Recent History

As early as 1903 Rotherham Rural District Council was proposing to introduce piped water to the village. This met with little support from the villagers who preferred their well water. The scheme was resurrected in 1910 and approved in 1912.

Many villagers expressed their objection to the new mains water on the grounds that it "had no life in it". The parish council supported Rotherham Corporation's scheme to run trolley buses to Maltby. When this service started in 1912 it greatly improved the public transport available to the villagers. In 1921 the parish council agreed to participate in the West Riding's scheme for village libraries. Gas lamps were introduced to Wickersley's streets in 1927.

The 1930s saw a great expansion in the village of Wickersley. In 1921 Joe Lister had built himself a house on a plot of land overlooking Denes Plantation. In subsequent years he acquired other land in the area and began to build bungalows and houses, aided by a government subsidy of £100 per house and a loan from his employers.   In the 1920s and 1930s he erected the Listerdale housing estate consisting of 650 semi-detached and 40 detached houses. As a result of this and other building, the population of the parish rose from 1,004 in 1921 to 1,809 in 1931 and 3,185 in 1951. Further housing was developed in the Northfield area from 1958 leading to population increase to 5,029 in 1961.

The demand for services from the increased population led to the development of the Tanyard shopping centre on the main road in 1966. Continued development of the land around the village has seen the population rise to 6,819 in 1981 and 7390 in 1991.

(Taken from ‘ A Patchwork of Parishes’ Parish Council’s Centenary 1894-1994
Published by Archives and Local Studies Section, Rotherham Central Library 1997)