Fitzwilliam, West Yorkshire
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fitzwilliam is a small village on the edge of West Yorkshire. It is located in the City of Wakefield district, to the west of Hemsworth. Like most of this district, it was an old coal-mining area, although Fitzwilliam has yet to fully recover from the effect of pits closures. As is the case in Grimethorpe, Fitzwilliam was divided into three sections. These were named City, Little Wigan and Wannerville.
The village was originally built to provide housing for miners at the colliery that was originally named "Fitzwilliam Main".[1] It later changed its name to "Hemsworth colliery" and then merged with "South Kirkby" colliery in 1969. Other nearby mines were "Kinsley" and "Nostell", which closed in 1986 and 1987 respectively. "South Kirkby" colliery closed in 1988.
The huge levels of migration out of the village earned it the label of a ghost town. Over the last 5 years, a very large proportion of the village has been demolished, including the whole of the "City" estate[2], due to the dominance of derelict properties; fortunes are now starting to improve. Unemployment is high, although not as high as it once was. Heroin abuse remains a problem. In response to this situation, Fitzwilliam is included in a special regeneration area and has received special funding to aid its recovery. It has a train station on the Wakefield line, providing it with connections to Leeds, Wakefield, Doncaster and Sheffield.
Its most notable sons are Geoffrey Boycott, the cricketer, and Cyril Knowles, the late soccer player. The band Chumbawumba recorded a song named after the village, which described its painful decline following the 1984-5 strike.
[edit] External links
 This West Yorkshire location article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
