Mexborough and Swinton Times July 24, 1936
Old Conisborough
Interesting History Recalled
Two Veteran’s Look Back
A “South Yorkshire Times” representative dropped across two men last weekend who between them had a store of reminiscences of a bygone Conisborough. They were Mr Arthur Swift, of Belton, who celebrates his 77th birthday in a few days, who was staying with an old friend, Mr John Kelly, “mine host” the Castle Inn, Conisborough.
Mr Kelly is one of the oldest natives and Mr Swift very nearly is. He only missed being born in Conisbrough by three weeks, being acturally born at Greasbro his family came to live in Farnsworth’s yard, opposite Anderton’s tea gardens, long since disappeared. “Anderton tea gardens” were where the Turnbull property now is in Castle Street.
As boys these two went to school first at the old Moot Hall, which has given way to the Church Hall. The school was conducted by a miss Cudworth, and the scholars paid one penny per week. They used to sit in galleries, boys on one side and girls on the other. Mr Swift once remembers a visit of the curate at the time, the rev. Lodge. The boys Stood and bowed, the Girl courtesy, but Swift did not leave his seat. Up the steps dashed miss Cudworth and “brayed” him with a stick.
Payday on Monday.
Later they went to a school for older pupils, kept by Mr George Harris, halfway up Clifton hill. There they paid 2p per week, but if they attended on Monday morning and paid no one bothered if there were no more attendances that week. Mr Harris apparently did not spare the rod, for some boys walked to Hooton Robert school rather than attend the school where the discipline was rigorous.
At the age of 8 Mr Smith emptied the Parish Church choir and as a reward he went to school three. He can recite the names of the men and boys of the choir, and among them the name of “Oxfley” predominated. He recalls, Augustus, Eddie, Leonard, Fred, and the one who later became Sir Alfred Rice Oxley and a physician to royalty. The organist was George Oxley.
At the age of 9 young Swift began work at the sickle works, but soon went to the vicarage as a pageboy. Then he went to draw Kilns at the glassworks but that was a warm job and he returned to the vicarage. When the South Yorkshire railway removed from the river Don yard to the Mexborough plant, the place was taken over by Messrs. Baker and Burnett, who established a wheel and axle works there, and Mr Swift then began an association which lasted on and off until his retirement. His first job was in a boiler inspection, and with Mr Baker he was nearly suffocated by fumes from a flare lamp, so he was given a shilling to fetch some tallow candles. He spent the whole shilling on a armful. A supper was held when the first set of wheels was turned out
Conisborough at that time consisted of Wellgate, Elm Green Yard, March Gate. Coronation Terrace, Booth’s Smiths, and Kent Yards, Rotherham’s Yard, a few isolated whitewashed houses, and a few farms. These two worhies remember a stack yard fire where Morley Place Schools now stand, and the fire which destroyed the Tithe barn, which stood where the police station now is. At that time donkeys and cows grazed in the churchyard.
Water from “Town” Well
Water had to be fetched from the “town” well in Well gate, but in 1869 the springs dried up and residents had to go to the rock at the foot of Denbrook Hill for drinking water and to the river for washing water.
Often journeys had to be made to Parks Farm for milk, as the local village farmers kept all they produced for butter making. Goods were mostly home produced, and there were 11 shoemakers to keep the inhabitants footwear in repair. There were no policeman as we know them, and they remember the first uniformed “bobby” (a man named Plant) coming to Conisbrough.” They saw the cutting of the first sod for the Denaby Main colliery in 1862, and two years later a Mr George Kilner, of Thornhill Lees, came past. He noted a piece of ground in close proximity to the railway in the river, with a colliery springing up, and there he opened a glassworks.
It was in those glassworks that Mr Kelly spent most of his working days. Bricks then were made in Conisbrough cliffs and in the plantation in Dale Road there was a brick works which made the bricks used at Thrybergh waterworks. This had long since disappeared.
The pair remember Denaby when there was only one row of houses, opposite the Reresby Arms and opposite a church and a toll house, which have disappeared. About 1886 Mr Swift went to the Rotherham works of bakery and burn it, and during the Great War he had charge at nights, making 4.5 shells.
The first binder to come to Conisbrough aroused a stir Joe. Six horses were needed to drive it for Mr T. E. Simpson, Conisbrough appears to have had more public houses then than it has today, for the Cricketers Arms has disappeared from Brooks Square and the Royal Oak has vanished from Church Street, as has a beer off licence which was almost next door to it. The Wesleyan Chapel then was in Castle Avenue, generally known as “Blythe’s Chapel,” and Mr John Blythe has much to do with the erection of Wesley Chapel.
Good Fishing.
The river Don then was a good fishing ground, and sometimes 100 anglers could be seen in matches, while otters were not unknown. These two men remember 93 couples of rabbits been taken at harvest time in the year before sinking commenced at Cadeby colliery.
Residents had to make their own amusements; there were “penny readings” and “spelling bees” in the Moot hall and occasional puppet shows in the Eagle and Child yard. Young men played cricket with home-made bats in the Castle Yard and they recall the appearance of a football. The wheel and axle works could beat the glassworks at cricket, but not at the “supping” which accompanied it, when they began operations on a “36.”
Illumination was by candles and oil lamps, but there was gas for the station, manufactured in the River Don Yard. The Castle Inn was a bone Mill and the tanyard was a place of importance. Walking was the chief means of transport.
That just about exhausted the “memories,” but when next these two men are together we hope to get a description of the tepography of the Conisbrough of 70 years ago. Mr Swift, who has been living in Belton, for 24 years, has been a Chorister for 67 years.