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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Jasmine Norden

Inside 'exclusive' and 'snobby' estate where a life of luxury comes at a price

People living in one of Yorkshire's most fancy estates have lifted the lid on what it's really like.

The area southwest of Doncaster city centre is lined with lush trees, gated driveways and huge houses.

Houses on Whin Hill Road will cost you a pretty penny if you want to live there - with a steep average house price of £600,000, according to Rightmove and Zoopla.

It's a neighbourhood where many of the houses have names fit for manors, such as Tall Chimneys and The Mandeville.

A Yorkshire Live reporter visited the exclusive estate and spoke to people who lived nearby to reveal what it was really like.

They said in terms of people, the area would be considered fairly quiet but there's a constant roar of construction from multiple houses having building and gardening work done.

Alan lives on one of the smaller streets nearby (Jasmine Norden)

"It's always quite loud here in terms of construction," a Whin Hill Road resident, who didn't want to be named, said.

"People are always adding bits to their houses or getting their gardens done and some of it goes on for years. And a lot of traffic uses this as a through road.

"We used to call it the Cantley Crawl when we were younger but people around here wouldn't like that name.

"There's snobbery around here I suppose – some of the residents would consider it more upmarket than the Cantley area even though Cantley Lane is just metres away."

Nearby resident Sheila has lived in the area for over three decades (Jasmine Norden)

The resident, who is in her 50s, remembered visiting her grandad on the street as a child, and ended up inheriting the house. She's been here over 40 years.

She added: "It probably is one of the most expensive streets in Doncaster.

"Since I inherited the house, I'm only rich in property - I couldn't afford to buy here. Sometimes I'm very aware there's more money on this street than I will ever know.

"I think it changed over lockdown you know - we all have quite long driveways so you didn't see people so much and talked to who you already talked to.

"But in lockdown everyone was coming out on the street to clap so you'd get chatting to more people, which was nice."

Expensive streets around Doncaster (Jasmine Norden)

She pointed out a particular house she recommended the reporter have a look at – and she wasn't the only one.

Nearby resident Scarlett was out for a walk on Whin Hill Road when she was also stopped for a chat.

She told Yorkshire Live: "I live round here but not on one of these streets. It's very green round here but it is always noisy with building work. You do get the impression it's a rich area but people are generally friendly though.

"There's a house up there at the end with its own roundabout!"

'You do get the feeling it's a rich neighbourhood' (Jasmine Norden)

The house in question is called White Ladies, and did indeed have its own little roundabout in the middle of the large driveway.

There seemed to still be the finishing touches going on to the house.

Alan, 87, was also out for a walk down Whin Hill Road – he lives on one of the smaller streets nearby rather than Whin Hill itself, and has been in the area for 26 years.

"This is an expensive place," he agreed. "This is where the money is. When I was younger I used to cycle past to look at all the big houses. I grew up in a terrace in Balby but you always have ambitions don't you?

"I go out for a walk here at least twice a day and I'll chat to anybody – people are still really friendly and come out of their gardens to talk.

According to the 2019 Indices of Multiple Deprivation, the area is one of the least deprived neighbourhoods in Doncaster (Jasmine Norden)

"It's quite peaceful round here and green but we do have burglaries because of the money here. I do think there have been some drugs around in the past as well."

Alan wasn't the only person to bring up the burglary problem – another resident on St Wilfrid's Road expressed there had been one round the corner just the previous week, that had left some residents quite shaken.

"There can be a lot of crime round here," he said.

"There was an aggravated burglary just the other week, and people get their cars stolen.

"And I do think there has also been drugs in the area – police have been round all the houses before asking for CCTV. I've just got a camera installed because of it.

"I did all the remodelling and modernising on my house myself as I worked in building all my life – sometimes I feel like a fish out of water here because of all the money.

"One of my friends did work for another guy who lived on this road and he said there were galleries and everything inside."

According to the 2019 Indices of Multiple Deprivation, the area is one of the least deprived neighbourhoods in Doncaster. According to Crime Rate, Bessacarr Bawtry Road is one of Doncaster's safest neighbourhoods – despite the burglary fears reported by residents.

And finally, Sheila, who lives just off Bawtry Road, was out walking her daughter's dogs along St Wilfrid's Road when she was approached for her opinion on the area.

She told the reporter: "I'm from the midlands, and we came up here 36 years ago, and I wouldn't go back. People are friendly in my experience."

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