Recent Updates
Ferry Lane Photos page
New photos added
Stanley Ferry Workshops to the left with the old toll bridge centre. The old Ferryboat pub is far right with the Heywood Arms centre, the Ship Inn can be seen in the distance. Photo from the 1940s
Similar view as the photo above, this photo was taken in 1968, gone are the Heywood Arms and Ferryboat pub, the Ship Inn can be seen in the distance
Stanley Ferry History Page
Stanley Ferry Workshops
The first Aire & Calder Navigation Workshops were not as many believe built at Stanley Ferry, but half a mile down river at Lake Lock, (Lake Lock Yard) which opened in 1802. As demand increased It was later decided that rather than pay individual contractors to repair vessels, they would have a central workshop. The decision was made to purchase land alongside the river at Stanley Ferry to build the new workshop and erect houses to accommodate their workmen, Calder Row.
In 1833 more land was purchased to accommodate the increased trade that would be brought by the building of the canal and Aqueduct over the coming years. In 1854 the land alongside the Aqueduct was leased to a firm of boat builders who built a dry dock. The Navigation Company built its offices alongside and in 1873 they took over the dry dock and built new, larger workshops.
By 1875 this repair facility was established as the principal repair yard for the Aire and Calder Navigation Company. The workshops made 58ft long cargo boats until the Second World War when the workshops went on to store Tom Puddings and repair vessels and lock gates.
By the 1960s the boom in bulk handling vessels was well and truly over. Motorways became the transport of choice forcing the workshops to move into sole manufacture of lock gates. The workshops today thrive as one of only two places in the country where lock gates are refurbished and new ones constructed. Sadly the dry dock is no longer in use, but it is hoped when British Waterways hand over the running of the waterways to the Canal & River Trust later this year investment can be found so that once again boat repairs will take place at Stanley Ferry.
The Wakefield Seaside School Page added
Click image below to go to page
Updates added 11th February
Schools Page
Saint Peters School 1960s photos added courtesy of Saint Peters School
Village Photos Page
New photo added
Victoria Café and filling station which stood on the junction of Lime Pit Lane & Aberford Road
Monthly Feature Page
After a long absence, Its back! Bringing you a variety of subjects from around the area, this month is the three cities, three rooftops project which covers Wakefield, Bradford & Leeds. The idea was to show our three closest Cities from above, I hope you agree they look pretty splendid from up there!
All photos taken by George Parfitt
Wakefield
Bradford
Leeds
Updates added 3rd February
Ferry Lane Photos Page
2012 photos added
Canal view
Aqueduct & Marina
Aqueduct
Canal bridge
Group Photos Page
New photos added courtesy of Patricia Garlick nee Morris
Patricia Morris, Carol McGarry and Julie Burkinshaw– Stanley Gala Fancy dress – 1972
Stanley Gala Queen – Mary Walker – Page boy – Ian McGarry – 1971 or 1972
Stanley Gala Queen – Mary Walker – Page boy – Ian McGarry – 1971 or 1972
Stanley Gala floats – 1971/72
Stanley Gala floats – 1971/72
Stanley Gala floats – 1971/72
Schools Page
New photo added courtesy of Patricia Garlick nee Morris
St Peters Choir – 1972 Pontefract Music Festival
Top Row Not Known, Not known, Carol Hitchin, Carol Slingsby, Miss Tintor, Fiona Heslop, Sally Butterfield, Patricia Morris
Middle Row – Jane Tamlin, Not known, Not known, June Benson, Penny Dixon, Neil Ansell, Not known, Patricia Bratley, Not Known
Front Row – Miss Paton, Not Known, Not Known, Andrea Ward, Carol McGarry, Mrs Bocock, Not known, Sain Davis, Not known, Val Wood, Linda Sheilds, Karen Morris
Lee Moor Photos Page
Photo added courtesy of John Shaw
Lee Moor Lane 1972
Updates added 25th January
Saint Peters Church Page
A Cryptic Conversion
Article from the Stanley Parish Magazine October 1980
Although many people have walked over it, few would realise that, beneath their feet lies a duplicate of our huge church, each column standing on its own massive, stone pillar, so reproducing the north, central and south aisles with their corresponding north to south bays. These bays are matched by vaults, each 60ft long, 15ft wide and 10ft high to the roof, and all this underground structure is known as the crypt.
During the early 1800s parts of these vaults were made available for private burial in stone tombs; regrettably this was done without any apparent plan so that each vault is at some point blocked by five or more of these stone coffins, of which there are some sixty. Taking the view that today’s youngsters are tomorrows churchmen and churchwomen , and that they should encouraged and catered for; the vicar and one or two “ancients” got together and produced “The Plan”.
Authorisation was obtained to remove the five tombs which blocked the most suitable vault, the remains were lifted with care and given reverent interment into the churchyard. Given an unrestricted floor area of 900 square ft, the way was open to produce an effective youth complex and the work is well in hand.
Toilets have been installed, the antique water pipes with their accumulated rust have been replaced with modern plastic before the building of low partition walls. The floor, at present rather like Church Road, is to be concreted to a smooth, level finish, treated against dust.
Florescent lighting and ceiling heaters are to be fitted, roof and walls to be given an artex finish, storage facilities to be provided for Scout, Guide and other property. The end product should be a clean looking, warm, well lit recreation centre for youngsters.
Perhaps the most difficult project will be the construction of the new access stairs, on the south wall, using the old A.R.P doorway. In this the vicar has excelled himself and thanks to the media is now known as the “Ecclesiastical Excavator!”
As the work progresses, I hope to provide further news of this major development which is being accomplished on a shoestring budget, thanks to the voluntary work of a small but dedicated band.
The Ecclesiastical Excavator! Rev Peter Hicks
Photo from the Wakefield Express 1980
Group Photos Page
New photo added
Stanley Womans Institute 1960s
Updates added 17th January
Saint Peters Church Page
The future of the old church
The interior woodwork has now been sold (with the exception of the font) but still no buyer has been found for the building. A recent structural survey has shown significant movement to the rear of the building, this added to the roof problems on the south wall leave the church in a very dangerous state.
A developer who recently showed interest in the building wanted to demolish it, saving only the towers and incorporate them into a new structure. The reason for this is it is no longer financially viable to convert the building, a weak housing market and building sector would make any such conversion project difficult and probably unprofitable.
Realistically the longer the building is left, the more likely it will be demolished, the towers possibly saved at best. As a village the question must be then answered, would you rather see at least the towers saved or would you prefer to see the whole church demolished and maybe the footprint of the building preserved as some kind of memorial seating area? Please add your thoughts to the comments box which can be found under the photo below.
Saint Peters Church 2012
This rare twin towered church dominates the skyline for miles around and can be seen from as far away as East Ardsley. What would you like to see happen to the building?
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Updates added 10th January
Newland Estate Page
New photos added
Derelict Stanley Lodge, early 1980s
Photo courtesy of Paul Dainton
Newland Hall 1915
Photo courtesy of Paul Dainton
Newland Estate Page
2012 photos added
Stanley Urban District Council Page
New photo added
Stanley Urban District Council, early 1960s
Updates added 3rd January
Hatfeild Hall Page
1991 photos
Hatfeild Lodge 1900
The lodge stood opposite The Graziers on Aberford Road and was demolished during the 1950s
Saint Peters Church Page
1911 photo added courtesy of John Shaw
18th February 1911 after the fire
Updates added 24th December
Ferry Lane Photos Page
New photos added
The old toll bridge with the Heywood Arms on the other side
Aqueduct & wooden breakwater
Aqueduct
Hatfeild Hall Page
Coach House 2011 photos added
Built in the 1770s during the period when the hall was re fronted and extended, the coach house was built in keeping with the new gothic design of the hall. It was built in the first instance to house the horse drawn carriages, complete with paddock to the rear. Access was via the front gate of Hatefield from Aberford Road, and via a second driveway from Outwood, hence Coach Road (The Lodge at the Outwood entrance has long gone, but stood in the field next to the turkey farm on Rooks Nest Road). The Coach house was later altered to house the motor cars of the then owners, the Beaumont family. Incidentally, the Beaumont family were the first in the Stanley area to own a motor car. When the West Riding Asylum Board bought the hall in the 1920s the outbuildings were neglected to the point of dereliction and after the 1987 fire at the hall, the summer house, outbuildings and coach house were all but destroyed, the stone stolen.
