1911 Silkstone Common Land and Property Sales

 

1911 Land and Properties sold at Silkstone Common

John Haynes was born in Silkstone on 20^th Nov 1830. Son of John Haynes, blacksmith, he was initially taken on in the blacksmith’s shop working for his father on Blacksmith Row in Silkstone. During this time as a boy he would take work his father had done over the moors to the contractors building the Woodhead Tunnels, which were completed in 1853.

In the early 1860s he joined up with his brother in law, Abraham Lawton, in opening up collieries on Silkstone Common. The venture was a success and in the great coal boom of the 1870s, having a good offer made for it, they sold the business. After a short retirement Mr Haynes bought Stanhope Silkstone Colliery in 1886, turning around its’ fortunes, and also opened up Hallroyd Colliery in Silkstone Common and owned New Sovereign Colliery, Dodworth.

According to GH Teasdale writing in 1901, John Haynes had built Beacon Villa in 1867. It was probably around this time of great prosperity that Haynes acquired various other lands and properties in and around Silkstone Common that were sold when he died in 1911.

The auction was advertised to be conducted by Messrs AE Wilby & Son at The Rose and Crown Hotel, Penistone on Thursday 6^th July 1911, “at 4 o’clock in the afternoon precisely”. The venue of the auction was changed and actually took place at the Royal Hotel, Barnsley on Wednesday 5^th July 1911.

There was a great deal of interest in the 8 lots, and it was reported that there was a large attendance and for some of the lots “bidding was very brisk”. The details of the sale appeared in the local press, together with the results of the sale, the next day.

The first lot sold was West View, the four large cottages on Beacon Hill together with another cottage, Line View, located behind West View including the gardens, stables, shed and land attached to the cottages.

John Haynes had  the four cottages at West View built in 1876 and 1877 (10 years after Beacon Villa) but Line View was an older property. The annual rent from these cottages at the time was £73 14s. Thomas Marsland of Bloomfield House, Silkstone Common purchased them for £1,200 (Jan 2026 = £123,347). Mr Marsland had lived at West View when he married Ellen Ann Haynes (the daughter of John Haynes' brother, William Haynes) in 1881, before moving to Bloomfield House around 1907.

The second lot was a freehold farm with 20 acres situated at The Green, Hoylandswaine. The annual rent from this property was £40. It was sold to Clegg and Sons, Solicitors of Sheffield for £870 (Jan 2026 = £89,426). The sale included the homestead, stable, barn, cottage and outbuilding. It was noted that the land included a valuable bed of coal.

Lot 3 was The Beacon, John Haynes’ residence which included Beacon Villa itself plus “beautiful grounds, extensive Conservatories and Gardens, Cottage, Stables and Outbuildings” together with the surrounding land.

Beacon Villa as shown on the 1893 Ordnance Survey Map – the cross hatched / blue areas are glass conservatories amd greenhouses

Beacon Villa with outbuildings, conservatory etc as shown on the 1931 Ordnance Survey Map. An extra wing had been built onto Beacon Villa in 1901.

Beacon Villa was purchased by Mr William James Hoyland of Dodworth for £1,175 (Jan 2026 = £120,777). WJ Hoyland was described as innkeeper and farmer as well as Wine & Spirit Merchant. He had held the licence of the Thornely Arms Hotel in Dodworth for over 20 years and lived at Thornely Cottage attached to the pub.

The 4^th lot sold by Wilby was referred to as “two freehold cottages at Silkstone Common together with the Closes of Land, Nos 277 and 278 on the Ordnance Map in the occupation of Mr Harold Haynes. This land is a valuable and eligible building site suitable for works requiring railway accommodation”. It was noted that it is “bounded on the north-west by a siding of the Great Central Railway, on the south-east by the Barnsley Main Road and on the south-west by the main road from Silkstone Common to Silkstone. The railway siding was the separate railway line that led to and from Hall Royd Colliery.

Closes 277 and 278 with two cottages – Lot 4 of the John Haynes’ Auction, 1911

These two plots of land with the two cottages were purchased by Thomas Marsland of Bloomfield House for £320 (Jan 2026 = £32,892). The annual rent from the cottages at the time was £19 12s. Bloomfield House was opposite the two plots. Although the two cottages are amongst the oldest in Silkstone Common they do not appear on the 1855 map of the village. They were converted into one cottage and the village fish shop was located there for a number of years.

