Tickhill and District Local History Society

Dennis Walker

A Wadworth Childhood – Part 1

Before the Second World War

© Dennis Walker and Tickhill and District Local History Society 2011

A note from John Millington who interviewed Dennis Walker and prepared this record:-

I have listened, with great interest, to Dennis Walker’s reminiscences for many years.

They are full of humour and humanity. I am grateful to him for allowing me access to

his writings and photographs so that this account of Wadworth life between the wars can be recorded.

My particular thanks to Hazel Moffat for her advice and helpful comments. Finally,

thanks to Steve Payne for preparing this record for the Historical Society’s website.

Cover photograph: taken in 1934, during harvest time, in Mr Senior’s stackyard on

Carr Lane.

Left to right: Leonard Kilvington, George Green (Horseman), (Inside the cart)

Dennis Walker, Robert Maxfield, Lewis Clark, and Dennis's father Harry Walker

At the farm sale in the 1950s, this cart was sold for five shillings.

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Part 1 – Before the Second World war

I was born in 1926 and have lived in Wadworth all

my life. My father, Harry Walker, was from

Inverness. He came to Wadworth to work as a

horseman on Charles Hutchinson’s farm on Carr

Lane, and married Sophie, one of the farmer’s daughters. I was their only child.

Up to the age of five, we lived on Well Lane, in a

“two up one down house”. In the corner of our

living room was a small sink with a cast iron water pump. Beneath the living room was a cellar with a

stream running through it, and from this stream we

pumped our water.

Well Lane was appropriately named, as there were eight wells along it. There were twenty-eight wells in the village, at that time.

In 1932 my family moved to 38 Post Office Row. Our new house had a living room,

kitchen and three bedrooms, so it was a great improvement on Well Lane. However, it

was still very damp. Within a week of the walls being papered, damp patches would appear. This was very disheartening for my mother. The tiled floor in the centre of the

living room was covered in coconut matting. When I was small I used to play on this

with my toys and it was very hard on my bare knees. Dust used to work its way into

the loose weave of the matting which was rolled up, weekly, put over the clothes line

and beaten with a carpet beater. Often the tiled floor was covered in a white powdery substance, which was caused by the damp seeping up from the ground. My mum

would sweep it up and this “powder” would fill a 1lb jam jar.

The school that I first attended is now the Community Centre in Wadworth. I started

school on Monday 9th November 1931, and my mother led me there through the

snow. There were three classrooms. The infants were taught by Miss Saxton; Class

two by Mr. Earnshaw; and the “top” class by the Headmaster “Dar” Healy.

At playtime each morning we were given half a bottle of milk and two ginger biscuits.

These items cost a ha’penny.

Most years we had time off school when some pupils went down with diphtheria, an

acute bacterial disease that was infectious and dangerous. The first family to be

stricken with this disease was the Fogg family who lived on Cross Street. Children

were taken to the Isolation Hospital on Crookhill Road, Conisbrough. The homes of

any who were infected had to be fumigated and so was the school.

In the playground we played the usual running and chasing games. From around

St. Valentine’s Day we boys played whip and top. Tops came in various sizes but our

favourite was the “Window Breaker”, which could be made to fly through the air and

land, yards away, still spinning.

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Wadworth School photograph 1935

Front Row: Albert Fogg, Clarence Mills, Blanche Mills, Charles Hill, Edna Thompson,

Percy Mullins, Billy Beet, Eva Maxfield, Harry Ridsdale, John Caukwell, Leslie Willis,

Fred Howitt, Dennis Walker, Beryl Huzzard, Margery Healey, Eric Hill, Douglas Marriott.

Second Row: Alice Mullins, Nancy Maw, Pamela Slack, Bessie Healey, Tom Goodall,

Charlotte Goodall, Hubert Atkinson, Raymond Maxfield, Hope Spalding, Evelyn

Atkinson, Frank Mullins, Cynthia Saxton, Robin Marriott, Kitty Marriott.

Third Row: Vera Bennett, Betty Bennett, Vina Slack, Clarence Caukwell, Fred Aldenby, Irene Aldenby, Winnie Marr, Donald Marr, Dulcie Marr, Nellie Hill, Gwendoline

Constantine, Stanley Constantine, Ernest Hill, Percy Huzzard.

Back Row: Alice Tuplin, B. Betts, Joe Howitt, Alwyn Mullins, Harry Mullins, Arthur

Constantine, Leslie Fogg, Norman Carr, Iris Carr, Douglas Slatcher, Mary Ridsdale.