Hatfeild Hall Page
1969 ariel view of the estate added
View of Hatfeild and surrounding outbuildings 1969. This photos shows just how large the hall complex was, only the coach house (in part) survives today, all the other buildings were demolished during the 1980s.
Updates added 19th December
Hatfeild Hall Page
Hatfeild wedding photo added courtesy of Geof & Margaret Adams
This wedding took place on the 30th August 1913 at St Mary Magdalene, Outwood. The bride and groom are Florrie Simpson and John Jowitt, from the marriage certificate, Florrie is aged 24, spinster, no occupation, residence at the time of the wedding at Hatfield Hall Lodge, Outwood, father William Simpson, gardener. John is also 24, Bachelor, Electrical Engineer, Wesley Street, Belle Vue, Wakefield, father John Jowitt, signal fitter.If the group is in the conventional wedding grouping, then we presume that William Simpson, the gardener is next to the bride. The certificate is signed by a John Thomas Simpson (we think Florrie brother) and another Simpson, first name beginning with E, so presumably these will be on the photo.On the grooms side his mother, Elizabeth is sitting with the little girl in front of her.
Stanley Station Page
Ticket photo added courtesy of John Shaw
As a youngster, we had friends in Ardsley, and my parents used the train for speed and cheapness. It took around 7 minutes as compared to the best part of an hour by West Riding bus. This required a no. 92 from Stanley to Wakefield bus station and then I think a 58, 60 or 61 Bradford bus from Wakefield to the top of Common Lane East Ardsley.
Village Photos Page
Lime Pit Lane photo added, courtesy of John Shaw
Lime Pit Lane 1972
Updates added 12th December
Stanley Ferry History Page
Aqueduct 2011 photos added
Hospitals Page
Pinderfields demolition photos added
Updates added 3rd December
Local Stories Page
One stormy night
Information courtesy of Mary Clements
Upon the death of her father Herbert Fox in 1953 (Mr Fox was Colliery Manager at Newmarket Colliery), Mary and the rest of the family had to move out of the colliery managers house on Newmarket Lane into a smaller house opposite, which was supplied by the NCB. Mary recalled one winters night after the family had just moved into the house, the rain was driving across the fields towards the house, the wind howling.
Shortly after they had all gone to bed there was an enormous crash from above, which woke everyone in the house. Mary recalled her mother racing to her sisters bedroom and being unable to open the door, it soon became obvious that part of the roof had fallen in to the bedroom caused by the chimney pot coming loose in the wind and crashing through the roof. All the debris had piled up behind the door stopping them entering. In panic her mother ran across the then rhubarb fields towards the colliery to get help for her daughter. To this day Mary is amazed how her mother ran bare foot across the fields, in the middle of the night.
Once help had arrived, they managed to open the door to find the girl under the bed, unhurt by all the rubble that had fallen into the room, her face as black as a miners from all the soot from the collapsed chimney. Mary recalls thinking how lucky her sister had been, obviously frightened by the howling wind, she had got under the bed, amazingly this action had probably saved her life.
Newmarket Colliery, by the late Jack Calvert who did the ink drawing for Mrs Clements in 1994. The picture hangs on her living room wall and shows the field her mother ran across that evening, the building bottom left was the medical room where she went to get help
Colliery Photos Page
New photos added courtesy of John Shaw
Newmarket Colliery 1983
Newmarket Colliery 1983
Lofthouse Colliery 1981
Updates added 24th November
Stanley Station Page
The Station Master
Information courtesy of John Shaw & Wilma Muskett
As far as we know, the last station master of Stanley Station was a Mr Atkinson. A portly gentleman in the early 1960s who may have been Mr Atkinson. Station Masters were seen as key figures in the community and some had a commercial interest in the freight yard, taking a commission for certain loads. I do not know if this applied at Stanley. I also recall Bill Allison,( 1909-1984?) the station porter. He married Emma Taylor, who had a sister Gladys, married to Jim Smales. Also in the early 1960s, Harvey Wainwright, (and I think his son John), were signalmen at Stanley. As a youngster, we used the Stanley-Ardsley-Leeds Central service often. The return fare from Stanley to Ardsley around 1960 was 7 old pence (3 or 4 new pence). Apart from passenger and goods trains, there were summer excursions. Some were for local school parties going to Cleethorpes, Bridlington and other resorts. The trains were full and the fare included a packed lunch.
Station timetable 1961
Village Photos Page
New photo added, courtesy of John Shaw
Aberford Road looking towards Oulton as work starts on the M62. The bridge to the right was part of the line that ran from Lofthouse to Newmarket. The area is almost unrecognisable in comparison to today
Updates added 17th November
Village Chapels Page
Zion Congregational Chapel organ information added, courtesy of John Shaw
Mr J H Fleck of Stanley Hall, owned a spinning mill and gave the organ, a rare Schulze instrument to the chapel. The renowned organ builder was founded about 1688 by J F Schulze in Paulinzelle, near Leipzig. The business lasted five generations until the death of the last owner, Heinrich Edmund Schulze (1824-78). I believe that Fleck met Edmund Schulze in England and ordered this house sized organ for installation in Stanley Hall sometime in the 1870s at a cost of around £200. Fleck donated it to the Zion Chapel. George Duxbury, the organist for many years, was a painter and decorator, and I had the pleasure of knowing him and trying out the organ about 50 years ago. Around 1996, the new occupants of the chapel unfortunately disposed of this rare organ. I believe it is now in the church of St James the Apostle, Grafton Underwood, Northants. A great loss to Stanley. I also recall Miss Humphrey, a stalwart of the chapel and member of the market gardening family in Stanley.
Stanley Station Page
Photo added courtesy of John Shaw
Stanley Station 1972
Village Photos Page
Shires House photo added courtesy of John Shaw
Shires house stood on Intake Lane and was the Shires Pit Managers house. It was demolished in the 1950s to make way for the prefab houses that still occupy the site today
Updates added 10th November
Village Shops Page
The Lime Pit Lane Sweet Shop, by John Shaw
The shop was at its heyday a successful grocery and general dealer. George Cooper and his wife Mabel both the shop and row of houses just after WW2. They prospered and in around 1960 retired to a large house on Oulton Hill. The next owners were Ray and Barbara Bastow. Ray was a miner and they sold up around 1964 I think. The next owners were the Pickles (Harold and Edith). Harold worked for Greens Economisers in Wakefield and he was much older than his wife. I think they were gone by the early 1970s, which is when I also left Stanley upon marriage.
Group Photos Page
Grove School Rounder’s photo information added, courtesy of John Shaw, click image below to go to page
The two teachers are on the left, Miss Kathleen Hall and the right, Mrs Emelie Armitage. Miss Kathleen Hall was the daughter of Roland Hall, builder, and living on Rooks Nest Road near Woollin’s shop. She died young in the 1970s. Emelie Anderson (13.7.1913-2004) married Thomas Armitage, also a teacher, but at the school on Canal Lane. Miss Hall taught the pupils in the first 2 years and Mrs Armitage the last year pupils. I was at the school 1952-58. Mrs Armitage was an excellent teacher and helped me a great deal.
Village Chapels Page
Lane Ends Chapel photo added, courtesy of John Shaw, click image below to go to page
Lee Moor Photos Page
Photos added courtesy of John Shaw, click image below to go to page
Updates added 3rd November
Hospitals Page
Saint Faiths photo added, click image below to go to page
Village Pubs Page
Grove Park photo added, click image below to go to page
Monthly Feature Page
Saint Faiths video footage added
Updates added 26th October
Ferry Lane Prefabs Page
The following are some of the families who lived on Victory Avenue on the prefabs estate, courtesy of Barry & Malcolm Pinder
At No.1 were The Allsopps with Ada, Arthur and children Dorothy, Peter, Ian and June. At No.4 were The Fouracres with Maud, Albert and daughters Patricia and Pamela. (Mrs. Fouracre used to ride around on a purple "Triumph Tina" scooter which was quite unusual for a woman in those days.) At No.5 were The Johnsons with one of the children called Ruth. (Mr. Johnson was a wheelchair user and worked in the gate house at the entrance to Pinderfields Hospital.) They were followed into that prefab by the Banham family.
