History
In 1871 the village had 92 houses and 383 inhabitants. It was largely a self-sufficient community. There were 11 farmers, 5 market gardeners, a corn miller, stonemason, builder, blacksmith, wheelwright, pig dealer, butcher,victualler, 2 shopkeepers and of course the rector and the schoolmistress. In the course of twenty years the number of houses was to increase fourfold, and the number of inhabitants even more. The reason was the sinking of the pit shafts which began in 1875 and the building of 242 miners cottages and 8 officials houses.
Trades and Professions in 1875
Walter Walker, Farm Labourer
Extract from White's Directory of 1879
The township includes the hamlets of Treeton Mill, Low Boal Hill, Upper Boal Hill, Flats Farm and Spa House - an area of 1632 acres. The boundaries of the parish were ltered by the 'Divided Parishes Act' in February, 1878. A School Board was formed in 1876 and now consists of: Rev. B. E. Watkins, Junior, Francis Moody, George Moody, Thomas Brightmore, Isaac Law.
Extract from Kelly's Directory of 1881
Treeton is a town and a parish in the Southern division of the riding, Rotherham Union and county court district, south division of Strafforth and Tickhill Wapentake, Rotherham Rural Deanery, archdeaconry and diocese of York; it is on the banks of the River Rother, 2 miles north from Woodhouse station on the Midland Railway, 6 miles east from Sheffield, 3 south from Rotherham and 170 from London.
The church of St. Helen, a very ancient and interesting building, and the only church in Hallamshire mentioned in the Domesday Survey, was for the most part, erected in the middle of the thirteenth century, although the north arcade of the nave and the chancel arch bear unmistakeable signs of Transitional character; it consists of a nobel and well proportioned chancel, with a south aisle of late Perpendicular date, nave and aisles and a curious battlemented campanile, or bell tower, at the south west angle of the nave, the greater portion of which dates from early in the thirteenth century, but terminates in a later belfry stage, containing three bells, dated respectively, 1631, 1641, and 1825: the chancel is especially deserving of note, from the fact that the medaeval arrangement of the steps and foot-pace around the communion table remains intact; the ceiling is flat but well designed and the bosses of its ribbing very spirited in character, and worthy of the best period of 13th century woodwork: the rector's pew bears the inscription Orate pro animi madistri Willhelm Holme clerici quondam rectoris ecclesiae, who died about 1540; on the floor near this pew is a stone incised with a figure of a man, with a marginal inscription, of which little more can be traced than the words Orate pro animi - cujus amimae propictetur Deus, and the date 1486, which coincides with the death of Henry Stafford, a former rector; in the chancel also is the effigy of a knight in armour, commonly called Sir Gilbert, and supposed by some to represent a member of The House of Talbot, but which is more probably intended for the figure of a Horbury or Bernak, both these families having held the manor under the Furnivals; on another stone are the arms of Bradshaw and an inscription to Edward Bradshaw esq 1665; the south chancel aisle, commonly called the Brampton Quire, is paved with stones inscribed to members of the families of Vescy, Bradshaw and Lord, here buried: during the year 1866, the chancel was carefully restored, at the expense of the Rector, under the direction of Messrs. Hadfield and Son, architects, of Sheffield, when new and massive benches of carved oak were fixed, and communion rails and a reredos of carved stone presented by her surviving brother and sister to the memory of Elizabeth Sykes Wheat, daughter of John Wheat Esq. who died in 1865; both nave and chancel was raised during the Perpendicular period, and the nave like the chancel has a flat ribbed ceiling, and has also been restored and refitted with benches of an ancient pattern: the west door is permanently closed, and overgrown with a grand old ivy stem, which has attached itself to the open door: there are three piscinae, and in the vestry is preserved a list of the Rectors of Treeton from 1278 to 1877.
The register dates from 1677 and is in good condition. The living is a rectory, yearly value £674, in the gift of the Rev. Bernard Edward Watkins, B.A. of Lawkland Hall near Lancaster, and held by Rev. Bernard Edward Watkins, B.A. of Corpus Christi College Cambridge.
The rectory house is close to the church. On the river is a corn mill; there are also several stone quarries in the township, and extensive coal pits have been sunk by The Rother Vale Colliery Company.
The manor of Treeton is held by the Duke of Norfolk, who is principal landowner. The soil is partly stiff loam and partly red sandstone; subsoil partly clay and partly gritstone. The chief crops are wheat, barley, oats and turnips. The parish comprises 3364 acres and includes the townships of Treeton, Brampton-en-le-Morthen, and the great part of Ulley, the two latter places forming a district parish.
The town of Treeton with the Hamlet of Waleswood, includes 1632 acres; rateable value, £4593 12s 4d. (Waleswood is now for the purposes of rating etc. a district); and a population in 1871 of 383, now about 500; the population of the entire parish is 874.
Waleswood, a hamlet about 2 miles south, has a few houses which still remain ecclesiastically connected with Treeton. Bole Hill, another small hamlet is a quarter of a mile north.
Parish Clerk: James Foers.
Post office - James Foers, receiver. Letters arrive from Rotherham at 8.30 a.m. and dispatched at 5.50 p.m. Aston is the nearest money order office.
Board Schools, opened March 1880 for 300 children; Joseph Frith, clerk to the Board; Samuel Fiske, master.
Trades and Professions in 1881
Thomas Rossington, Colliery Bank Foreman
John Parker, Grocer and Tea Dealer
Mrs. Wheat
William Parker, Grocer and Tea Dealer
Joseph Duckenfield, Market Gardener
Mrs Elizabeth Foers, White Swan
Frederick Foers, Blacksmith
James Foers, Wheelwright, Shopkeeper and Post Office Receiving House
William Earnshaw, Builder
Thomas Brightmore, farmer
Isaac Law, farmer Old Flatts
Samuel Brown, farmer Spa House
Francis Moody, farmer
George Moody, farmer
Elizabeth Taylor, farmer
George Travis, Stonemason
Joseph Frith, Clerk to School Board
John Hartland, Quarry Owner
Thomas Tinkler, Machine Owner
John Payne, Shopkeeper
Thomas Kearsley, Miller, Treeton Mill
Mary Hinchliff, Shopkeeper
Joseph Coates Batty, Butcher
Joseph Ellis, Shoemaker
Rother Vale Collieries: William Lionel Winship Bates, general manager. Edward Hedley, certified manager.