[5] Originally a farming village, Royston joined the Industrial Revolution with the construction in the 1790s of the Barnsley Canal, and later a branch of the Midland Railway.

The parish church of St John the Baptist was built about the year 1234 and has a clock, a sundial, a ring of eight bells and is now grade I listed.

[14] Harry “Shake” Earnshaw was a miner turned racing cyclist who in 1938 was acclaimed the British Best All-Rounder.

His 2001 doctorate stated that Royston had a slightly different accent to the surrounding villages, as many of the miners who came to work at Monckton Colliery on its opening travelled from the Black Country, where several mines had closed.

[18] This hypothesis was later tested by Kate Burland, who analysed certain vowel sounds in Royston, Wakefield and Barnsley.

[19] Yorkshire cricketer Norman Yardley lived in Royston at the Grove, which is now owned by Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council.