At No.6 were the Pinder family with Joseph, Rose and sons Malcolm and Barry. The Newsome family lived at No.7 with children David and Marion. They were followed by the Hopwood Family. At No.8 lived the Oakes Family with mum Freda, her husband and children Keith and Wilma. They were followed by Jean and Graham Johnson and their children. The Taylor family lived at No.9 with children Pat and John. Mr. and Mrs. Woodcock lived at No.10. Clifford and Mary Kirby lived at No.12 for some time with their daughter Christine. We think that Brian Briggs, the Wakefield Trinity player, lived at No.13 at one time with his parents. At No.14 lived the Conway family with one of the daughters called Maureen. They were followed by the Stanley family.Other families included the Claphams and the Grahams with son David. Mary and Hector Bolton with daughter Angela lived for some time at No.19 with the Brooks family with son Clive living at No.21. There was also The Smales family and the Boardmans.
Stanley Ferry History Page
Stanley Ferry Sand & Gravel Quarry photo added, courtesy of Barry Pinder
This photo shows Barry’s father in the garden of his prefab on Balk Lane. In the background there are parts of the old sand quarry. On the left are the hoppers at the sales side where the lorries were filled. Over the roof of the car is part of the ropeway going over the canal and then behind the car may be the mast from where the bucket used to go down into the pond to drag out the sand and gravel. It looks as though it may have been taken after the quarry closed down because there doesn't appear to be any sign of the ropes between the pylons at the canal's edge and the hoppers. It is likely that the photo was taken whilst the quarry was being decommissioned.
Ferry Lane Photos Page
New photo added courtesy of Barry Pinder
Ferry Lane British Legion Women's Standard Bearing Party probably around late 50's
The woman on the extreme left is Rose Pinder and next to her is Mrs. Rowley, wife of George and mother of Mavis who lived in the "new " prefabs as they were called.
Village Shops Page
Pratchet's Store information added, courtesy of Barry Pinder
This shop was on the end of Ash Street, on the end of the row of terrace houses that stood between the Ferry Lane Sunday School and the Methodist Chapel. After it closed the building was converted into a house, if you look closely you can still see where the windows were (on the Ash Street side of the house).
Updates added 19th October
Ferry Lane History Page
Stanley Ferry Sand & Gravel Quarry
By Barry Pinder
The sales side of the operation took place on the land adjoining Balk Lane, this was also where the large wooden hoppers were filled with the sand and gravel brought over from the quarry on the other side of the canal via an overhead ropeway. Lorries were driven under these hoppers, filled and then driven to the weighbridge where they were given the paperwork and sent on their way. My father Joseph Pinder worked for many years on the production side of the canal working on "the mast" where the sand and gravel was brought out of "the pond" before being loaded onto loco's and taken to the grading area and then to the ropeway.
The ropeway went over the canal quite near to the swing bridge which was operated by Alfie Goddard. Jack Silverwood who I think lived in the Bottomboat area was the man in charge of the ropeway. I attended Rothwell Grammar School and during the summer holidays I worked at the sand quarry at both sides of the business on Ferry Lane. I also worked at their other quarry on Denby Dale Road in Wakefield.
I worked in the office on Ferry Lane weighing the lorries and completing the ledgers of each day's business and also at the production side driving the "Shawnee Pool" tractors bringing the sand and gravel from "the pond" to where my father and Jimmy Steele, from Eastmoor, worked at the mast. In the fifties the manager of the quarry was Mr. Walter "Wally" Peake, the under manager was Mr. Charles May who later became manager and the foreman was, I think, Norman Stenton who lived on Aberford Road at Moorhouse.
Ferry Lane Photos Page
New photos added courtesy of Barry Pinder
The two photo's above were taken in the yard behind the Co-Op shop at the top of Ferry Lane (this stood where the grass verge is today) around 1950. The two on the bicycle are myself and my older brother Malcolm. The four sitting around the table I'm not too sure about but looks like myself, my brother and Stanley Deighton and Barbara McDuff.
The lady in this photo is Aileen Teasedale who worked at the Co-Op and went round to people's homes taking orders for delivery later in the week. She lived on Lee Moor, married a man called Alf Egglestone' moved into the "new prefabs" and later moved on to live on Lime Pit Lane
Updates added 12th October
Ferry Lane Prefabs Page
New photos added, courtesy of Barry Pinder who was born at the top of Ferry Lane in 1946 and later moved into the prefabs until 1968.The following photos give an invaluable insight into life living on Ferry Lane during the mid 20th Century. Thank you to Barry for sharing his photos with us.
My mother Rose Pinder, my brother Malcolm and myself in the back garden of number 6 Victory Avenue
Patricia and Pamela Fouracre from number 4 and me again in the back garden of number 6
This is a photo of the "local youth." At the back I think is John Ansell. The name of the first person on the middle is Duncan Sykes then comes David Platt, Barry Pinder Anthony Tasker and Stuart Firth Whose father Charlie and uncle Ronnie had one of the milk delivery rounds. On the front row is Rosemary Smith, Diane Gregory, Mavis Rowley and I think Madge Taylor. This is taken on the recreation ground between the prefabs of Alexander Avenue and Victory Avenue.
This photo was taken in the back garden of our house at number 6 Victory Avenue and is looking over the recreation ground towards what we called the "new' prefabs, the "old" ones being those of Alexander Avenue and Victory Avenue. Behind them are what we called "the old folk's bungalows." In the picture are my mother Rose Pinder standing behind my uncle Harold Wood `whose wife Ivy, my mother's sister, is on the extreme right. They lived for many years in the row of houses which had Pratchet's shop on the end towards the top of Ferry Lane. The other lady is Mrs. Ward who lived on Ward Lane with her husband Vernon and son Malcolm.
This is a photo of my father Joe Pinder outside the outhouse in the back garden of one of the "new" prefabs which fronted onto Balk Lane looking out over the sales side of the sand quarry. He moved there from number 6 Victory Avenue following the death of my mother Rose in 1969. In his hand and on the ground are some of the fossils which came out of the pond at the quarry.
The following set of photos are of surviving prefabs in Swillington, Leeds, one of the very few sites in the are where these unique houses still survive. What is surprising about these houses is how big they are inside, compared with the seemingly small exterior. Complete with two bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen and living room they offered normal working class families of the 1940s many of the comforts that we take for granted today.
Externally these houses have changed very little apart from the new doors and windows
Another bonus to these types of houses are that they are detached
The living room, very little has changed here, the fire places have gone and the modern electrical fittings are the only alterations to the house
Original timber wall and floors are unchanged, walls sill complete with jointing strips
Original fitted cupboards still remain
Modern bathroom, the only original part of this room is the window frame on the right
Original metal fitted wardrobes survive, as good as the day they were fitted!
As show in this photo, the fitted metal storage was built to last
Updates added 5th October
Saint Peters Church Page
Church choir stalls
The choir stalls were made by H. P. Jackson, a woodcarver of Northowram near Halifax between 1921 and 1924 and cost £951, 11s. 0d. They are carved in oak and the misericords as pictured in the 16 postcards below depict the development of life from the creation up to the present day. The stalls also contain appropriate shields and heads of well known characters of the day. The names of the various donors who funded work are carved on the stalls. Unfortunately these beautifully crafted stalls were left in the old church building and will not be appreciated by future generations of the village.
The following postcards were kept in the possession of Ron Owen. Ron and his family were keen supporters of Stanley Church and Outwood Salvation Army, they regularly donated and raised funds for various items during the 20th century.
Thank you to Harry Stix for sending us the above postcards
The following photos show the condition of the choir stalls & misericords 10 to 16 in 2010, only 90 years after they were commissioned. The cost of the choir stalls in 1921 was £951, 11s 0d, in today’s money this equates to £282,000.
