Dearne Valley

Dearne is an area of South Yorkshire along the River Dearne.

"The Dearne" is now the name given to part of the lower Dearne Valley, encompassing the towns and villages of Thurnscoe, Goldthorpe, Bolton-Upon-Dearne, Manvers, Wath-on-Dearne and the many smaller villages and hamlets, such as Billingley and Middlecliffe to name two. Locals are generally opposed to this new convention but the Ordnance Survey give it as the region name on their mapping.

It was a major coal mining area, but since the closure of the mines, it has become a depressed area, only partially improved by the construction of numerous call centres. Numerous remnants of the coal mining heritage remain, large spoil heaps adorn the villages of Great Houghton and Thurnscoe very notably and although landscaping has been attempted, no cosmetic alteration can disguise their size. The road and rail links to the villages of the area also were implemented mostly to ferry coal out of collieries and although the rails to the now demolished collieries have long since been removed, the embankments and cuttings remain as well as the various bridges. Several of these former railways are now part of the Trans Pennine Trail between Penistone and Doncaster. The main rail line serving the area passes from Rotherham to Wakefield through the towns and villages of Swinton, Bolton-on-Dearne, Thurnscoe and Moorthorpe. It is now mostly a local passenger route.

There is a major divide in many of the villages between locals and commuters to Sheffield, Wakefield, Leeds and, to a lesser extent, Barnsley and Doncaster. The influx of commuters has driven up house prices by more than the national average increase and many areas which were once derelict are now being given up to residential development.

Outside the villages, the primary land use is agricultural although recently several opencast mining projects have been either started or completed nearby. Business parks in the area have sprung up, yet are showing little benefit to the area as a rule, the exception (and frequently championed one at that) being the call centres at Manvers.