Finningley

Finningley is a village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster, in South Yorkshire, England. Historically in Nottinghamshire,[1] it lies on the A614 road about six miles from the centre of Doncaster, at 53°29′N 0°59′W and an elevation of about 23 feet above sea level. The 2001 census gave it a population of 1,442,[2] which rose to 1,497 at the 2011 Census.[3]

Finningley

Gate into farmland off the A614 road
Finningley
Location within South Yorkshire
Population1,497 (2011 census)
OS grid referenceSK674990
Civil parish
  • Finningley
Metropolitan borough
Metropolitan county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townDONCASTER
Postcode districtDN9
Dialling code01302
PoliceSouth Yorkshire
FireSouth Yorkshire
AmbulanceYorkshire

Heritage

The parish church of Holy Trinity is Norman, with a 13th-century chancel.[4]

The place name Finningley contains the Old English word, fenn, a fen, a marsh, marshland + -ingas (Old English), the people of...; the people called after... + lēah (Old English), a glade, clearing; (later) a pasture, meadow... and so a "Clearing of the fen-dwellers".[5]

Airport

Finningley is known for its airport, formerly RAF Finningley. The station housed a 'V' force of Vulcan bombers in the Cold War, and for 35 years hosted a regular air show, which by the 1990s was the country's largest one-day show of its kind.[6] However, the end of the Cold War led to the airfield being closed in April 1996 and the air show coming to an end.

The 3,000-yard (2,700 m) long runway, currently the second longest in Northern England, was sufficiently large to take even Concorde, and in the period after the closure of the RAF airfield there were several campaigns to turn Finningley into a commercial airport for the unserved South Yorkshire region (along with Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and the East Riding of Yorkshire).

Plans for the conversion were approved in 2003 and the first flights served in April 2005. The airport was named Robin Hood Airport Doncaster Sheffield, then renamed Doncaster Sheffield Airport. Planning permission for a railway station – former station, which had been closed in 1961, but it has yet to be built.[7]

Road

Leon Motors, a company located in Finningley, operates bus services in Doncaster. Formed in 1922, it was taken over by MASS of North Anston in 2004.

Finningley is home to a Motocross venue.[8]

Notable people
  • Elsie Howey (1884–1963), a leading suffragette, was born here.

References
  1. More about our Village – Finningley Village Community Group Retrieved 13 March 2018.
  2. "Area: Finningley CP (Parish)"
  3. "Civil Parish population 2011". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 7 March 2016.
  4. Pevsner, Nikolaus. 1979. The Buildings of England:Nottinghamshire. page 127. Harmondsworth, Middx. Penguin.
  5. J. Gover, A. Mawer & F. M. Stenton (eds.), Place Names of Nottinghamshire (Cambridge, 1940), p. 79; A. D. Mills, Dictionary of English Place-Names (Oxford, 2002), p. 139; E .Ekwall, Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names (Oxford, 1960), p. 180
  6. Burke, Darren (28 September 2016). "Remembering RAF Finningley 20 years after its closure". Doncaster Free Press. Retrieved 2 October 2017.
  7. Take Off For Airport Station Plans Railnews.co.uk. Accessed 4 September 2008.
  8. Doncaster Moto Parc Motocross
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