St Peter's Church - Stanley Village History
(page 1 of 2)
The name 'Stanley" has a Danish denomination, from the words "stan"
meaning a stone, and "lean" meaning a meadow. Thus we arrive at the
meaning -"a stony meadow."
From very early times Stanley has been inhabited by various races. When
we look at the landscape of Stanley and Lake Lock, it is no small
wonder that people settled, hunted and fished here. The River Calder
provided a means of food and transport, down to the river ran green
slopes from the Lee Moor Ridge and the area was rich in woodland and
forest. In 1835 the Stanley Aqueduct was built.
Roman coins have been
found in Stanley. A horde of them was found near
Aberford Road in 1812 and weighed over 40-lb. A pot containing 7,198
third brass coins was found while a field belonging to Smalley Bight
Farm was being ploughed in 1905. These belonged to the first half of
the fourth century.
The coal industry developed over many decades and by 1850
mining was thriving in Stanley. The Stanley pits were worked by two
firms, the Victoria Mining Company and Hudson & Company. |
 |
The
latter company owning the "Deep Drop Pit" or "Silkstone Pit." It was
one of the oldest pits in the area. About seven to eight hundred miners
were employed by the firm in these pits, of that number about three
hundred worked at the Deep Drop. This was a "fiery pit" and therefore
safety lamps were strictly enforced.
During the last century and probably a century or two before, the
people of Stanley were, with a few exceptions, a community of coal
miners and their families. Within a mile or two of the village, shafts
have been sunk to coal seams, and for many generations, morning, noon
and night, the, clatter of iron shod clogs was a familiar sound, as men
went backwards and forwards to work at the nearby collieries.
In the last century before the invention of motor transport, radio and
television, how did the miners and the other Stanley folk manage to
pass their time? Cricket, football, knur and spell, pitch &
toss were amongst the most popular pastimes as well as time spent in
the pub until the money ran out.
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