Woodlands, South Yorkshire

infobox UK place
country = England
latitude= 53.5628
longitude= -1.1992
map_type= South Yorkshire
official_name= Woodlands
metropolitan_borough= Doncaster
metropolitan_county = South Yorkshire
population=
region= Yorkshire and the Humber
constituency_westminster= Doncaster North
post_town= DONCASTER
postcode_district = DN6
postcode_area= DN
dial_code= 01302
os_grid_reference=

Woodlands is a model village, 3 miles (5 km) north of Doncaster in South Yorkshire, and was built in the early years of the 20th century. Lying between the historic Great North Road (the former A1, now the A638) and a Roman Road, the village includes extensive open spaces, many different designs of houses, and the overall housing and living conditions were superb for their time.

The Roman Road is Ermine Street, the branch from Lincoln to York via Doncaster and Tadcaster. Locally, it is colloquially known as the Roman Rigg, and more correctly as the Roman Ridge.

The houses in the village are in short terraces, typically of four, and face each other across wide avenues. At the back they typically overlook a large square open space.

In "The Park" a green of 10 to 15 acres (40,000 to 61,000 m²) is surrounded by about 120 of these houses. The houses back on to woodland or to green open space, and instead of facing each other across a narrow street, look across perhaps 200 yards of parkland to the houses opposite.

Between the village and Highfields there is the former country house of Woodlands, now a social club, and the Woodlands wildlife park with Highfields Lake {an ornamental lake on the Pick Burn) and Hanging Wood (or Highfields Wood). In Highfields Wood is a stream, known as Robin Hood's stream, which springs near the Roman Rigg, and runs into Pick Burn. The stream may be so named as Robin Hood is reputed to have roamed in Barnsdale Forest, of which Highfields Wood was part.

The model village was designed and built in the early years of the 20th century by Percy Bond Houfton for the workers as tied cottages for the miners of the neighbouring Brodsworth Colliery.

The whole of the village is now a conservation area.

The nearby Brodsworth Hall belongs to English Heritage and is a highly regarded country house.

Based on the principles originally embodied in the Victorian era model villages such as Saltaire, Woodlands possibly represents the height of the model village movement.

The village was featured on Thursday 30th August 2007 (at 6.30pm) on the BBC Look North's A-Z of the region. [http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/player/nol/newsid_6970000/newsid_6971300?redirect=6971383.stm&news=1&bbwm=1&nbram=1&bbram=1&nbwm=1 (Woodlands on Look North)]

The Church

[http://www.acny.org.uk/venue.php?V=10380 All Saints Church] (1913), the red brick parish church built for this mining community has a distinctive spire that is visible from central Doncaster, the A1(M), and the main East Coast railway-line. Unusually, the church has a small baptistry positioned behind the font at the back of the church, for baptising adults by immersion (though in practice this baptistry requires baptismal candidates to squat or kneel down in it, and there is barely enough space for the priest to be in the tank with the candidate - though that has not prevented it being used for a number of adults and young people in recent years). All Saints was one of a few late Oxford Movement churches to be built with baptistriesFact|date=July 2007.

External links

* (for the village)
* (for the area between Brodsworth Hall and the colliery site)
* [http://www.acny.org.uk/venue.php?V=10380 All Saints, Woodlands] on the [http://www.acny.org.uk/ A Church Near You] website
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/player/nol/newsid_6970000/newsid_6971300?redirect=6971383.stm&news=1&bbwm=1&nbram=1&bbram=1&nbwm=1 Woodlands on BBC Look North]