Kiveton Park
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Geography
Kiveton Park is located at approximately Template:Coor dms, at an elevation of around 100 metres above sea level. It lies on the B6059 road, and is served on the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway by two stations: Kiveton Bridge station and Kiveton Park station. The Chesterfield Canal lies to the south, while the villages of Todwick and South Anston are to the north and east.
History
Kiveton gets its name from the Anglo-Saxon for the settlement in the hollow. In the Domesday Book it is written Cieutone, and was under the ownership of William de Warenne. It subsequently transferred to the de Keuton family, who sold the estate on to former Lord Mayor of London Sir William Hewet in 1580. One of his descendants was Thomas Osborne who became the first Duke of Leeds. He arranged the building of a stately home in the village, Keeton Hall, in 1698. The building was demolished by George William Frederick Osborne, 6th Duke of Leeds in 1812, with local legend stating that the demolition was the result of a bet with the then Prince of Wales (subsequently George IV of the United Kingdom).
Industry
Coal mining has traditionally been the principal industry of Kiveton, and dates back to the middle ages. Much of the coal is near to the surface, and as early as 1598, the area was extracting 2,000 tons a year. By the middle of the 19th century, the coal-fields were being served both by canal and by rail, and in 1866, the Kiveton Park Colliery was sunk, making it one of the earliest deep mines in the world. As a result of the new colliery, the population of Kiveton leapt from 300 to 1,400 over a period of just ten years.
The pit closed in 1994, resulting in the loss of 1,000 jobs. As a consequence, Kiveton is now essentially a commuter base for Sheffield.
Most of the colliery buildings have since been demolished, but the protected pit-head baths (built in 1938), and the 1870s office building with its gothic clock tower, remain.