Facts about Hoyland
General Info
Among Hoyland’s remaining notable older residences and former residences are Hoyland Hall, a late Georgian property, situated in a small park off Market Street and sometime home to William Vizard, first owner of Hoyland Silkstone Colliery, who was the attorney to Queen Caroline at her celebrated trial in the House of Lords. Also in or off Market Street are Kirk House, Kirk Cottage, Bark House, Thistle House and Riversdale. Netherfield House is situated near the town centre and Hoyland’s oldest known surviving residence and at one time the home of a Townend, being in recent years used as a dentist’s, is situated in West Street (formerly Finkle Street). Many of Hoyland’s fine Georgian properties, consisting of cottages, shops and chapels were demolished in the 1960s and 1970s.
History
The town is home to an 18th-century folly called Lowe Stand, built as a lookout and hunting lodge shortly before his death by the first Marquess of Rockingham, at the highest point in the area some 593 ft above sea level. On the sloping ground below this folly is Upper Hoyland Hall, the former home of a notable family of yeoman farmers, the Townends, who owned extensive land in Hoyland.
The Church of England parish church is St Peter’s, a Grade II listed building dating from 1830. It is in the Gothic Revival style and is built of sandstone and slate roofed. The Roman Catholic church (1929) is of brick and tile construction in the Italian Romanesque style, with a square bell tower. The former Princess Theatre on West Street is a brick building dating from 1893.
