Fitzwilliam is a small village on the edge of West Yorkshire. It is located in the City of Wakefield district, to the west of Hemsworth. Like most of this district, it was an old coal-mining area, although Fitzwilliam has yet to fully recover from the effect of pits closures. As is the case in Grimethorpe, Fitzwilliam was divided into three sections. These were named City, Little Wigan and Wannerville. A village is a human residential settlement commonly found in rural areas. ... West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county in England, corresponding roughly to the core of the West Riding of the traditional county of Yorkshire. ... This article discusses the metropolitan district and named the City of Wakefield. ... Hemsworth is a small town on the edge of West Yorkshire in the Wakefield district. ... Grimethorpe is a large village which is part of the metropolitan borough of Barnsley in South Yorkshire, England. ...

The village was originally built to provide housing for miners at the colliery that was originally named "Fitzwilliam Main". It later changed its name to "Hemsworth colliery" and then merged with "South Kirkby" colliery in 1969. Other nearby mines were "Kinsley" and "Nostell", which closed in 1986 and 1987 respectively. "South Kirkby" colliery closed in 1988.

The huge levels of migration out of the village earned it the label of a ghost town. Over the last 5 years, a very large proportion of the village has been demolished, including the whole of the "City" estate[1], due to the dominance of derelict properties; fortunes are now starting to improve. Unemployment is high, although not as high as it once was. Heroin abuse remains a problem. In response to this situation, Fitzwilliam is included in a special regeneration area and has received special funding to aid its recovery. It has a train station on the Wakefield line, providing it with connections to Leeds, Wakefield, Doncaster and Sheffield. A street corner in the ghost town of Bodie, California. ... Fitzwilliam railway station is in the village of Fitzwilliam near Wakefield, West Yorkshire. ... The Wakefield line is the name given to one of the rail services in the West Yorkshire Metro area of northern England. ... Leeds is a major city in the northern English county of Yorkshire in the United Kingdom and the urban core of the City of Leeds metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire. ... Wakefield Wakefield is a city in the county of West Yorkshire, England, south of Leeds, and by the River Calder. ... Doncaster is a town in South Yorkshire, (and in the former West Riding of Yorkshire), England. ... For other uses, see Sheffield (disambiguation). ...

Its most notable sons are Geoffrey Boycott, the cricketer and Cyril Knowles the late football player. Smack My Bitch Up was the thirteenth single released by the British electronica/rave/rock band The Prodigy on 17 November 1997. ... Cyril Knowles (Fitzwilliam, West Yorkshire, July 13, 1944 – Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, August 30, 1991) was a full-back for Tottenham Hostpur and England. ...

External links

• The Fitzwilliam Archive Online