Marley Hill, Colliery Village

From the mid 19th century onwards some coal companies prided themselves on building model villages and houses for their workers. These were villages laid out to allow good light and ventilation to the terraces of houses, to encourage better health and sanitation and provide either allotments or gardens. The houses were of a higher standard agricultural workers housing or tenements but retained the marked distinctions between those for the surface and face workers and those for the deputies; and beyond those for the higher pit officials. A typical example is Marley Hill - a model village laid out at the turn of the century containing a traditional grid of terraces with large detached houses for the officials, a board school, church, Miner's Welfare Institute and associated facilities and a row of 1930s Aged miners Homes. A colliery was well established here by 1787. It was abandoned between 1815 and 1840 when the older of the two modern shafts was sunk. The original pit village was at Marley Hill Colliery, south of the present village, demolished in the 1960s. The Board School, built in stone and slate with symmetrical wings, mullioned windows and central cupola with school bell and ogree roof, and school house, built in stone with ashlar chimneys and slate roof, were built in 1875. St Cuthbert's Church and vicarage (large plain Victorian villa with pretty stable block) were built in 1877. The church is built of coursed rubble sandstone and slate with grouped lancet windows. All of these buildings are sandstone. All subsequent buildings are brick. The terraces and large houses for colliery officials were begun in 1900. Glamis Terrace was added in the 1930s. The earlier terraces are of industrial red brick with Welsh slate roofs and sandstone cills and lintels. The slightly later Glamis Terrace comprises of two short terraces with end houses projecting and gabled, a mixture of brick, rendering, round-headed door openings and applied timbering to gables. The eight semi-detached aged miner's cottages were opened by Lord Glamis in 1937. They are grouped in a crescent around an open space. Miner's Welfare Hall is built in brown brick with a hint of art deco style. The oldest buildings in Marley Hill are Sandygate Farm and cottages, a much altered group of stone and slate. A brown brick Church Hall has been built on the site of the Mission Room. CONSERVATION AREA