Welfare Grounds Wanted – Conisbrough Youth Council’s Overtures to Miners

June 1946

South Yorkshire Times June 1, 1946

Welfare Grounds Wanted
Conisbrough Youth Council’s Overtures to Miners

Conisbrough Youth Council would like to take over the Conisbrough Miners Welfare grounds and building “lock, stock and barrel.” This fact emerged from discussion at Friday’s meeting of the Youth Council after Mr M. Cattell had asked about the ground by the Youth Council for football next season.

Unwilling to lease.

Mr I. K. Hetherington (secretary) said he had been told that the Miners Welfare authorities were unwilling at the moment to open negotiations regarding a lease and the field would have to be hired season by season. The charge been the same for football as for cricket. – £10 for the season and a payment of £10 to the caretaker, a total expenditure of £40 a year. Of which the County Youth Committe paid £20. The County Youth organiser had intimated that if the youth Council could secure a 10 year lease on the grounds and hall the County Youth Committee would probably be willing to make a grant of up to £100 a year.

Mr Cattle said he thought the matter of securing a lease should be gone into. It was a pity that such a beautiful place as the Welfare Ground should be allowed to go to rack and ruin. Conisbrough had no real youth centre, but by spending £200-£250 they could create one. It might be possible to approach the Miners Welfare and take it over lock, stock and barrel. In five years time it would be one of the few open spaces in Conisbrough.

Coun. G. Cheshire said they could not attempt to put the ground in a proper state of repair without some form of protection such as a lease, nor can they expect the County Youth Committed to increase the grant. The district had to pay considerable sums to the County library committee for a separate library and here the County Youth Committee were prepared to pay another £100. If the county had anything like a broad outlook they would be prepared to take over the hall completely to the advantage of themselves and the ratepayers. It was an ideal site and could be made the centre for physical culture, art and the library.

Belongs To Miners.

When the chairman, Mr. J. Proctor, pointed out that the scheme belong to the miners and they would have to be the people to approach, and who if approached, may consider the Youth Council were interfering, Mr Cuttell said that the people of Conisbrough were the mining community and they had a moral, if not legal, claim to the use of the welfare.

Coun. D. Sheldon. J. P. Said that the scheme was laid down for the benefit of miners living at Conisbrough and working at Yorkshire Main Colliery at Edlington, but he thought there were now few who still lived at Conisbrough. There was no income for the upkeep other than for the letting of the field and hall. He thought that they should ask to meet the whole of the Miners Welfare Committee at Edlington.

Was there any authority for the Welfare Commission to hand the welfare scheme over if it was not flourishing? Coun. H. Gomersall asked, and coun. J. T. E. Collins replied that he for that would be impossible. The Miners Welfare District Committee handed over land and building to the trustees for maintenance and repair. It was likely that there would be some allocation for the various areas in the South Yorkshire district shortly, of which Conisbrough was one. As the scheme was for the welfare of miners in the Conisbrough area the miners may resent anyone outside drawing attention to its condition. They should try to gain the interest of the Edlington miners themselves. As for a 10 year’s lease, he did not think the trust deeds allowed for such a course. If they secured the backing of the Edlington miners, strong representation might be made to the District Welfare Committee.

Coun. Collins suggestion that the Miners Main Welfare Committee at Edlington, as it was their ground which was being used by the Youth Council, should be invited to have two representatives and the Youth Council, was approved.

Good Work Acknowledged.

Reporting that the newly appointed youth leader had taken up duties at the Balby Street centre, and was already making good progress, Mr Hetherington tendered his resignation as youth organiser since the inception of youth work.

The Chairman tendered the thanks of the Youth Council to Mr Hetherington for his wonderful work at Balby Street – he had been a life and soul of the centre, and the pioneer of youth work in Conisbrough.

Mr T. Howcroft, who seconded, said Mr Hetherington had cut a pattern for those who followed him. Mr Cattle, thanking Mr Hetherington, personally and on behalf of the St Peter’s church youth club, issued a word against complacency on the part of youth workers, “We are touching only about 2 ½% of the youth of Conisbrough and Denaby,” he said. “How much are we following on the work done in our schools? We ought to try teaching youth a little more of civic responsibility, than they will learn by moving about a dance floor. Don’t let us get the idea we have done such a splendid job of work and that every boy or girl who passes through the portals of the various clubs are remarkable citizens.”

Councillor Collins, who mentioned the sacrifices Mrs Hetherington had made in the vast amount of time her husband has spent at the centre. Coun. Sheldon. Coun Gomersall, and Miss G. E. Packwood also spoke.

Mr Hetherington suitably replied.