Updates added 25th September
Village History Page
Stanley’s contribution to the woollen industry
In the Baines Trade Directory 1822/1830, there is a mention of - John North, John Pickard, William Reyner and John Screw - who were in business in Stanley as twine spinners. The Rev. Burrell of Stanley received evidence from elderly people in Stanley of the manufacture of cloth in houses and small workshops in the 18th century, which he documented as follows;
The premises, late the property of Mr Tomlinson and now in possession of Mr Glover was formerly used as a dwelling, weaving shops and farm buildings. Huffinley's house at the top of Stanley Hill and now the property of Mr Clover and lately covered with slates instead of the former thatch is part of a set of buildings like the last described. The thatched cottages descending Stanley Hill, John Sykes' house and James Thompson's house and at the foot of the hill were the residences of Mr Shackleton, John Stead and Joseph Best respectively, all of whom were tanning weavers, and in Finkin Lane, Erringron's house and Sarah Hartley's were residences of wearers.
Tanning or stuffs of two turmils were made of thread of warp, that is both warp and woof was twisted thread made from hand-comfred warp. Wool was combed by being first placed on one comb fixed to the wall, and then combed by passing a second comb through it several times. The straightened wool was then drawn through a ring by means of both hands in the form of a sliver and was then ready for spinning. The cloth was collected by a Master Dresser and carried to the river by packhorse to be sold in a cloth market such as the ones in Wakefield and Leeds.
The Stanley Cottage Hospital
Meeting minutes
The following is a copy of a meeting held by that Committee on Thursday the 5th of May 1870. There was present; J. B. Charlesworth; J. R. H. Esquires and the Rev. Richard Burell. Mr Charlesworth took the chair. Minutes of the former meeting were read and signed. The following rules were adopted for the government of the hospital.
1) The hospital is designed for the accommodation of the labouring classes, when suffering from disease or accident, and is under the direction of the governors.
2) The funds for the support of the Institution shall be raised by voluntary contributions and a printed statement of the receipts and expenditure shill be yearly furnished to each subscriber.
3) Every annual subscriber of half a guinea or upwards shall be enabled to recommend one patient in each year for every half guinea so subscribed.
4) All subscriptions shall be paid yearly in advance and on the first of October.
5) The Institution consists of a trained nurse and such additional assistance as she may occasionally require.
The friends of the sick will be committed to give their assistance in special cases.
6) The nurse will reside in the Hospital and will take the general management thereof under the direction of the Governors.
7) Every requisite shall be provided in the Hospital and patients may not receive food or drink from other sources without sanction of the medical attendant.
8) Patients will be received either on a payment of a weekly sum, the amount of which will be fixed by the Governors and Warden, or they will be received in the recommendation of subscribers subject to the approbation of the Warden.
9) Application for admission must be made to the Warden.
The following were appointed to act as a Committee along with the Warden: Mrs Charlesworth, Mrs Macllile, Mrs Croft, Miss Burell, Miss Grosin and Miss Harrison.
It was agreed to ask Dr. Browne's advice for the beds and other requisites.
The first patient in the Cottage Hospital was Mrs Pullance on the 27th October 1870. She had a dislocated thigh.
Stanley Station Page
New photo added, click image below to go to page
The signal box on the right was located by the Up Main line alongside Aberford Road level crossing is Stanley signal box, a Great Northern Railway Type 1 design which was opened for the Methley Joint Railway in 1884 fitted with a 30 lever frame. The building on the left is presumably the pre-1884 signal box, a Saxby and Farmer non standard design.
Hatfeild Hall Page
New photo added, click image below to go to page
Hatfeild Hall from around 1910
Updates added 18th September
Lofthouse Colliery Disaster Page
Video footage by the BBC showing the aftermath of the disaster
Updates added 11th September
Schools Page
Saint Peters Girls School log book extracts 1880 - 1900
20th October 1880 - Florence Booth commenced as Headmistress
30th November 1880 - Two girls will have their SCHOOL PENCE paid, one for 13 weeks the other for 8 weeks.
1881 report - Grammar is only just passable owing to the ignorance of Parsing and Analysis in the 4th, 5th, and 6th standards. My lords will look for decidedly better results in the girls school next year.
Staff - Florence Booth, Cert. Mistress, Kate Abson - P T of 2 year, Ada Abson PT of 1 year.
18th November 1881 - Ringworms common.
20th January 1882 - teachers had to light the fires.
22nd January 1882 - Holiday this afternoon - Mrs Taylor, wife of the school master, being interred.
27th October 1882 - received instructions from Rev Burrell to send all transfers back to St Swithins.
1882 report - No grant for grammar because so weak.
7th December - Only 18 children present - rough roads and weather.
Florence Booth, Headmistress, sends in her resignation, Miss Ritchie is to be future mistress of school according to Rev Burrell.
1883 report - school now has 4 staff.
Foundation stone of new classroom laid March 13th 1884 by Chas Charles worth, classroom opened on June 20th, average attendance 147.
9th September 1884 - Punishment method out for - one figure wrong in the answer of a sum, “witch” instead of “which”, “then” for “them” and smaller letters instead of capitals.
79 punished for trespassing in plantation adjoining the playground, little girl punished for insubordination.
8th October 1884 - Weekly lists of poor attendees to the school warden.
1884 report - Extra items added for grant eg singing.
1885 - Concert to raise money for prizes for good conduct, regular attendance and general improvement in school work, amount given to girls 16/4d.
30th March 1885 - number on books 202, average attendance 130.
1885 report - The issue of a certificate to Miss Ritchie is deferred for better results. List of grant and passes in Reading 138, Writing 99, Arithmetic 95, out of an attendance of 140 in attendance on day. Death of a child the day after it was sent home ill - coroners inquest. Vicar in charge during week owing to staff shortage.
4th January 1886 - Marg. Eggleshaws new Head.
15th February 1886 - An attendance board fixed up in the school - attendance a major concern in school.
1886 report - With consent of managers grammar dropped for this year.
14th March 1887 - Visit of Vicar acc. By new mistress for Lee Moor, Miss Sharpe.
21th June 1887 - Jubilee Feast - school closed today.
1887 report - Improved.
20th March 1888 - death of Vicar Rev Burrell.
16th July 1888 - New Vicar first mentioned.
13th November 1888 - Second stove to be put in a room, no school this pm owing to thunderstorm.
1888 - Good report.
Poetry report 1889 - Fairly good, 1890 report - Good (5 staff).
18th December 1890 - Prize distribution by Vicar.
1891 report - Good, average attendance 137 out of 186.
8th December 1891 - Began teaching Geography and History combined as a new class subject.
30th September - Number on books 234, average attendance 177.
1892 report - Very good.
Vicar called and gave permissions for ordering new set of recorders.
1893 - Case of small pox, children living in The Barracks, Bottomboat, should not attend at present, allowed to return June 19th.
15th September 1893 - Coal gathering.
1883 report - Good.
22nd January 1894 - Temporary Headmistress, Tessie Norton.
8th March 1894 - Received a good signed parcel of apparatus.
28th September - Number on books 249, 4 girls dismissed for open defiance.
Varied occupations for 1894/95 - Rug making, story lessons, embroidery. Object lessons for different standards - Recitations, domestic economy.
November 1894 - P T suspended this week owing to want of apparatus. Number on books 290.
29th March 1895 - Jessie Norton resigned, M Sugden appointed new head 1st July.
1895 report - Staff of 6, 3 qualified, 3 unqualified.
3rd September 1895 - Dreadful dull weather all week and lessons have had to be stopped several times.
Summons for irregularity (3 parents).
1896 - Gift of a Christmas Card - first mention.
5th February - Bad snow storm.
18th June - Weeks holiday to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of Queen Victoria’s reign.
1897 report - “Warning” (not heating) needs consideration, building must be enlarged or numbers reduced.
1898 - Vicar spoke about the theft of buttons, which has been going on for some time.
15th August 1898 - Girls working in fields.
10th October 1898 - 282 present.
Cards & oranges at Christmas.
1899 report - Many improvements, new head teachers desk, 6 staff & 1 candidate.
10 girls sent for labour exam for certificate - 5 passed, 5 failed - able to leave.
Local Stories Page
The Barbers Shop 1920s
This shop was located on Lake Lock Road, opposite now what is Blades Hairdressers. The owner, Fred Limer, who was known to most villagers as “Sweeny” carried the business of cutting hair and shaving or trimming beards. It was a timber building, about 20ft square with a door and two windows. There was a stove in the centre of the shop and one chair, the barbers chair, with wooden benches around the perimeter for customers.
