Mexborough and Swinton Times May 24, 1935
Conisborough’s Jubilee
Review of a memorable celebration
Remarkable statistics
A very full report was presented on Wednesday night to a winding up me in at the Conisborough Jubilee committee by the joint secretaries, Mr H. Thirlwall and Mr Spencer Baker, in which the whole of the celebrations were reviewed and the numerous bodies and individuals who rendered help on that memorable day were cordially thanked.
The report contains some striking statistics:
The total number of children’s teas 4,106 provided at 6s. Head, cost £102 13s. In addition 5722 souvenir mugs were provided at a cost of £95 8s. 10d.; Children’s sports cost £42 10s 10d.; Teas for 1,565 unemployed persons and their guests at 1s. 6d., £117 7s.6d.; Teas for 707 old people at 1s 6d £53 0s 6d, the firework display and torchlight procession, £55 10s.
The committee spent on the tradesmen window display, £16 15s. The cost in wages paid to council workmen was £56 14s. Various small items cost up to the total of £605 7s. 5d. which is a little within the council’s estimate. The council granted the proceeds of a 3d. rate and this amounts to £621.
An important Jubilee “sideshow” was the appeal for the Boots for Bairns fund and this was brilliantly successful. The total amount collected today is £244 18s 4d, to which must be added a promised contribution of £25 from the council and gifts of 12 pairs of boots each from the Conisborough co-operative Society and the Denaby co-operative Society. The subscriptions to the fund were £141 15s. 6d collections £53. 5s 5d., Teachers contributed £15 5s. 6d. The proceeds of a dance and variety concert (the latter including a £5 pounds) brought in £28 6s. 1d., and church collections, £5 5s. 10s.
The secretaries, in their report, warmly praised the organisation of the teas for schoolchildren, undertaken by a subcommittee of schoolmasters and school mistresses. The staff at all the schools, they say, worked loyally and efficiently. The boys and girls attending the Mexborough secondary school had tea in the Senior Selective School and joined in the sports there. The children at the Godfrey Walker, convalacent home were also supplied with tea. The mugs for the schoolchildren were distributed in the schools in advance for Jubilee day and the mugs for the younger children had still to be distributed.
Nearly all the schools in the district were given a free entertainment at the local picture house and the arrangements for these also were in the hands of the school staff. The sports were admirably managed and the children greatly enjoyed them.
Mentioned is also made of the services of the ambulance band, the ambulance Brigade, the colliery Company (the genuineness provision of the bonfire which the chairman of the meeting, Councillor D. Sheldon, declared to be the “biggest in South Yorkshire”), the Rotherham corperation and the Mexborough and Swinton Traction Co. (For sending into the district beautifully illuminated and decorated cars), Mr. Wray and his subcommittee (for organising the tradesmen window display), the nursing sisters (for expert services throughout the day), the Scouts (for organising the torchlight procession and looking up lost children) and the inhabitants generally for Street decorations.
Regarding these the report says “people passing through Conisborough and Denaby by bus and car and Jubilee day said they had not seen more beautiful or effective decorations anywhere. This is high praise indeed, but it does not go beyond the truth.”
Mr. Banks, secretary of the Welfare Institute, organise a variety entertainment, which raised £17 5s. 8d. for the Boots for bairns fund. The Mexborough traction Company, the Yorkshire traction Company, and the number of private motorists provided free transport for the old people.
Mention is made of the fact that 4,000 copies of the souvenir programme were printed and distributed.
Thanksgiving service is were held in the schools and Jubilee day and on the following Sunday in the Conisborough Parish Council, the Denaby Parish Council, the Denaby Catholic Church and other places of worship, some of these been officially attended by councillors and other public bodies. Reference is also made to the boys Brigade part in the celebrations, and the fact that the chairman of the council and several members attended the ceremony of handing over the Marathon message of the boys Brigade to the King as it passed through Conisborough on April 29th.
Prizes were given for Street decorations.
The winners at Conisborough were: 1 Athelstane Road, 2 Coronation Terrace and Willow Street, 3 Ivanhoe Road; Denaby Main: 1 Blythe street, 2 Maltby street, 3 Annerly street.
The report also mentions the unfortunate mishap which marred the celebrations; the case of a boy on the Crags who on the morning after Jubilee day while the debris was being collected from the firework display and bonfire, was injured by a live firework and permanently disabled. The meeting appointed a subcommittee to raise a fund for the unfortunate lad.
In the acknowledgements to various people mention was made of Coun. Robinson and his subcommittee who organised a Jubilee dance at which about 400 people were present. This dance raised £11 0s. 6d. for the boots for Bairns fund.
The meeting expressed great satisfaction with the report and cordially endorsed all the acknowledgements.