History 2
Modern Doncaster began in the eighteenth century and there are a few attractive Georgian buildings extant, including the Mansion House, one of only three in the UK (London and Edinburgh being the others). Regent Terrace is also worth noting. The Corn Exchange from a little later suffered severe damage in a fire in the 1990s but was rebuilt internally in a sympathetic and attractive fashion.
The racecourse is the home of the St Leger, run in September each year. Over the centuries, the course has attracted much wealth to the town and its meets are always very well attended. The Georgian stand is extant.
The Georgian town was surrounded by a number of large country estates, most of which are now completely gone. Cusworth Hall has been kept by the Local Authority as a museum/education facility (due for a £4.2m renovation using Lottery money); Brodsworth Hall, from Victorian times, is now owned by English Heritage and was recently completely refurbished in the original style. Few of these remaining buildings have stayed in private hands: most, such as Bawtry Hall, are run as commercial establishments: hotels, conference centres and the like.
The collieries employed many thousands of men at their height. Those jobs have all-but disappeared over the last fifteen years. Many of the pit sites themselves have been landscaped or turned into industrial parks. For the men there were few other local opportunities for employment, leading to a well-above average local unemployment rate. The reduction of the railway works and closure of other local large factories along Wheatley Hall Road added to the town’s problems.
New businesses have opened in the last few years but none
employing on the scale of the mines. The nature of the work has also changed,
telesales hardly requiring the sorts of skills the miners could have offered.
Many of the ex-miners have risen to the challenge of other occupations however,
particularly those who were flexible at the time, and have found new jobs or
opened small businesses of their own. The town does still have a legacy of
long-term unemployment, particularly amongst older ex-miners, railway and heavy
industry workers (and young single mothers, another problem).
Obvious amongst the new businesses are the retail parks that have developed in a ring on the outskirts of the town centre. Major retail centres are now on York Road, Wheatley Hall Road and The Yorkshire Outlet at Black Bank. Offices and other commercial concerns have also been built in and around the town. Additionally, large supermarkets scattered elsewhere employ many people. Interestingly, women who are now, as elsewhere, competing for employment, have taken many of the jobs available.
One prime example of the more unusual aspects of Doncaster history is the Sand House.