There was always a good supply of coal for the stove, local mineworkers kept the stove alight. The wash basin was made of stone and the shop had no running water, the days supply was brought by bucket, water was then boiled on the stove for shaving.
The shop was more of a community centre than a barbers shop, locals would sit around the stove, smoking their pipes and reading newspapers, trying to pick out the winners of horse racing events. When they had made their choice, the name of the horse and which race it was running in was wrote on a slip of paper, usually the inside of an empty cigarette packet, and sent with the stake by a runner to the Bookmaker, who used the Stanley WMC as Headquarters.
All this was illegal during this period, and occasionally the local policeman would summon them to court, they were fined, but it made no difference and they continued to bet. During the summer months the open space behind the shop, which was formally a stone quarry was used to play cricket, and during the winter months rugby and football.
Sweeny was a remarkable character, he was one of the leaders in the village, helping to organise any sporting event. His sons were sporty types, John and Harry, top class Billiards players, especially John. He competed successfully against some of the better players from WMC in West Yorkshire. Another son, Tom, raced pigeons, a hobby and sport he pursued all his life.
Sweeny charged two pence for a haircut and beard trim. Balding men were usually charged one and a half pence.
Updates added 4th September
Hatfeild Hall Page
Gerald & Gwendoline Beaumont, by Stephen Beaumont 1910 - 1997
Gerald Beaumont, my father had an entirely different personality to that of my grandfather Herbert. The latter was outgoing and ebullient, the former reserved and austere. They were physically different too, my grandfather short and stocky, my father tall. After my grandfathers death in 1917, my father told me that he was the finest man he had ever known, and at six and a half years and young as I was, I know that my grandfather was very proud of his son, then in uniform as a captain in the Yorkshire Light Infantry, with two honours from Oxford.
After Oxford and at Hatfeild the years to 1914 were happy ones, with hard work at the office but plenty of dinner parties, dances, theatricals (organised by my Aunt Flo) tennis, bowls, hunting with the Badsworth Pack mounted by Harry Lyon, and friends locally from Oxford days. My parents married on 27 June 1906, it was a very happy marriage of 27 years, ending with my fathers death in 1933 aged 54. They had met through my mothers brothers, Percy, Ernest and Stanley Haworth both athletic, who were pleased to find someone with my fathers ability at tennis. He was asked to play at Stanley Grange, the Haworth home, where he met my mother for the first time. It was love at first sight, he was 27 she was 23.
However there were difficulties, George Frederick Haworth, my mothers father, known as Fred, did not approve of my father as a suitor for his daughter. The Beaumont’s were very new in the social scene of Wakefield, whilst the Haworth’s had been established for over 100 years. However, love will find a way and fortunately there is a footpath from Wakefield to Hatfeild, which runs past the plantations at the foot of Stanley Grange, which my father used on returning from the office. They used to meet there. Fred’s objections were not shared by his wife or children, and in the event there was a fine wedding reception in the grounds of Stanley Grange. Fred never visited the young couple in their married home.
I was born in May 1910, nearly 4 years after my parents marriage. In 1914 my grandfather Herbert Beaumont, then a widower, suggested that as my father had joined the army (of which my grandfather was very proud), my mother and her three children should come and live at Hatfeild and see to the housekeeping.
I was 4 years old when in September 1914 my grandfathers chauffer driven Benz car fetched us from Crofton to Hatfeild. Hatfeild was a marvellous place for three small boys and we were there from 1914 to 1922 when my father sold it to pay for our education and to provide some capital for Aunt Flo to live on.
My mother with her undoubted charm, managed affairs at Hatfeild admirably. Until January 1917 things went on much as before. My father for the first months of the war in 1914, when he was recruited in nearby Normanton C Company of 2/4 Battalion Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, could see a lot of the family and when the battalion was formed and moved into its various camps to get home now and then was quite possible. The Hatfeild visitors book, begun by Aunt Flo when the family moved there in 1900, still exists with its embroyded cover on which is a quotation from Omar Khayam. Friends and relations continued to stay, rationing had not been introduced. My fathers comrades in the Yorkshire Light Infantry came when on leave - Captain Charlie Gout, a cousin of the Wilson’s of Crofton, Major Percy Walker from Dewsbury, young Lt A R Mosley, who was killed at Cambrai in November 1917.
There were newcomers also. The Pater was very patriotic and when Brussels was overrun by the Germans and an appeal went out for householders with rooms to spare to take Belgian refugees, The Pater offered Hatfeild. Canadian remount horses were stabled in the barn in the farmyard and Aunt Flo and her cousin Elsie rode them, side saddle of course. My mother took all these incursions in her stride. The Pater was fit through working hard for the war effort and very appreciative of what she was doing. For the first two years and three months of the war things went very smoothly at Hatfeild.
It was too good to last. In November 1916, The Paters health began to decline. He died in the first week of January. At the same time, my fathers battalion was told that it was going to France. My mothers feelings can be imagined, with The Pater, the pivot of the family now no more and my father, then only Lieutenant, though an acting Captain, bound for the bloody battlefield of the Somme where the lives of junior officers were estimated in weeks only. This she well knew. Her brother Stanley had been killed on his first day in the line. She rose magnificently to the occasion, running Hatfeild at the end of the war and always, whatever her inner feeling, showing a cheerful countenance to the world. My father said he could always trust his wife for that.
Do dogs howl on the death of a beloved master? I have a distinct recollection of seeing and hearing, only once, the Hatfeild dogs with their muzzles pointing to the sky, howling loudly, as wolves howl. I do not recollect associating this at the time with The Paters death in January 1917, when I was six, but now think it more than likely that the Hatfeild dogs were mourning The Pater. Many others too, not of the family mourned him.
When my father was demobilised in March 1919 and returned to Hatfeild, he had to make the hard decision to sell it. He always remembered it, and Christopher.
The above concludes the recently added Beaumont family reminiscences Courtesy of Nigel Beaumont, son of Stephen Beaumont (1910 - 1997) who grew up at Hatfeild Hall.
Photos Around The Village Page
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Updates added 26th August
Hatfeild Hall Page
Hatfeild Hall Memories, by Gwendolene Beaumont (1882-1970)
Described as a gabled mansion of stone which has had many alterations. From 1598 to 1608 the house was rebuilt by Gervase and Grace Hatfeild and had 12 rooms on each floor. A portrait of the two Hatfeild’s still hangs at Hatfeild over the fire place in the Oak Room.
Gervase claimed that he was a descendent from Beda, Lord of Hatfeild in Holderness, before the conquest. The last of the family was Dorothy, who painted the Heraldic glass picturing the history of the family, which is still (as far as I know) in the Oak Room. After the death of Dorothy, for years the house was empty, and then it changed hands several times until it was sold to Herbert Beaumont, my father-in-law. When the 1914-18 war broke out I went with my 3 sons to live at Hatfeild, and we remained there until we sold it in 1921. As a very small girl, Stanley and I, with Nurse, used to go for a daily walk, and our favourite was across the fields to the stone wall which separated us at Stanley Grange from the Hatfeild plantations.
There was all sorts of stories about the house and the lady who haunted it and over the stone wall we could see a broken statue. We longed to climb over the wall and look at the two ponds. I little thought one day it would be our home. During the war, which started in 1914, the house was full - wounded solders, Belgian refugees, etc. When my father-in-law died in 1917 I was left to carry on as well as I could, with only an old deaf cook, my own housemaid, the children’s Governess and old Simpson the Gardener. There was only one thing I could do, and that was to shut up a part of the house. So Lily the housemaid and the Cook came to live in the main part of the house, and I shut up the Servants Wing which was the oldest part of the house - the floor was made of stone and one wall was panelled, there were 3 or 4 bedrooms and a bathroom.
