Mapplewell is a village 2.5 miles NNW of Barnsley town centre.

Mapplewell, once famous for nail making and then coal mining; the village retains an individual character and a good range of shops and services.

Four Lane Ends, Mapplewell

In Mapplewell there is very little recorded early history of the village in Barnsley. A Roman altar dedicated to the god Mars was found on Staincross Common in 1782. It has since been lost but points to the presence of a rural shrine in the vicinity. Neighbouring Staincross also had a significant role in the administration of the Danelaw during the 9th and 10th centuries. The Viking invaders divided Yorkshire into thridings (thirds) which later became the ridings. Each riding was subdivided into wapentakes – equivalent to Anglo-Saxon hundreds. A wapentake was an assembly or meeting place, usually at a crossroads or by a river where decisions were taken. The Staincross Wapentake was one of 14 subdivisions of the West Riding and is thought to have been located somewhere between Staincross Common and New Road; possibly by a Saxon stane or stone cross giving us Staincross. However, I couldn’t verify that Mapplewell derives from the seemingly obvious ‘well by a maple tree’.

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Mapplewell Village in Barnsley, South Yorkshire

I arrived in Mapplewell just as the fog was clearing, on a very cold but soon to be sunny February afternoon

I am fond of Mapplewell. Perhaps it is because the place has such a long and distinctive history, a small but bustling former nailmaking and coalmining community which in many ways stands out from other Barnsley area settlements.

Mapplewells ancient place-name is a little different, meaning ‘Well near the maple tree’. I’m proud to say that my mother was a Mappellwellian for some of her childhood years, attending the village school on Blacker Road. A history of the school was published by headmaster David Peckett in 1990. It includes interesting extracts from the log books. The following is from an entry dated 28 November 1916: ‘Only 225 children present this morning. The serious decrease is caused by many of the pupils being up in the night on account of a Zepplin raid in the district.’ Modern properties now stand on the old school site.

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