Round Your Way – Denaby

August 1949

South Yorkshire Times, August 20, 1949

Round Your Way – Denaby

Denaby Crossing—a scene familiar to all South Yorkshire motorists

” And so,” said blonde to brunette “three of us wanted to go into Donny and he didn’t. I just got fed up and said, *Oh fish! If you don’t want to go we’ll go without you!’ And he said, ‘If that’s how you feel. . . ‘ An’ I said. ‘that’s just how I feel’—and that was it. Wish I were off with mi uncle—Southern France—and (wistfully) Italy. . .   . ”

She kicked a stone into a gravelly backyard.

Denaby to Southern France; a long step Escape.

In Shakespearean idiom, some towns are born in industry, some achieve its atmosphere, others have industry thrust upon them. Denaby falls into all three categories. There is no escape within itself and Denaby makes the best of it.

As you approach rom Mexborough, Denaby Colliery stands guardian to the gate and along this busy road stretch houses after houses, linking this grimmer side of Denaby with its softer and more green facets towards Conisbrough.

Every now and then you catch a fleeting picture of a stony backyard, abloom with clothes out on a line, noisy with crowds of young children finding somewhere to play, and something to do. Suddenly a ball will come shooting out on to the main road.

Mention the name of many a township of comparable size in other parts of England, and ten to one that name will be new and unfamiliar. But mention Denaby in Nottingham, Denaby in Mansfield, in Worksop, in Chesterfield, in Hull, in Boston, in Lincoln, in Grimsby and you’d hear the complement—”United.’ United’s name has gone farther afield than that, borne proudly by a score of noted soccer stars, for alone among her nearer neighbours — Mexborough and Wombwell. Denaby has kept the Midland League football flag flying at Tickhill Square — that pleasant green oasis in the heart of industry.

Cricket and football areas in Tickhill Square, and the park adjoining the main Doncaster Road, are evidences of Denaby’s excellent achievement in making the best of her dark industrial setting.

Smoking chimneys and mountainous slag heaps do not entirely intrude on Tickhill Square, for there are trees and pleasant little gardens too, and as a surprise round the corner, you will sometimes find a pony grazing within a stone’s throw of the market and the picture house.

Like Grimethorpe, Denaby is of industrial South Yorkshire to a much greater degree than many of her neighbours and makes no pretensions. And explorations can offer many pleasant corners to offset the greyer and grimier ones. Denaby is a friendly little township.