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While we were playing whip and top, the girls played shuttlecock and battledore. The

shuttlecock was home-made from a bottle cork and feathers. The battledore was like a

large table tennis bat. We also skipped, both boys and girls. Here are some of the rhymes we chanted as the twelve-foot rope was turned.

“Old Dar Healey’s a very nice man,

He tries to teach us all he can.

Writing, reading, arithmetic

And he never forgets to use his stick. And when he does he makes you dance,

Out of England into France.

Out of France and into Spain

Out of Spain and back again.

When the girls were skipping, the following rhyme was chanted:

Raspberry, Strawberry, gooseberry jam,

Tell me the name of your young man.

A, B, C, D (etc)

A letter would now be called with each turn of the rope. When the rope caught the

skipper’s foot she was “given a clue” as to the name of her sweetheart, but if you

didn’t like her you used to give it a tug on the first letter of an unpopular boy’s name.

Often there were “calling” in games.

There’s somebody under the bed, Whoever can it be?

I feel so jolly nervous

……..Come in with me

A girl called a boy’s name and vice versa. Marbles were also popular, and one of the games we played was called “Poggy”.

The vicar was Rev Saunderson. He served the Parish at Wadworth from 1930-1951.

He ran a twice weekly Boys’ Club, which we enjoyed very much. The 7-11 year olds,

attended from 6.30 to 7.45 pm and the 12-14s, from 8 'til 9.15pm. Here, we played billiards, darts and ring board. We also did some fencing and boxing. This cost a

ha’penny a session and if you didn’t pay you had to leave. We used to try it on and

say “We’ll pay you next week, sir,” but it never worked.

Thomas Saunderson had a friend, Miss Beatrice Larder, who lived on Spring Well Lane, Balby. She assisted in helping the boys and girls from the village with the

Christmas Pantomime and Garden Party. After Mrs Saunderson died in 1949, Thomas

Saunderson left the ministry and married Miss Larder. They lived on Springwell Lane

until his death in 1953. He was a very good Vicar and a caring man where the children's welfare was concerned.

Percy Lazenby was a bit older than we were, but he was in our gang and wanted to

stay with the younger group in the Boys’ Club. The Vicar allowed this, but called him

“King of the Nips”, a name that remained with him all his life.

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Having Percy in our gang had a particular advantage when it came to shopping. In

Wadworth there were four shops; the Post Office on Carr Lane, Lucy Massey’s, Polly

Gill’s, and Elvidge’s.

Mrs Elvidge had a small shop attached to the White Hart. As well as weekdays, she

used to open her shop between 2 and 3 o’clock on Sunday and we would all gather

outside waiting for her to open. Elvidge’s sold monkeynuts, and for a ha’penny you

could have as many as you could carry in one hand. This is where Percy came in. He had the biggest hands in the gang, so we would send him in. Sometimes Mr Elvidge

was serving, and he realised what we were up to. So, when he was serving we went to

Polly Gill’s instead. The girls preferred to buy “Orchard Fruits” because they lasted

longer.

We had to attend church three times on Sunday and most boys and girls were in the

choir. We had quite a busy day, beginning with Family Service at 11.00am. In the

afternoon we went to Bible class between 2 and 3.30pm. The evening service was

between 6 and 7pm, and this was followed by choir practice at 7.15.

The verger at this time was Robert Tuplin. One of his jobs was to toll the Passing Bell

at 6pm in the evening. This signified a death in the village and had been a custom that

had gone on for hundreds of years. If a woman had died the bell would toll twice.

There would be an interval of three seconds; twice more and a further interval of three

seconds; then twice more. Then there would be a pause of half a minute. The bell would then ring the number of years of the deceased’s age. If a man had died the bell

pattern would be in threes, followed by his age. People would stand at their cottage

doors counting the tolls, and they would have had a good idea which person it was

because the community was very close. This practice went on until the start of the

war.

In addition to his bell ringing duties, Robert Tuplin was also responsible for keeping

the church heated. One Sunday morning he was down the “stoke hole” as some

members of the choir went by. The door stood temptingly open and it was very easy

to close, and bolt it, without being detected, before we went on our way home. That night Evensong proceeded normally, and we thought we had got away with it. But

before we left the vicar wanted “a word” with us.

“Who locked Tuplin in the stoke hole?” he demanded.

Unfortunately, Robert Tuplin, finding himself imprisoned in the stoke hole, and

wanting his Sunday dinner had to knock out some brickwork in order to escape.

