South Yorkshire Times May 27, 1967
Development Plans at Wath
“To provide Wath with a compact, efficient, safe and attractive shopping centre for the future, shopping development will be directed towards the creation of a traffic-tree pedestrian shopping square.”
A sketch of the proposed new market square and cross proposed under the Wath redevelopment scheme
Pedestrians
This means that the present shopping area around High Street, the shopping square and later development extending further along Sandygate will be used by pedestrians only.
Consequently the district distributor road will be re-routed along Church Street with a completely new extension running to the rear of Church House and crossing Sandygate to High Street. This will be completed within four years.
A start on this development will be made next month when a new road will be started from Brook Dyke at Town End, and travel to the north of Well Lane, and passing through the site of the present White Bear Inn, which will be re-sighted farther north.
Old buildings
Buildings of historical and monumental interest such as the Old Constable’s Lock Up, In Well Lane, the Parish Church and the Town Hall will be preserved.
The area around West Street, where properties have been or will be purchased by the Council, will be the site of the Civic Cultural Centre, with a large assembly ball, details of which were first published in the “South Yorkshire Times” four weeks ago, a new centre for the Rockingham Institute of Further Education to replace the Mechanic’ Institute on Montgomery Road social club and a public house.
For Industry
A 30-acres industrial Estate has been designated in Wet Moor Lane, and a further site will be on Barnsley Road.
A boating lake has also been incorporated into the plans to the east of the disused Dearne and Dove Canal. This is much more than a local Council “pipe-dream” and the architect sees the utilisation of coal waste on pit spoil heaps to form the basis of a basin for the lake.
The Minister of Transport, Mrs. Barbara Castle, has given approval for a by-pass of Wath, running along the site of the disused canal, and the County Council are to prepare plans. The dead-line date for this scheme is 1976 although it is hoped to press ahead long before this, if finances allow.
An essential preliminary to this scheme is the widening of West Street a detailed plan of which has been prepared by the County Engineer and Surveyor. Work on this is to begin in the current financial year. An incidental effect will be to eliminate the flooding of Town End Bridge, a cause of distress to the townspeople in recent years.
Housing has not been neglected in the venture, and a start on 186 houses and bungalows is to he made on the central area housing scheme in the Cemetery Road area in June this year. All available land to the west of Cemetery Road up to the Green Belt site has been acquired to ensure building progress for the next 10 Years. A new Primary School is also planned for this area.