[1] However, in the Domesday Book of 1086 the area is already known as Brettone, and the name may have originally meant 'Farmstead of the Britons', suggesting that a remnant of the old Romano-British population may have lived here into the Anglo-Saxon period.

[9] Although the nearby Priory formed a Christian community (until dissolution by Henry VIII), Monk Bretton did not possess a church until 1838.

In 1838 the foundation stone for the first church was laid on a site donated by Sir George Wombwell, at the corner of Cross Street and Burton Road.

A new chapelry district, separating Monk Bretton (with Cudworth) from Royston parish and enabling 'baptisms, churchings and burials', was created by Queen Victoria by an order in Council on 22 July 1843.

[6] Also demolished was Monk Bretton 'Castle', a folly on Burton Bank built by a local priest as a look-out tower or observatory and subsequently used for the lighting of beacons on occasions such as royal events and the end of wars.

[11] The village greatly expanded in the 19th and 20th centuries with the building of new housing estates, so that today Monk Bretton more or less merges into nearby Lundwood, Carlton, Athersley and Smithies.

The village is served by several pubs, shops, a post office, library and various other local amenities, and is a 10-minute car journey from Barnsley town centre.

[20] There is also a modern cemetery, which contains the grave of former Barnsley, Manchester United and England striker Tommy Taylor, who was killed in the Munich air disaster on 6 February 1958.

[7] The Monk Bretton Miners' Welfare Committee was granted £4,760 in 1925 for the purpose of purchasing the former farmland for recreational use.

[21] George Wood, an early member of a prominent local gentry family, was born in Monk Bretton in 1534 and died there in 1589.

[22] He was the ancestor of the 19th century Liberal politician Charles Wood, who took the title 1st Viscount Halifax of Monk Bretton for his 1866 peerage.

[22] Famous people from Monk Bretton include Yorkshire, Essex and England cricketer Darren Gough.

Keith Laybourn, long serving Professor of History at Huddersfield University, was born in Monk Bretton.

Julian Booker, Professor of Mechanical Design Engineering at the University of Bristol was born in Monk Bretton.