The River Don was the driver , running all the way from Sheffield , through Rotherham and Mexborough and on to Doncaster , then on through Lincolnshire to join the Ouse and the Humber estuary.
While the river was the driver of industry and development , the fuel for it was surely the abundance of coal , and the rapid growth of population in the Dearne Valley , in the early 20th century, was due to the increasing number of collieries in the area.
We live on the boundary between Mexborough and Denaby. Today , apart from a decorated pit wheel outside the local leisure centre , there is little evidence of the major part Denaby played in the coal industry. Coal, in general, is history for much of Yorkshire in 2025 , but Denaby was already long closed when we arrived in the mid nineties. The old ribbon of Edwardian terraces and shops had been demolished and replaced with bungalows and apartment blocks and the road alongside the railway, lined with trees.
Behind the railway were acres of redundant brownfield land which no one knew what to do with. Local newspapers enjoyed ruffling feathers from time to time with angry letters calling for the pit to be reopened …as a pit.
When a group of local environmentalists suggested it could be the base for something new , a Museum of the Earth , the angry voices naturally protested and the first sightings of the term “white elephant” were seen in local pages.
The group grew in strength and credibility , and what at first seemed like a crazy idea , became a serious bid for what was being seen as a visitor attraction of national importance.
If I remember correctly , the final choice was between London and Denaby…and Denaby won the battle , before eventually losing the war.
Rechristened The Earth Centre , and attracting millions of pounds in Millennium funding , amongst others, it’s first phase of eco friendly buildings , sustainable energy and sewage handling, and environmental education facilities had a brief flowering in the public realm before closing its gates in 2004.
The reasons for its failure are probably too complex to cover here, but my wife’s view was that it had simply taken too long to get off the ground. By the time the first visitors were allowed in , the sustainability message was already widely known by the general public.
All manner of businesses were stressing the eco friendliness of their products , and people didn’t feel that they needed to pay money for a theme park to tell them what they already knew…
There weren’t even any rides …that had been planned for a phase 2 which never happened.
For most people , The Earth Centre story ended there. The car park was sold off to the inevitable developers , and lots of new houses built, some with solar panels , to hide the disused centre from sight.
In fact , the site was bought by Kingswood and used as an outward bound holiday facility for children.
Kingswood , who had many sites in the UK and overseas, have unfortunately gone into administration, but PGL another international provider of outdoor holidays for children and families has taken the Dearne Valley site into it’s portfolio and is already emphasising the particular eco friendly benefits of it’s buildings and facilities.
The white elephant, it seems, continues to thrive…
