap between Dinnington and North Anston to create a 3 mile long (and thin!) town – see the 1760 map from the home page to see how Anston, Dinninigton and Throapham were once small communities separated by farmland, a situation still true even in 1948.
The colliery was closed in 1992 resulting in 1,000 job losses and a serious blow to the local economy, from which is has not fully recovered (2006). In 1911 the pit employed nearly 2,000 people so presumably workers also came from nearby villages.
Dinnington has a small local theatre (The Lyric) which was opened in 1910 as a roller skating ring. It now stages local amateur theatrical productions, and wedding receptions, etc.
Dinnington has one of the major local schools (Dinnington Comprehensive) to which pupils from many local villages go. It also has a large college of further education, the Rother Valley College, formerly known locally as Dinno Tech (from technical college).