New Lodge, South Yorkshire

Coordinates: 53°34′44″N 1°28′48″W / 53.579°N 1.480°W / 53.579; -1.480 New Lodge is a village in the metropolitan borough of Barnsley in South Yorkshire, England.

The ' New Lodge' estate is located to the north of Barnsley on the A61 near Athersley.

The earliest reference to New Lodge dates from 1377, when the area was referred to as 'Newe Laythes', becoming New Laithes in 1541.^[1] Maps from 1850 show 8 or 9 farm outbuildings at New Lodge, together with the large stone built manor house with its long carriageway and the 'Roundhouse' lodge on the Wakefield Turnpike (now the A61). The manor house was built around 1800 by the York architect John Clarke for his nephew John Carr.^[1] The 'Roundhouse', an unusual eight-sided building, was demolished in the mid-20th century, but the name for the site remains. The manor house remained in private hands until the 1940s; it subsequently became a private club until it was purchased by Barnsley Borough Council in 1947 and converted into a home for elderly ladies in 1950. The home was closed down in 1990 and the historic building was badly vandalised, but restored and extended as a private residential home in 1992.

Today New Lodge is a predominantly council housing estate. Prior to the Second World War, the area was mostly farmland, but was purchased by Barnsley Council in 1946 for the express purpose of creating a new housing estate. A document of conveyance dated 16th November 1946, recording the purchase of the land from the Barn-Murdoch family by Barnsley Council for a sum of £7750, can be found in the Athersley Archives.^[2] Factory built houses, or prefabs, comprise most of the estate. These are of the concrete section Tarran type, and the British Iron and Steel Fabric (BISF) homes, known as the 'tin houses'. By the late 1940s there was a thriving community of predominantly mining families and the estate was completed in the early 1950s with conventional brick houses.

The estate is currently undergoing a renovation, with the replacement of some of the Tarran houses and major upgrades to the remaining stock.

References

1. ^ ^{a b} On Our Street: Life in Athersley, New Lodge and Smithies, Roundhouse Community Partnership, 2006, p. 7
2. ^ On Our Street: Life in Athersley, New Lodge and Smithies, Roundhouse Community Partnership, 2006, p. 9