About the Town Trail

What does the Trail set out to achieve? We hope that, at least, it will draw attention to some of the interesting buildings that have survived the great rebuilding of the late 20th century. These buildings give the town a distinctive character. With one exception our illustrations are of 18th and 19th-century buildings. Sadly our post-war development has contributed little to the quality of the townscape; such a mammoth building as the Frenchgate Centre has less architectural interest than its tiny neighbour, the Clock Corner building.

The Trail follows the line of the Roman Road, later the Great North Road, and the town's principal street. The Trail returns via the large market place, an area that was in existence in medieval times when Doncaster was the chief market town in South Yorkshire. The present streets radiating from the market place follow the same lines as they did 600 years ago.

The oldest building in the High Street is the diminutive building by Barclay's Bank, with gabled dormer windows. As stated on the Civic Trust plaque, it is probably 16th century in origin, a survival from the time when the town had picturesque, narrow streets, with orchards and gardens behind. The town's defensive ditch, the Barr Dyke, still crossed the end of the High Street (Hall Gate until the 1730s) on the line of Silver Street and Cleveland Street.

The 18th century saw the town increase in prosperity with the growth of coaching trade and agricultural expansion in the surrounding countryside. The building of the Mansion House followed by the erection of a theatre in the market place and the Racecourse Grandstand added to the social amenities of the town. These, together with the town's lack of industry and the genteel and fine sporting country, made the town an agreeable place in which to live. A considerable number of people of independent means were among the inhabitants.

Many of the principal citizens lived in High Street, some in such handsome houses as the red brick building next to the Mansion House. By the end of the 18th century, well-proportioned Georgian houses extended up Hall Gate as far as Hall Cross Hill, the later ones faced in fashionable stucco (smooth render) lined out with imitation joints to resemble stonework. Doncaster at this time was said to have the finest High Street on the road between the two capitals. Many of these houses survive in Hall Gate but often with their attractive balconies removed and their ground floor frontages replaced with brash shopfronts.

The poorer people were housed in the town centre. From about 1790 the inn yards and burgage plots in Frenchgate had cottages built in them. These courts were overcrowded and often lacked proper sanitation. They did not disappear until 1930. Their demolition left a large area of open land which made possible the building of the Frenchgate Centre. One court existed in High Street: it was known as Wright's Court and was sited behind the 16th century building referred to before. The narrow passageway that still remains was the only access to the 13 cottages in the court. However, several houses in High Street retained large gardens, and it was on one of these, the site of the Carmelite Priory, that Priory Place was laid out in 1832.

The coming of the Great Northern Railway in 1848 followed in 1853 by the Railway Engineering Works (the Plant) introduced the first large-scale industry into the town. New houses for the workers were built near to the works. Regent Square was laid out in the 1860s for the growing Victorian middle class. Some houses were still stuccoed but the later ones tended to be in stone or red brick. The chief developments in the town centre were the building of the Wool and Cattle Markets, and the impressive Corn Exchange. With the demise of the coach trade the town centre was probably quieter than it had been 500 years previously.

In the third quarter of the 19th century the railway workshops grew to be one of the most important in the country. The town's position as a railway centre encouraged commercial and industrial development. In 1880 Nether Hall Park. adjacent to the town centre, became available for building purposes and within a few years a whole new community had grown up. The houses were built of sound red brick. with moulded brick and terra cotta decoration, and conformed to the new Public Health Acts

Apart from some business premises at the end of Nether Hall Road the estate was residential with house for the prosperous middle class, shopkeepers moving from over their town centre shops to more spacious accommodation, and artisans. It had corner shops, a Co-operative Store, and a new church, designed by London architects, with a prominent tower, a new landmark. paid for by a local industrialist. Nether Hall, for centuries the home of the Copley family, remains, still showing some semblance of its former dignity in spite of incongruous modern additions. Unfortunately, some of the houses on the estate have been insensitively converted into business premises.

By the 1890s collieries were approaching the town's western boundary and within the next 25 years several rural villages in the area were transformed, almost overnight, into large colliery settlements. The town centre saw several changes: Baxter Gate was widened in the 1890s, Sunny Bar and Silver Street in the 1900s, the last private residents moved out of High Street and the old coaching inn, the Ram, was replaced by the urbane Danum Hotel. Several banks opened fine classical buildings in High Street. The last to be built, in 1925, was the Westminster Bank. replacing Beckett's Bank otherwise known as the Old Bank. which had stood on the site since the 18th century. The imposing facade of the 1925 bank, now the NatWest, incorporates several motifs from the Mansion House, such as the round-headed windows, sculptured heads and swags.

Further redevelopment took place in the I 920s and 30s mainly in Scot Lane and St. Sepulchre Gate which were widened. The main street saw no great changes except in Hall Gate where houses continued to be converted to shops.

The town had a poor record of preserving its listed buildings. In the post-war period many were destroyed for the ring road or redevelopment. Frenchgate, St. Georgegate and Hall Gate suffered worst. Many of the new buildings that have arisen pay scant regard to the existing townscape, as can be seen in the market place and Hall Gate. The Trust published a Conservation Report in 1973 highlighting the damage that was being done to the character of the town and calling for the designation of conservation areas in the town centre. The Council accepted the Report's recommendations and designated five town centre conservation areas later in the 1970s.