When we had settled down Simpson’s eldest daughter came back home, her husband had been killed. I heard she was at home and I knew that the cottage in the yard of Hatfeild Hall was too small for the family. I found out that a sheet had been hung up in one of the bedrooms to make a room for the daughter, so I suggested she should come sleep in the house and I made a bed sitting room for her as comfortable as I could in the Servants Wing. She was delighted. She was working in munitions and I asked her if she was kept out late at night would she tell the cook. At the end of a week I asked the cook if our visitor was comfortable and happy in her room, and to my surprise the cook said, “She is not sleeping here now.” I could not understand and cook told me that she had slept only 3 nights. When I asked cook why she had not told me she replied that it was not her work to do so. I went to see Mrs Simpson and asked why her daughter was not using her room, which she seemed so delighted to have. “I know nothing about it”, was all Mrs Simpson would say. I went to find Simpson and asked him what was the matter. He was not willing to answer me but I would not be put off, and I insisted upon an explanation. This is the story he unwillingly told me.
His daughter was delighted with her comfortable room but during the first night she was awakened by someone walking in the room. She was too afraid to get up and light the gas, but in the end she did and found no one in the room. She left the light on all night. The next night she was so tired she forgot all about her fright on the previous night and fell asleep at once. She was awakened, and this time she thought someone was feeling the bed. She plucked up the courage and lit the gas, but again saw no one. She was so upset she decided she could not spend another night in the room, so she went back to the overcrowded cottage. Simpson then told me his story.
When my father-in-law bought the house it was in very bad condition and alterations had to be made which meant a lot of men working in it. My father-in-law was afraid that a careless man might leave lighted candles, etc, so it was arranged that Simpson and his wife should sleep in a room in the old wing. Neither of them could sleep for a terrible noise that went on in the next room. It was the room our cook had slept in but she was stone deaf! Simpson did not complain to the master for fear he might lose his job.
We left Hatfeild in 1921 and we never saw the lovely old house again.
Photos Around The Village Page
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Updates added 19th August
Stanley Grange Page
Memories of Stanley Grange, by Gwendolene Beaumont 1882 - 1970
I was born at Stanley Grange in 1882, it was a very old house (built around 1600) and would have been a farm house - hence the name “Grange”. One of the Hatfeild family lived there for a time according to the Hatfeild pedigree. His name was Francis and his parents were Grevase & Grace Hatfeild who built Hatfeild Hall from 1598 to 1608.
The Grange was an “L” shaped house surrounded by trees and a partly sunk fence and with an ancient mulberry tree on one of the lawns. As children we were always told that the house was the home of priests many years ago. The oldest wing was demolished only a few years ago as it was unsafe to live in. The whole length of the dining room took up the entire length of the original house. One day my brother Ernest found a loose board in the dining room, by the fire place.
Naturally he prised it open, and saw a stone staircase! He of course got a lantern, descended and saw a stone table taking up a good part of the cellar which was the length of the dining room above.
A strange thing was that the air was quite sweet and yet there was no apparent way for air to get into the place. My father, who was not at all romantic, ordered Ernest to nail down the floor board and forbade any of the boys to open it up again. This was a pity as it was quite possible that we should perhaps have found out more about the cellar.
It could have been a priests hiding hole as the two nearest houses were Hatfeild Hall and Clarke Hall, both of which have priests hiding places. A few years after the finding of the cellar, there fell in a floor, taking with it a good deal of wine. When men were working to restore the damage they found a well, 30 feet deep. When the house was sold a few years ago, another well was found near to the house, full of lead, which was duly sold and fetched more money than the buyer of the whole estate had paid!
The old house was a perfect home with its paddock for a cricket pitch, fields with a nine hole golf course, tennis lawn, croquet lawn, a strip of lawn for my fathers bowls and a pond large enough to learn how to skate on during the winter. For over twenty years it was my home.
We were an unromantic family, but we had a ghost! We all heard footsteps at times, coming down the path through shrubbery and round to the front door. One night my brother Charles and I were the only ones of the family at home and after supper he asked me if I would mind if he went out for half an hour to see someone on business. Of course I said, I did not mind and I would probably read until he came in. I settled down with my book and a lovely log fire in the dining room, the maids went upstairs to bed. About three quarters of an hour later I heard footsteps coming down the path round the dining room windows (three French windows in all) on to the front door.
Thinking it was Charles I was annoyed he had not come to say good night to me as he must have seen all the lights were on. I went up to bed and about a quarter of an hour later I heard footsteps outside my bedroom window, then the door open and shut, and steps coming up the stairs. I got out of bed, and there was Charles! I told him how I thought he had come in half an hour ago and he said “Whatever do you mean?” There was only one reply, “well, what I had heard was only our ghost!” I have an old photograph of my sister Margaret with “Margaret on the Ghost Walk” written upon it.
When I was about 12 years old I was awakened one night by a noise of voices and cries coming from the stairs up to the old part of the house. I did not bother about it and went to sleep, but the next morning I asked my sister Frances what happened last night. After a slight hesitation she said “Oh! Nothing much! That silly girl Mary (a house maid) said she had seen……” At that moment my mother broke in with, “That is enough! Not before the children!” So I never knew what had caused the noise and cries.
In the same room at Stanley Grange I had another strange experience. It was a very hot summers night and I was awakened by a feeling that someone near to my bed was icy cold and dripping wet. I was far too frightened to get up and light a candle and after what I thought was a long time this terrific feeling of somebody beside my bed passed away. I told my mother the next morning and she said that I must have had a bad dream, and I never thought of the matter again. However, many years after I was married, I had a letter from a friend who knew I was interested in old houses. He enclosed a document about Stanley Grange.
In it I found that about 150 years ago (or longer) Stanley Grange had a Dr Garlick living there. He was the Vicar of the church on the Heath and in order to get up to the Heath he had to cross the river on some stepping stones. He went across one day when the river was in spate and was washed off the stones into the water. He was rescued and taken back home to the Grange, where he died. The nicest bedroom in those days was the one I had slept in as a child of 12 and it was obvious that the Rev Garlick would have had it. When I read this story I remembered my experience of the cold dripping figure that I had felt one night by my bed.
Updates added 12th August
Village Pubs Page
Reminiscences of The Travellers Inn cottage
The original Travellers Inn dated back to the 1830s and had a separate dwelling attached to the rear. This attached cottage had been lived in by four generations of the same family spanning 101 years when, in 1937, the brewery who owned the Inn decided they wanted to replace the old building with a larger, modern pub. Mrs Emma Frear, who was tenant of the cottage gave the following reminiscences.
The first tenants of the cottage were Mr & Mrs Stables (Emma’s Grandparents), they lived at the cottage for about ten years. The were followed by Mr & Mrs Lindley (the parents of Emma). Emma was born in the cottage and remained there when she married Mr Edward Frear, the couple has four children, who were also born in the cottage, one of whom was a well known Bass singer.
During her life at Lane Ends, Emma saw many changes in the village. In the early days there was little surrounding property to the Inn, all water for household use had to be brought from a spring well in the “Bull Wagon Road” a quarter of a mile away and candles were the only means of light.
The most bizarre memory she had of living at the cottage related to an incident which involved her father in 1884. He was going down into the cellar of another building, only a short distance away with a lighted candle. When he reached the bottom of the stairs there was a terrific explosion, which blew him out into the street. The ceiling was completely blown out, and a large amount of damage was done, leaving Mr Lindley very badly burned and lucky to be alive. The explosion was thought to be due to gas from the workings of the former Deep Drop Colliery on Lime Pit Lane escaping into the cellar.
When asked what she would miss about the cottage when it was gone, she replied her large garden, she was not at all looking forward to leaving the house, even though she was moving into a more modern house close by. The photo below is of the rear of the Travellers Inn and attached cottage which is on the back right of the building.
Lake Lock Rail Road Page
The Silkstone Wagonway
Although not as old as The Lake Lock Railroad, this 1809 Wagonway that runs through Silkstone (near Barnsley) is of very similar construction to the one at Lake Lock. This trail still carries evidence of the parallel stone sleepers that supported the rails upon which the coal wagons would have been pushed by hand and horse like the one at Stanley, making the photos below a good comparison. In recent years the Silkstone Wagonway has become a popular attraction, a small section of the rails have been replaced so people can see how the track would have looked when it was in use. Sadly there is no part of the Lake Lock Rail Road visible today (later mineral lines of a different construction are however still visible across parts of the village), almost 200 years have passed since the line was abandoned. In part footpaths still follow the line of the rail road at Stanley, especially in the Bottomboat and Lake Lock areas, undoubtedly the stone sleepers will have been lifted and used in the construction of buildings and walls in the area. If you do however happen to come across stone flags that have bolt holes as the photos below, please send us details.
