Facts about Chapeltown
General Info
Chapeltown is located approximately 7 miles (11 km) north of Sheffield city centre on the railway between Sheffield and Barnsley. Chapeltown railway station is served by the Penistone Line and Hallam Line. Two junctions of the M1 motorway also serve the area. The A6135 road passes through the town from north to south and is joined near the town centre by the A629 road from the south-east and the B6546 road from the west.
The local parish church of St. Peter dates back to 1891. A second church, Church of SS Philip and James in the New Village area was dedicated in 1915
Bentley includes West End, New Village and Rostholme. Streets in Bentley include Cooke Street and High Street.
History
Until industrial expansion, Chapeltown was a hamlet that originated at the intersection of the roads between Sheffield and Barnsley and between Rotherham and Wortley. In the late 16th century a blast furnace was installed there which initially used charcoal, and from 1780 was fired with coke. Chapeltown was part of the ecclesiastical parish of Ecclesfield and had a population of 4063 persons around 1870. Coal mining was one of the main occupations of the inhabitants.
The works of Newton, Chambers & Company were first established in Chapeltown in 1793. Initially they were an iron works specialising in cast iron products, but over time the company expanded into related mining industries and products from the fractional distillation of coal, including the Izal disinfectant range. In the Second World War they produced Churchill tanks.The company’s site is now Thorncliffe Industrial Estate, where most of the industry in Chapeltown is located.
