56 & 60 Dodworth Green Road

56 & 60 Dodworth Green Road, Dodworth, Barnsley

Building

Roofed and walled permanent structures.

Asset type

Building

Age

Late 18th to early 19th century

Rarity

Row of pre-1850 cottages with unusually good survival of external character.

Architectural and Artistic Interest

56 & 60 Dodworth Green Road represent an example of planned row of workers cottages (formerly three, now two) in the local vernacular of the late Georgian period to early Victorian period. The cottages are of a double-pile single-fronted form, with back rooms contained within a lower aisle set beneath a catslide roof. They are built from coursed squared sandstone with stone tiled roof, and finely dressed stone forming frames to the doors and windows. Historic census data suggests occupants may have been linen weavers, although it is unknown whether their were weaving cellars in the properties of if they worked in the linen works to the north. The design of the buildings is fairly typical of the period, but are of unusually good survival.

Group Value

The buildings form part of a dispersed group of historic buildings within Dodworth Green with very little modern infill and a high degree of survival of historic character. The group value of these assets generates a distinctive townscape of special character and appearance.

Historic Interest

Such cottages were typically built in multiples, and represent the culmination of a process of improvement through the earlier century: separating services from the main housebody and several bed chambers, the best with bedroom fireplaces. In many ways they were the prototype of latter urban terraces. The original occupation of the occupants of the cottages at Dodworth Green is not known to the author, although late 19th century census date suggests they were a mixture of linen weavers, coal miners, and agricultural labourers - representing a cross section of the major industries in the area at the time.

Archaeological Interest

The buildings preserve evidence within their fabric for not only the development of the buildings, their original design and layout, and the lifestyle of the people who occupied them. The references to linen weavers at the property is of particular note, and any evidence of loomshops would be of additional interest.

02 May 2023

26 Aug 2022