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A Brief History of Havercroft with Cold Hiendley
The Parish of Havercroft-with-Cold Hiendley is situated approximately 7 miles south east of the City of Wakefield and three miles North West of Hemsworth and is predominately rural.
The village name of Havercroft is not to be found in the Domesday Book but it can be traced back on old maps and charters of 1155, when Henry II, the father of Richard the Lionheart, was King of England. For hundreds of years Havercroft was an agricultural community and the few people who lived there worked in the fields.
In 1858 during the early years of Queen Victoria’s reign, a trade directory was published with the following entry; Havercroft with Cold Hiendley the name of two small villages a mile from each other.
In 1894 Havercroft with Cold Hiendley together with neighbouring villages, was included in the Hemsworth Rural District where it remained until the local government reorganisation in 1974, today Havercroft with Cold Hiendley is part of Wakefield Council.
In 1920 Havercroft’s population was around 800 and despite the growing importance of coal mining it continued to be predominantly agricultural. Industrialisation was making an impact on the village with people employed at Lodge’s collieries, the New Monkton Colliery and the Monkton chemical works.
Due to the local pit closures in the 1980’s the pit village of Havercroft suffered high unemployment with no industries, all evidence of mining has gone with the exception of three pit wheels at the entrances to the village, Havercroft is again predominately rural and residential with people working in nearby towns.