We were each fined half a crown to pay for repairs. Our pay for singing in the choir

was a ha’penny a service, so we were fined the equivalent of sixty services pay.

There were two annual events that we always looked forward to - the Maypole and

Wadworth Feast.

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Wadworth Maypole Committee 1935

Back Row L to R: Wilfred Slack, Jack Gilbert (Farmer), Mr. Chester (Farmer), William

Clayton (Farmer), Harry Marriott (Joiner), Rev Saunderson, Sidney Burtwhistle (Farmer), Mr Bristow (Farmer), Herbert Moyser.

Front Row: Mesdames Olive Hutchinson, Charlotte Willoughby, Lily Jenkinson,

Mr Cunningham, Mesdames Porter, Dorothy Mullins, Annie Hardwick

The last Maypole Ceremony in Main Street, 1964

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Our maypole festival was always held on the nearest Thursday to Oak Apple Day,

29th May. The village maypole, at that time, stood about 50 yards from the chip shop,

in front of the White Hart. The ceremony started about 6.30pm with the crowning of the May Queen. The maypole was then garlanded. Before the actual maypole dancing

there was some country dancing.

Photograph taken in the late 1920s or early 1930s 1 Leslie Willis, 2 Roy Huzzard, 3 Joyce Booker, 4 Bill Speight

5 Nellie Petican, 6 Arthur Constantine, 7 Eric Bristow, 8 Vina Slack, 9 Muriel Mitchell, and 10 Phyllis Slack.

At the time of dancing, George Clayton and his wife Patty would be stoking the coal

fire in their fish shop, ready for the “big rush” at the end of the dancing. The parents

were not too happy when specks of soot fell from the chimney onto their daughters’ white dresses. Later on there was a whist drive from 7.30 until 9.30pm and after that a

dance in the village hall. This began at 10pm and went on until 2am next morning.

The music was provided by Horace Dodds and his band, from Doncaster, and

comprised of piano, saxophone, drums and piano accordion.

The Fox and Hounds and the White Hart were open from 6 until 10pm. Every night,

not just on maypole celebrations, the village policeman, “Bobby” Dobson, went into

the rooms in each pub to make sure that all drinks were finished and glasses were

behind the bar. The landlord of the White Hart often left a bottle of beer on the back

step for the policeman, but sometimes the village lads got there first. They’d drink the beer. Then, they’d take the bottle back to the off licence to get the money back.

Across the road was Polly Gill’s shop where, for a penny, you could buy two

cigarettes and two matches. They then went into the barn for a smoke. A good night

out!

Fairgrounds have always been associated with Doncaster Races, particularly the

St. Leger. After the races, the fairground people travelled to the surrounding villages

and Wadworth Feast was held on the nearest Sunday to 18th September. The stalls

were set up in the barnyard next to the Fox and Hounds. There was a coconut shy,

skittles, and “throw a ball into a bucket”. But even if you got three balls in the bucket, you only got one prize. The star attractions were one mule and eight donkeys.

These animals stood “patiently” with their backs to the wall in front of the maypole.

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Riding the mule was at your own risk. There was a notice tacked onto the maypole to

that effect, and only boys of sixteen and over were allowed to attempt the hazardous

circuit round part of the village. The course started by going down Fish Shop Hill, along Well Lane; up Ratten Row; along the front of the White Hart, and back to the

maypole. Not many lads got round the course. The mule would go down Fish Shop

Hill without too much bother, but, on arrival at Well Lane it would buck and try to

throw the rider off. Usually it arrived back at the starting point minus the rider. The

older boys had bets on who could stay on the mule and get round the course. A mule ride was twopence, the donkeys were a penny. To persuade the donkeys to run, a boy

would run in front with a carrot on a string and another at the back, slapping the

donkey on its rump. A more sedate ride was by Henry’s wagonette, “All round the

village for a penny”. The route was from the White Hart to Quarry Corner on Wilsic

Road, Chapel Lane, onto High Street and back to the White Hart.

The village butchers, then as now, was run by the Slack family. There was Mr and

Mrs Frank Slack and their children who were Wilfred, Leonard, Eddie, Vina, Phyllis,

Duncan, Mary and Philip. During race week, the family often went off for a break in

Bridlington.

One race week, they went away and left their Saturday lad, Percy Lazenby to wash

and clean the shop. Mr Slack told Percy that there was a chicken left in the back

room, and that he could take it home with him when he locked up. While he was

finishing off, a Mrs Thomlinson came in and said to Percy, “Has tha got owt left, lad?”

