Conisbro’ Folk Query Lock-out.

For 70 years or more Conisbrough residents used 30 yards long Foundry Lane as a short cut, and no-one questioned their right – until last year.

Without warning the West Riding County Council put large steel-framed gates at both ends of the lane – which joins busy Station Road and Low Road, part of the main trunk road through the village – and padlocked them.

Now villagers are wondering if County officials have any right to lock them out.

‘I can’t understand how they can do it,’ one if Conisbrough’s oldest residents, Mr. Charles Ledger (87), told the ‘South Yorkshire Times’ on Wednesday.

Right of Way.

‘I’ve lived in Conisbrough all my life, and I remember Foundry Lane as a right of way to the railway goods yards and local foundry 70 years ago. I can’t see how they can close it after all this time-there must have been a road there 100 years,’ added Mr. Ledger, head of a firm of plumbing contractors.

It was after complaints from residents about 12 months ago that the former clerk to Conisbrough Urban Council, Mr. R. F. Edwardson, wrote to the County Council, questioning their right to put up the gates.

The County authority have since replied that they hold the deeds to the land, and there is no public right of way down Foundry Lane which runs by the side of Station Road Primary School

Conisbrough is not convinced.

Mr. J. J. Urch, of 21a, Church Street, Conisbrough, is one of several villagers who also wrote to the County Council. He has not yet been officially notified of their decision, although he was promised a reply by County Clerk, Sir Bernard Kenyon.

Mr. Urch said, ‘It doesn’t affect me directly, but Foundry Lane is surely a right of way. It has been open as long as I can remember, and even had a name plate at one time. For a path to be closed to the public, I believe it has to be shut off for at least one day every year.’
To back his claim, Mr. Urch has an Ordnance Survey Map dating from 1902, clearly showing Foundry Lane as an unobstructed road.

Owners.

In a letter to the ‘South Yorkshire Times,’ Mr. A. A. Bowman, of 3, Sherwood Avenue, Conanby, Conisbrough, points out that the lane lies between the school and the land, formerly the property of the owners of the Station Hotel, at the junction of Station Road and Low Road.

Mr. Bowman writes, ‘This land was always fenced in by the brewery company, leaving a clear right of way between their land and station Road School.

‘The County Council has apparently purchased this land, sown it with grass and fenced it all in, including Foundry Lane, right up to the school yard wall.

Mr. R. M. Clarke, surveyor to the local urban council, commented, ‘The lane has always been accepted as a right of way by the people of Conisbrough, but since Mr. Edwardson wrote to the County, they have replied that they hold the deeds to the land. They say there is no right of way, and as they hold the deeds, there isn’t much else we can do.’