Mosborough

See also: Mosborough, Ontario

Coordinates: 53°19′30″N 1°21′43″W / 53.325°N 1.362°W / 53.325; -1.362

Mosborough
Shown within Sheffield
District:	Sheffield
UK Parliament constituency:	Sheffield South East
Ceremonial county:	South Yorkshire
Region:	Yorkshire and the Humber
Population (2001):	16,300
Councillors
David Barker (Labour Party) Chris Tutt (Liberal Democrats) Gail Smith (Liberal Democrats)

Mosborough ward — which includes the districts of Halfway, Mosborough village, Waterthorpe, and Westfield — is one of the 28 electoral wards in City of Sheffield, England. It is located in the eastern part of the city, on the border with Rotherham, and covers an area of 8.9 km². The population of this ward in 2001 was 16,300 people in 7,000 households. It is one of the wards that make up the Sheffield South East constituency. The area is often referred to as Mosborough Townships.

Districts of Mosborough ward

Sheffield Supertram at Halfway.

Halfway

Halfway (grid reference SK432809) lies in the extreme southeast of Sheffield at the end of a Sheffield Supertram line. Halfway is part of the historic county of Derbyshire but has been administered by Sheffield since boundary changes in 1967.

It used to be home to a bus garage which was operated by 'Booth and Fisher', a company who were merged into the South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive in the mid 1970s. The garage itself passed into the hands of operator 'SYT', then to the First and has always been seen as a minor outpost garage. It served works and school services plus buses starting early from the south side of the city. The garage was closed in 2007 as a cost cutting measure.

It is common to see public transport in Sheffield heading for "Halfway". The Blue Route Stagecoach Supertram terminates at Halfway with a large Park and Ride facility. The main frequent bus that goes to and from Halfway to and from the city centre is the Stagecoach 120 service (First South Yorkshire also run the 120 route to Halfway during the evening).

The Halfway housing estate is something of a unique experiment. Built in 1975, the estate centred in the small local shopping centre called 'Streetfields'. The houses themselves were built on high quality farmland and to this day there are a number of farmers with orchards nearby.

The Sheffield City Council is a keen recycler and burn a lot of domestic refuse which in turn is converted to hot water used for both domestic supply and central heating. This is pumped from Bernard Road in S2 to Halfway and links directly with the homes in the Halfway locality. Well-insulated and often compact, these homes are noticeably energy efficient.

The layout of the estate was such that no house would look directly onto another with properties curving around meandering walkways and a complex network of through routes to Halfway Drive. This main road is the thoroughfare linking the village to both the Derbyshire county boundary and neighbouring estates of Westfield and Waterthorpe.

Despite a well planned and high quality overall project, the estate today suffers in part from crime and has been commented from the Sheffield City Council website as an area to work actively towards safer communities.

Holbrook

Holbrook was a mining village whose name was changed to Halfway (after the Halfway House pub) to avoid confusion with Holbrook nearr Derby.

grid reference SK442818

Mosborough

Mosborough (grid reference SK426813) is part of the historic county of Derbyshire but has been administered by Sheffield since boundary changes in 1967 and is now considered a suburb of Sheffield. It was known for sickle making and was also a coal mining area. Notable buildings include the fifteenth century Mosborough Hall, a building which may retain some Anglo-Saxon structure.

The suburb has many high quality houses, local independent shops and hotel conference facilities.

The original village of Mosborough has seven pubs and one working men's club:

• The Alma
• George and Dragon
• Royal Oak
• Vine Tavern
• Queen Hotel
• British Oak
• The Wheel

The working men's club is the CIU affiliated Miners Welfare.

On August Bank Holiday, the locals do a pub crawl known as the Mosborough 10 for charity often in fancy dress. It has been known for people to come from as far away as Blackpool to take part in this event.

The Mosborough 10 pub crawl travels from pub to pub:

• The Vine Tavern
• The Alma
• The George & Dragon
• The Royal Oak
• The Wheel
• The Queen Hotel
• The British Oak
• The Double Top
• The Joseph Glover
• The Miners Welfare

Waterthorpe

Housing Estate near Beighton named after Waterthorpe (formerly Walterthorpe) Farm grid reference SK430927

Both Waterthorpe and Westfield housing estates were built from 1980 and were added to over a number of years. Eventually linking with both the old council estate of Beighton and the new estate of Halfway, the estates house a condensed significant number of almost wholly local authority owned properties following the phasing down and demolition of the original estates around Parson Cross and Shiregreen in the north of the City.

The Crystal Peaks shopping centre was built in 1986 to serve the south side of the city. Its original design included markets and fixed national chains who made the centre one of the most popular in the county. Over time, the centre has suffered from a lack of investment and with the neighbouring Meadowhall trade has reduced. Between 2005 and 2008, the centre underwent a complete refurbishment and expansion, which doubled the size of the centre as well as providing a larger Sainsburys store. This development allows Crystal Peaks to complete more effectively with Meadowhall and the city centre.

As for Waterthorpe and Westfield estates, leisure facilities are lacking as the council concentrated upon housing and not the substantial areas of parkland in most other areas of Sheffield.

Westfield

Housing Estate near Halfway named after Westfield Farm grid reference SK433817 Westfield is one of the Mosborough "Townships", smallish self-contained communities that have yet to develop into communities. It is on the fringes of Sheffield, overlooks Derbyshire and is surrounded to the north by quite densely populated housing and to the south by open countryside. It has a small but well-equipped shopping centre: though the architect who designed the shopping centre does seem to have come from some communist Eastern European school of architecture in the 1950s.

The housing is mixed with pleasant private estates interwoven with public sector housing which was originally aimed at the more vulnerable and/or elderly tenants. In about 2006, the local primary school, the community centre and the doctor's surgery were burnt out. Recovery is under way, the school (Shortbrook Primary) has reopened and will have largely new staff from September 2008. Westfield Secondary School was relocated from its former position in Mosborough village and opened its doors on the border of Westfield in 2007. There are still problems with the community facilities.

The council has now agreed to invest in the recovery of Westfield. They are investing about £500,00. The local Co-op are also investing, as are the Primary Care Trust.

Hopefully, Westfield will be restored to its former fine status, but in 2008 it looks like it will take a good few years to recover.

External links

• - MosboroughWeb - Mosborough's Community Website