Wales is a village and a civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham

Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham

The Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham is a metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. It is named for its largest town, Rotherham, but also spans the outlying towns of Maltby, Rawmarsh, Swinton, Wath-upon-Dearne, as well as a suburban and rural element composed of hills, escarpments and...

 in South Yorkshire

South Yorkshire

South Yorkshire is a metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It has a population of 1.29 million. It consists of four metropolitan boroughs: Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham, and City of Sheffield...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It is on the border of South Yorkshire and Derbyshire

Derbyshire

Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...

. The civil parish of Wales, which has a population of 6,455, encompasses the village of Wales and neighbouring settlement Kiveton Park

Kiveton Park

Kiveton Park, informally Kiveton , is a village within the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham, in South Yorkshire, England. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, from the Norman conquest to 1868, Kiveton was a hamlet of the parish of Harthill-with-Woodall...

.

History

Wales shares its name with the country of Wales

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

, and the derivation may well be the same: the name Wales coming from a Germanic root meaning stranger. The suggestion, therefore, is that there was a continued Celt

Celt

The Celts were a diverse group of tribal societies in Iron Age and Roman-era Europe who spoke Celtic languages.The earliest archaeological culture commonly accepted as Celtic, or rather Proto-Celtic, was the central European Hallstatt culture , named for the rich grave finds in Hallstatt, Austria....

ic presence here following the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons

Anglo-Saxons

Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...

 at the turn of the 6th century. The earliest reference to Wales is in 1002, when Wolfric Spot, a Saxon thegn

Thegn

The term thegn , from OE þegn, ðegn "servant, attendant, retainer", is commonly used to describe either an aristocratic retainer of a king or nobleman in Anglo-Saxon England, or as a class term, the majority of the aristocracy below the ranks of ealdormen and high-reeves...

, is recorded as owning Walesho.

Sir William Hewet, Lord Mayor of London

Lord Mayor of London

The Right Honourable Lord Mayor of London is the legal title for the Mayor of the City of London Corporation. The Lord Mayor of London is to be distinguished from the Mayor of London; the former is an officer only of the City of London, while the Mayor of London is the Mayor of Greater London and...

 in 1559, was born in Wales, and his descendants, the Dukes of Leeds

Duke of Leeds

Duke of Leeds was a title in the Peerage of England. It was created in 1694 for the prominent statesman Thomas Osborne, 1st Marquess of Carmarthen...

, would come to dominate the area.

Geography

The village of Wales itself is located at approximately 53°20′30"N 1°16′45"W, at an elevation of around 100 metres above sea level

Sea level

Mean sea level is a measure of the average height of the ocean's surface ; used as a standard in reckoning land elevation...

. It lies on the A618 and B6059 roads. The M1 motorway

M1 motorway

The M1 is a north–south motorway in England primarily connecting London to Leeds, where it joins the A1 near Aberford. While the M1 is considered to be the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the United Kingdom, the first road to be built to motorway standard in the country was the...

 bisects the parish, while the southern boundary is partly marked by the Chesterfield Canal

Chesterfield Canal

The Chesterfield Canal is in the north of England and it is known locally as 'Cuckoo Dyke'. It was opened in 1777 and ran 46 miles from the River Trent at West Stockwith, Nottinghamshire to Chesterfield, Derbyshire...

 whose Norwood Tunnel

Norwood Tunnel

Norwood Tunnel was a , and brick lined canal tunnel on the line of the Chesterfield Canal with its Western Portal in Norwood, Derbyshire and its Eastern Portal in Kiveton, South Yorkshire, England.-Origins:...

 runs under meadowland to the south. To the west of the village is Rother Valley Country Park

Rother Valley Country Park

The Rother Valley Country Park is a country park in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham, close to its border with Sheffield and Derbyshire. It covers 3 square kilometres and has four artificial lakes...

.

Education and Employment

Education in Wales is provided by Wales Primary School.
The industrial estate at Wales Common continues to be a large source of employment (not least the food manufacturer Greencore Prepared Foods).