Percy replied “There’s a chicken in the back.”

“I’ll take it,” she says.

Percy brought the bird round, and she asked how much it was.

“Two and Threepence,” replies Percy. Mrs Thomlinson looked at the bird and then asked if there were any more. Percy said

that he would check and, taking the chicken with him went into the back room. He

returned, a few moments later, carrying the same chicken.

“How much is that one?” said Mrs Thomlinson.

“This one’s three and six.” said Percy. “I’ll take ‘em both,” she said, and Percy was found out.

The local gamekeeper was Jack Clayton who lived in Wadworth Wood House. When

we were children we would go into the wood blackberrying. In the summer months,

his wife would sit outside the house to deter people from going by. In those days, the younger children thought this was the norm, but not our fathers. They would go into

the wood, whenever they liked, looking for straight branches that were forked and

could be used as clothes props. As we grew older we learned to sneak past.

It was Jack’s brother George who kept the village chip shop from the late thirties into the 1960s. In the thirties a portion of chips, with scraps, was a ha’penny. Fish, chips

and peas were threepence.

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The Post Office was

run by Mr and Mrs

George Laycock. This was the only building in

Wadworth that had a

telephone. If a doctor

was needed a message

had to be left at the Post Office before 9.15am.

The doctor would pick

up these messages and

then make his calls. If

anyone needed medicines, Mr Samuel

Maxfield went to

Tickhill to collect them and a charge of three pence a bottle had to be paid. Samuel

Maxfield carried out this duty for at least fifteen years, six days a week.

The post, at this time came locked in a special container on the Tickhill bus. Some

days I was given the key and sent to collect it. As I lived so near to the Post Office,

one of my part time jobs was delivering telegrams. Telegrams for the village were

handled by the Laycocks but I delivered any that were for Wellingley, Loversall,

Alverley, Wilsic and Potteric Carr. The charge for a telegram was a shilling and most people dreaded receiving one because it often contained bad news. The Post Office

staff knew what each telegram contained. Sometimes they said, “Don’t wait for an

answer.”

In the early 1930s a poultry farm opened near the houses at Wilsic Arches. The living accommodation was a large wooden bungalow facing Long Gate. The son of the

household was Peter who came to school at Wadworth. I used to help him to collect

the eggs. Poultry farms were closed at the start of the war, as wheat grain had to be

conserved. Many families in Wadworth normally kept a few hens.

Gypsies would stay on Green Lane in their Romany caravans, and both men and

women would go into the wood searching for willow branches to make clothes pegs.

These would be sold around the villages. Willow branches were also bent like bows,

and covered in canvas to make tents for their children to sleep in.

Another frequent visitor was Watercress Charlie, whose real name was William

Daniel Gray. Where Daniel Gray came from was a mystery. He rode a bike with a box

on the back to carry watercress. He gathered this watercress from Salter Sykes, a

spring long ago filled in on Daw Lane and sold it locally in Rossington, Edlington and

Maltby. Daniel was always smartly dressed in white corduroy trousers, which were immaculate, and he was very well spoken. He was well over six feet tall and he had a

gold tooth. We were rather scared of him. Once a parcel arrived at Tickhill addressed

to William Daniel Gray, Wellingley Hall.

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The remains of Watercress Charlie’s

cottage, which he lived in from 1930

–1950, can still be seen near Billy Wright’s Lane, at Wellingley. He

built it himself and paid one shilling

a year ground rent for this cottage,

which had no amenities. He

collected coal that had fallen from railway wagons for cooking and

heating, and he drank water from the

nearby spring. Mr Burtwhistle, the

farmer, allowed him to take what

vegetables he needed from the fields. He varied his diet by

purchasing bread, cheese and scraps

of bacon from Lucy Massey’s shop.

There was no help from the government at this time and his independence did him

credit. Watercress Charlie died in Doncaster Royal Infirmary sixty years ago.

There were more than a dozen farms in Wadworth, some large, some relatively small.

There were also four farms on Carr Lane, one of which was my Grandfather’s (Homestead

Farm).

Homestead Farm, demolished in 1960. The man feeding the horse is Ebor Hutchinson

Most farms still relied on horsepower for day to day tasks. Some of the bigger farms

had as many as eight horses. My Grandfather had three. There was always work for

the blacksmith whose forge stood at the junction of Well Lane and Carr Lane. The

blacksmith was Mr FitzGeorge. If we bent the axles of our trolleys we would visit the

smithy in the hope that he would straighten them. There was a price, however. “Just blow those bellows for me,” he would say, and we would be pumping all

morning 'til he got round to our repairs.

