Darton
Town · 14,902 residents
68Good
Good · better than 6 in 10 towns
Check Local Score out of 100 · 60 is typical for the country
Each arc is a topic, coloured by its score
What’s good
- Less recorded crime than is typical: 62 per 1,000 people a year against 100
- Environment scores 76, well above the typical 60
- Affordability scores 73, well above the typical 60
Check before you view
- Radon: part of the area is in an affected zone, and a home test is cheap
- Road noise reaches 60% of the area
The essentials
Everyday life
The area
Around Darton
Carr Green Lane59Darton Lane Head52Darton West61Bloomhouse Green58Blacker51Greenside57Hill End56Mapplewell58StaincrossKexbroughApplehaigh View55Swallow Hill56
See all 18 in the guide ↓Map outline: Official built-up area
Is Darton a good place to live?
Darton scores 68/100 overall, which the scorecard rates as good — 60 is typical for the country.
It stands out for safety (77) and environment (76).
Scores come from official data on safety, schools, transport, prices, health, food & drink and the local environment, for Darton in Yorkshire and The Humber, each measured against the national average.
Summary of Darton
Darton reads as pebble-dashed semis, privet hedges, and cars parked nose-to-tail outside schools at pick-up time — a former mining town that's settled into something quieter and more residential. The streets around the centre feel lived-in rather than done-up, and the people you see are as likely to be walking a dog on the way back from the allotments as commuting anywhere.
The practical picture here is unusually coherent for the price. Darton Rail Station sits right in the town, so anyone working in Barnsley or further into Leeds has a direct line out without needing a car, and with a median age of 45.5 — well above the national 40.4 — this isn't a place full of young professionals chasing that commute, more people who've settled and stayed. Darton Academy and the cluster of primary schools (Mapplewell Primary among them) are rated Good, which is solid without being exceptional — a fair reflection of the town's overall B+ schools grade rather than a reason to move here on its own. Housing is dominated by freehold semi-detached houses, and at a median of £195,000 against a national average of £281,000, this is a place where your money still buys a proper house with a garden rather than a compromise.
Green space is genuinely part of daily life rather than a brochure line — 36 separate green spaces across the town add up to over 32 hectares, more generous per head than both the regional and national averages, so dog walks and Sunday afternoons in the park aren't a special occasion here. What stands out most, though, is the safety picture set against everything else: Darton carries an A grade for safety and sits close to its parent authority Wakefield on price, yet its crime rate runs about 12% higher than Wakefield's average, with violence and sexual offences making up over 40% of recorded crime. That's the one grade that doesn't quite match the rest of the pattern — worth sitting with rather than dismissing, even though the trend itself is reported as flat rather than worsening. House prices have been drifting upward gently over recent years, a slow, steady climb rather than a sharp one, which fits a town that isn't chasing attention.