Updates added 6th August
Hatfeild Hall Page
The Pater And Hatfeild Hall
Courtesy of Nigel Beaumont, son of Stephen Beaumont (1910 - 1997) who grew up as a boy at Hatfeild Hall. Stephen was a Wakefield solicitor, and in his reminiscences wrote extensively about his life at Hatfeild. The following is from his private reminiscences.
Herbert Beaumont was a most capable man, aptly described in the Wakefield Express on his death in 1917 as “the architect of his own fortunes”. Born in 1851, the year of the Great Exhibition, he saw, and played a significant part in the blossoming of the Victorian age. His descendants can well be grateful for the example which he set and for raising the family from a position where public school and university education was unknown to that where it is normal. Almost unheard of in his family and indeed amongst his friends, professional and otherwise, he sent my father to Oxford and his daughter Florence to Cambridge. My father, who revered him enormously, copied his example and my brothers and I also went to Oxford.
The Pater, as Herbert Beaumont was always known in the family, was born at Bellamy House on the Heath at Wakefield. The census of 1851 shows him as an infant and his parents as George and Sarah Ann, the latter being the daughter of Benjamin Fawcett. George and his father in law were in partnership in Wakefield as builders. Ben Fawcett seems to have been a good business man and George Beaumont not so, though kindly and unambitious. We have good oil paintings of both made on George’s marriage to Sarah Anne. They had other children including William Henry, who was an auctioneer (at which George also tried his hand), who died young, and Charles Arthur, father of the beautiful Elsie.
The Pater attended Wakefield Grammar School and apparently Riponden College which I can not identify, unless Rishworth School is meant, and was articled to the Solicitor W H Gill of a leading firm in Wakefield, Fernandes & Gill. As a bachelor he lived in Southgate. In the Solicitor’s Final Examinations in 1873 he obtained the Law Societies prize. My father told me that he practiced on his own for a year and earned the considerable sum of £800 - it would be 1875 - and then joined Samuel Fozard Harrison and Alfred Smith in partnership in Chancery lane, Wakefield. Harrison was a well established Solicitor in a good practice. There seems to have been some difficulty with Smith, but nevertheless , The Pater married his daughter Jesse Ellen Elizabeth in 1876, shortly after which Smith died. Their first home was the semi detached Westfield Villa on the flagged path by Stanley Royd Hospital, where my Aunt Flo was born in the same year. They then moved to 38 Bond Street where my father was born two years later and then to Hatfeild House in Margaret Street. The moves reflect The Paters growing success in the law. Jesse Ellen Elizabeth died in 1895, aged only 45. The Pater never remarried. His professional success continued to grow and in 1898 he bought Hatfeild Hall, which merits description in some detail.
The Pater bought Hatfeild Hall and the state of about 80 acres for £3750 from the Hatfeild Harter family who had not lived there for many years. It was bought by auction, the money being borrowed from Leatham Tew and Co, the local bankers soon to be absorbed by Barclays, and in a somewhat loose association with the master tailor Pickles of Kirkgate in 1898. The house was then tenanted by Stephen West, a barrister whose lease was shortly to expire. The Pater and Pickles are thought to have had the vague idea (although vague ideas were unlike the Pater) of developing it, presumably for housing, but the former soon realised its potential if restored and bought out Pickles interest. When West’s tenancy expired in 1899, the Wakefield architect, William Watson (Grandfather of Eustace Watson) was employed to renovate the house and this included a central heating system, electric light with its own generator and storage cells and a telephone - all of which were by no mean unusual in houses in 1900. Mistakes were made , an ugly green tiled fireplace - not in keeping with the Georgian character of the house - was installed at the end of the hall and the staircase lost its original ironwork. However, the end result was extremely comfortable. The alteration included the “bachelors wing”, upstairs at the north east corner and self contained, to which the Pater brought his 80 year old parents. Eustace Watson’s father, then a young man, helped in the work and in fact lived in the house to supervise it. The Pater, my father (then at Oxford) and my Aunt Flo moved in in 1900. As I lived in the house from the age of four to twelve (1914 - 1920 I have distinct recollections of it.
The front drive from the Wakefield/Aberford Road at Stanley, was then as much now, but with an entrance lodge, which has been demolished. That stood on the left of the stone pillars and iron gates which would be opened on telephone instruction from the house, by Meggitt the chauffeur or his wife who was the laundress. The drive, through, what was then the grassland of the park, is much the same, though the lamp posts were introduced when the house was used as a Hospital after my father sold it. The belt of trees, half way up the drive on either side of it and the bridge are now as then. The bridge was the scene of a slight accident to me. I was driving my Aunt Florence (I was about eight) in the pony trap up the drive and presumably did not leave sufficient clearance between the wheel and the parapet. I was pitched out on my head and slightly cut over the right eye. The mistake was notified to the house by the arrival of the pony in the stable yard, without the trap - it must have broken the traces. There was a temporary consternation, but all was well o the arrival of Dr Thomas. I do not recollect that my Aunt Flo was hurt. To the left the stream was dammed for a cattle trough and sticklebacks abounded, a magnet for small boys.
In the belt of trees on the left were two fish ponds, with a diving platform erected for my father (he was a very good swimmer). You can still see where these were. They were the scene of a drowning suicide in about 1919 - and no doubt my Uncle Charles Haworth would hold the inquest. The gardener, Simpson, was reluctant to assist in getting the body from the water - one should wait for the Police, he said.
Between the belt of trees and the house, the drive was flanked by trees, some old, some newly planted. An unusual feature of the park along the stream on the left of the bridge was the remains of an old horse drawn coal railway of he Fenton’s, coal masters and one time tenants, which formally ran across the park from old colliery workings to the Stanley Road and thence to the canal. We knew this as the Ladies Mile and it provided an excellent canter for us on the ponies.
One proceeded up the drive to the gates - which remain much as they were 80 years ago, dividing the park from the garden in front of the house. The park and gardens were separated by a ha - ha, though we always knew it as the sunk fence. Through the gates one came to the gravel sweep in front of the house - on its east side was, as now the front door. On the lawns to the right and left were two mulberry trees supported by chains (one of which still exists). Immediately in front of the house on the left of the front door were some half dozen curious stone balls on pillars about 18 inches high - known to us as Humpty - Dumpties. Only latterly have I understood that they were the Jacobean finials of the posts to the original gates, presumably preserved when the gates were removed on the house being “Gothicised” by John Hatfeild Kaye and his wife in the 1770s. One or more went to the antiquarian Haldane at near by Clarke Hall and no doubt can be seen in the garden there today.
We will now enter the house. The front door with its heavy brass bolts, door knob and knocker opened into the inner hall, with the Oak Room on the left and the empty Drawing Room on the right. Between the front and Oak Room doors in the hall was a fine oak corn bin, now in the possession of my brother Christopher. On it used to lie the visitors book which I have. Entering the Oak Room, the dominating feature was the portrait in oils of the builder of the original house, Gervase Hatfeild of about 1610. The upper lights of the Gothicised windows contained the glass painted by Dorothy Hatfeild about 1800, as did the upper lights of the hall, empty Drawing Room and the cupola above the inner hall. These paintings on glass depict the largely fanciful ancestors of the Hatfeild family and its connections. There was a secret recess in the panelling on the right of the fire place in the Oak Room, the latter containing a dog grate in which we burnt large logs.
My Grandfathers chair was to the left of the fireplace. This was the principle living room in the house. The cornice moulding above the Jacobean panelling was interesting, the design of Neptune and mermaids being the same as at Woodsoms Hall near Huddersfield, built by John Kaye about the same period. The Jacobean ceiling had perished and been replaced. One of the family’s seven Grandfather clocks stood in this room, and a kindly old watch maker came out weekly to wind them. This was the room to which we - my two brothers and I - would be brought from the nursery to have tea with the Pater on his return from the office. We would clamber all over him, he giving us tit - bits from the tea tray and all roaring with laughter.