Thomas Marsland didn't waste any time developing this plot and Castleview was completed within two years with a datestone of 1913 built in to the front elevation.

Lot 5 in the auction was Hunter’s Cottage including sheds and stabling. At the time it was occupied by Mr Charles Ball. This cottage was sold as a leasehold held on a 99 year lease created on 1^st Nov 1866. The yearly ground rent was £1 5s at the time. Annual rental from the property was £9 4s.

Hunters Cottage was opposite Hall Royd Colliery on Hall Royd Lane. Mr George Newboult bought this lot for £110 (Jan 2026 = £11,306). George Newboult was my Grandfather’s uncle. He owned a grocery business in Silkstone and had bought many properties in Silkstone, Silkstone Common and near Locke Park in Barnsley over a number of years.

Sarah Haynes, John Haynes' aunt, had previously lived at Hunter's Cottage at the time of the 1871 census.

Lot 6 was described as a “Valuable Piece of Building Land, No 276 on the Ordnance Map, ripe for development situate at the junction of the Silkstone Common to Barnsley and Silkstone Common to Silkstone main roads and having extensive frontage to both roads”.

This area of the village was undeveloped in 1911 but would eventually contain houses, the Methodist Church, the Co-Op shop, the Post Office and the row of cottages on Moorend Lane. This valuable piece of land was purchased by Mr Albert Gelder for £227 10s (Jan 2026 = £23,333). Albert Edward Gelder was a building contractor who lived at Thorncliffe House, Silkstone Common at the time. Within ten years he had built the row of cottages down Moorend Lane (Victoria Terrace) and the new Post Office and attached cottage.

The above photograph was taken around the time of the 1911 sale before any development took place.. The area on the left shows Lot 4 with the cottages referred to in the sale and the area on the right shows Lot 6 with Bloomfield House in the distance.

Lot 7 was “three freehold closes of land and plantations with barn, mistal and other buildings situate near to Blacker Wood and known as Slack Well in the occupation of Mr Harold Haynes.” The Ordnance Survey Map numbers in the advert were given as 226 (which was the fishing lake) and fields 227, 253, 254 and 283. The advert also notes that “the sporting advantages which include fishing attached to this property are of considerable value, the game all round being strictly preserved, and the land forming a natural shooting ground”. According to John Haynes’ obituary he was well known as a “fine sportsman” and “there was no better all-round shot in the district. He long preserved and had the shooting over Silkstone Fall and other large woods and grounds around his residence”. There are various newspaper reports at the time when local miners were charged with poaching on his land and he employed his own gamekeeper, Irving Whitehead, to look after his sporting interests.

The fields highlighted in green were those included in Lot 7. Stretching from Blacker Green Lane all the way up to the railway line at Silkstone Common, John Haynes’ private fishing lake is shown in blue, just north of Blacker Green Dam. Totalling over 20 acres, the fields were purchased by Thomas Marsland for £500 (Jan 2026 = £51,394).

The final lot to be sold was at Hillside in Thurlstone. The lot included “freehold dwelling house with Barn, Cowhouse and Outbuildings together with a nearby cottage and seven closes or parcels of land adjoining or near to the dwelling house” totalling over 6 acres. Annual rental from the property was £19 18s. Mr George Hoyland of Thurlstone purchased this final lot for £232 (Jan 2026 = £23,847).

The sale realised a total of £4,634 10s. Using the Bank of England Inflation Calculator this would be worth around £476,000 in January 2026. It would be interesting to know the combined value of that amount of land and property should it be offered for sale today.

The contents of The Beacon were sold separately by Wilby’s on Thursday 28^th September and Friday 29^th September 1911. The notice in the local press gives an idea of what was included in the sale.

This land and property sale created a lot of interest at the time, and looking on 115 years later it is interesting to see what was sold, who purchased the various lots and the amounts they realised.

*Jan 2026 equivalent prices are calculated using the Bank of England Inflation Calculator

Research and text by Andy Horsfield Heritage Silkstone March 2026