Life in the village followed a pattern, mainly connected with the farming calendar.

In springtime, the “Entire” arrived at Tickhill Station. This was the stallion that served the mares in the local farms. Unloading was a dangerous business and once a man was

killed. The stallion was led from farm to farm. He was too unpredictable to be ridden.

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Map to show some of the Wadworth farms in the 1930s

The map is based on the O.S. 1928 Edition.

1. Old Hall Farm. William Clayton

2. Maw’s Farm

3. Manor Farm. Jack Gilbert 4. Lowe’s Farm. John Lowe

5. Homestead Farm. Charles Hutchinson 6. Sunnyside Farm. Edward Hill

7. Pear Tree Farm. Percy Burtwhistle

8. Grange Farm. Mr Belk 9. Long Farm. Sidney Burtwhistle

10. Mill Farm and Parson’s Carr Farm. Tom Howitt

11. Hall Farm. Kenneth Durdy There was also a Manor Farm on Carr Lane.

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Peas were harvested in July and were taken on a daily basis to Manchester by

Mr Sentence, the village haulage contractor. Women from Edlington were paid half a

crown for each four stone bag they filled. A good picker could earn £1 a day, which was good money in the thirties. Corn crops were harvested in September. This meant

hard work for everyone.

Threshing gang at Pear Tree Farm in the 1930s

Messrs Parker, Arthur Green, Donald Marr (Boy), Fred Marr, Albert Burtwhistle,

Sidney Burtwhistle (Farmer), Tibby Kilvington, Douglas Slatcher, Joseph Nelson,

William Bennet (Engine Driver).

A minimum threshing gang was nine men. Two men pitched the sheaves from the

corn rick onto the top of the machine. There were another two men on top of the

machine. One cut the binding string, while the other fed the sheaves into the thresher. One man on the ground below put the empty corn sacks on the appropriate spout.

When full the sixteen stone sacks were tied before being carried up the twelve steps

into the granary. Another man was responsible for the chaff, which was carried to the

rick by an elevator. Two more were needed to build the rick. The engine driver made

sure that the machine ran properly .

Domestic life also had a set pattern, and as we grew older we began to take a more

active role particularly at home. Washday, in our house, was always on Monday, but the preparation began on Sunday afternoon. After dinner my job was to carry nine

buckets of water from the pump fifty yards to the washhouse. This water was poured

into the copper to be heated for washday on Monday. I then had to lay the fire so that

I could light it at 6.30am before I went to work. If all went well there would be

enough hot water for mum to start washing by 8.30am. Unfortunately, if the wind was in the wrong direction and there was a downdraft the fire would go out and then there

were delays. We had two dolly tubs, one for washing clothes and the other for rinsing;

a dolly peg (like a three legged stool on the end of a stick) to agitate the washing, a

washboard and mangle to remove most of the water. After that the washing was

pegged out to dry. Before I was working I used to help, but once I was in such a hurry to go and play that I caught my mother’s hair in the rollers on the mangle I did

not repeat this. There were no electric irons, as there was no electricity in Wadworth

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until 1938. Flat irons were heated, and used alternately, on the Yorkshire range. If the

iron was hot enough it sizzled when spat on. The table was covered in a white sheet.

Ironing boards were still a thing of the future.

During the middle to late thirties we often used to walk into Tickhill to save the

fourpence bus fare. With the money we saved we could buy a new cricket ball, and, apart from having a haircut at Westwood’s, we could meet the Tickhill girls.

We also used to get into Doncaster on Saturdays. We went with Jack Gilbert. Jack lived with

his mother at Manor Farm, Main Street. Every Saturday he would call, in his van, at Lucy’s

shop with an egg delivery before going on to Doncaster. Whilst he was in the shop four or

five of us would pile into the back of the van for a ride into town. When he returned he would

remind us to be careful with his eggs.

He always parked at the Wellington pub in the market place. Opposite the Wellington,

the Blackshirts, (Oswald Mosely’s gang) held meetings. The speaker would stand on

an orange box and the police would be there with the Black Maria loading them in.

I heard the announcement that we were at war with Germany while standing outside

our back door.

Part 2 of this record of interviews with Dennis Walker will take the story on from here

and cover his memories of wartime