Opposite the Oak Room door across the hall was the door to the empty Drawing Room - so called because the Pater never furnished it - so it was used for dances and theatricals by Aunt Flo. The carved woodwork around the door was interesting. This room was made by John Hatfeild Kaye in the mid Georgian period and the ceiling had plaster scenes after, I think, the style of Angelica Kaufmann. There were domed alcoves either side of the marble fireplace and a carved wood mirror above it. The windows were from floor to ceiling, the upper lights having Dorothy Hatfeilds paintings.
Back into the outer hall and turning right to the inner hall which contained the staircase, one passed between graceful columns on either side (between two columns on the left was the telephone - Number: Wakefield 48, on a direct line to the office in Chancery Lane and the lodge) and came on the left to the door to the dining room, a handsome room with marble fireplace. Here at the opposite end, glass doors gave onto the library and on the left of the fireplace was the servants hatch to the kitchen quarters. There was a fine heavy Victorian mahogany table - which could seat, I think, 16 people when extended, and chairs to match. A very good idea of this room and the oak room can be obtained from the photograph album of the house arranged by the Pater in 1904.
The library beyond the dining room had heavy leather armchairs and glass fronted cases. I remember hearing in this room, aged eight, the church bells ringing for the Armistice in November 1918. Beyond the library was the conservatory where the gardener Simpson grew fine chrysanthemums and beyond that the hothouse for the more exotic plants. Both had large water tanks of great interest for small boys for the sailing of boats. We kept rabbits and white mice there.
Returning to the inner hall, at the foot of the staircase was the door to the billiards room. The billiards table (my father was a good player) and marker boards and cue racks I vividly remember. At the opposite end of the billiards room was, to a small boy, a fascinating lavatory with skates, walking sticks (including my Grandfathers alpenstocks for his Easter lake District holidays), croquet mallets and balls and a gun or two - though neither my Father or Grandfather shot - in racks, sporting prints by Ackerman and a number of cartoons, mostly legal, by Spy. Leading from the billiards room was a door to the kitchen quarters of which I remember the large high kitchen with its gleaming steel and black leaded range, a scullery and servants hall. It is now time to go upstairs.
As I have said, the stairs led from the inner hall. Underneath, steps descended to the cellar in which I remember some oak panelling. The staircase was lit from above by Georgian roof lights in a cupola. The first flight took one past a large oil by de Lazio of my Aunt Flo in court dress and after 1914 a large map of the Western Front with pins to indicate the position of the fighting troops. The second flight brought one to the landing from which the main bedrooms opened and around which hung the portraits of the Paters father George and his mothers father, Benjamin Fawcett and their wives.
The principle bedroom looked over the park to the south and had a bathroom attached. This was the Paters room but, characteristically, when my Mother arrived with her three sons in 1914, the Pater made this over to her and used himself a smaller room over the front door. The main guest room was to the right of this, with a dressing room and a large cupboard known as the powder closet. At the end of the landing was a further guest room and the bachelors suite over the empty drawing room consisting of a small sitting room, bedroom and bathroom in which the paters Father and Mother ended their days. My Aunt Flo’s room was over the library and the maids rooms over the kitchen quarters. These latter were somewhat gloomy and frightening to a small boy, particularly - did my Mother tell me or did I dream it? - as a skeleton was said to be painted on the plaster behind one of the wardrobes.
Returning to the landing immediately below the cupola of the roof lights, were painted shields of the Coats of Arms of the Hatfeild connections.
Outside the house they were to small boys, interesting outbuildings. First, at the end of the conservatories at the head of the Rose Walk and by the font there was the Apple House - originally Dorothy Hatfeilds studio. This on the ground floor contained the gardening implements and a small joiners shop; above, storage racks for fruit. There were examples of Miss Hatfeild’s painted glass in the windows. One went straight through the Apple House to the walled kitchen garden, the path edged with box, There were greenhouses and cold frames on the further (north) side. Leaving the kitchen garden by the door on the right, one came to the gardeners cottage (now demolished) and the back yard leading to the kitchens and containing the engine house for the electric light, and buildings in which knives were sharpened and shoes and boots cleaned.
Behind the gardeners cottage was a range of buildings consisting of loose boxes and the laundry where Mrs Meggitt presided - now demolished - and the coach house, later used as a garage. There was a large gate here leading to the rear paddock. Going through this and turning left behind the coach house another large gate brought one to the farmyard with mistals and poultry houses over them, a farmhands cottage and a very fine barn which dates from the 1770s. The Pater suggested on my parents marriage, that it be converted into a house for them, but my mother decline the suggestion. Behind the barn was a range of open fronted cart sheds with a grindstone and a small aviary, in which I remember an owl. From here the back drive ran to the back lodge in the Coach Road, near the house Rooks nest, occupied by my mothers Uncle, Philip Taylor.
The gardens and grounds were fine for small boys to roam in and explore. Behind the house on its north side was a lawn where the dog kennels were, in front another lawn where Aunt Flo marked out a putting green and on the south was the tennis court which could also be used for croquet. The tennis court area was bounded on the west by ancient yew trees where favourite dogs were buried beneath small headstones and behind that was what we called the wood, with paths which led to the Georgian icehouse, a fry pond with a stone statue of a female figure with a dog by her side but without its head, (we know her as “the broken lady”.) and the rose garden which displayed the paters passion for orderliness - each rose having a lead plaque giving its name. Beyond the rose garden was the fruit garden. It was indeed a privileged existence to enjoy all this.
The history of the house and its previous owners may be of interest. It stands in what was once the old manor at Woodhall in Stanley. A house was built there in 1600 by Gervase Hatfeild and sketched by Samuel Buck about 1720. It was then substantial with 12 rooms on two floors. The sketch seems to have been from the south showing a front door opening into what we knew as the oak room because of its Jacobean panelling and to the left the windows of the dining room. Our G P Dr Johnnie Walker - the historian - said it was extended by the Hatfeild in the mid 18 century, probably by building on the left to match the gable above to oak room.
The Hatfeild family still owned it when John Hatfeild Kaye was married to Augusta Ann Wentworth at Saint James’ Piccadilly in 1771. Augusta being sister of the Earl of Strafford, brought money into the family. John was an antiquarian and artistic, but the money left him when Augusta predeceased him. He favoured the Gothic style of architecture, altered the windows to the south and made the east front the main entrance there and the Hatfeild arms above it. After the disastrous fire, by arson in the 1980s, only the east front is recognisable.
John Hatfeild Kaye had no children and died in 1804. The house descended without much money to maintain it, to his brothers family, who lived in Manchester. One member of it, satirically known as John de Hatfeild, was an officer in the Yeomanry which suppressed the reform riots in Manchester in 1822 - this being known as the Peterloo Massacre. After 1816, the house was let to, amongst others, Fenton the coal master who probably built the colliery on the south western boundary, the spoil heaps of which still exist, and the tramway through the park which we knew as the Ladies Mile. The house, once restored had great charm and its gardens and grounds were largely the Paters creation.
The years from 1900 to 1914 at Hatfeild were very happy ones. The Paters reputation in the law and the life the town continued to grow. He became a magistrate on the Wakefield bench in 1905 and one of the country’s leading experts on the Poor Law. He became Vice Chairman of the local Conservative Party and Wakefield’s member of Parliament. He was proud of his children. Aunt Flo, though she disliked house keeping, was an excellent hostess and good dinner parties were held. There was claret, champagne and of course, port in the cellars. Dances were held in the empty drawing room and as well as parties each year for the Doncaster and York races.
So, from going to Hatfeild the family was happy, that did not alter when my father left on his marriage in 1906. And then came 1914, when, like so many other families, the Paters life, my fathers and mothers and my Aunt Flo’s became very different indeed.
When war broke out my father enlisted at once and the Pater invited my mother to bring her three children and run Hatfeild. The latter proved an admirable housekeeper for her father in law. It could have been a daunting challenge as there were three outdoor servants and four or five indoor ones and she brought a maid, nanny and three children. Germany overran much of Belgium in 1914 and in response to a national appeal to those in large houses with rooms to spare, the Pater - very patriotic - took in a family of Belgian refugees. Monsieur and Madame Petere and their sixteen year old son, Georges. Madame was often in tears and neither she nor Georges spoke any English so my mothers French came in useful. After the disastrous Gallipoli campaign in 1916, invalid solders who must have got back to England on one of the ships organised by Betty’s grandfather, Vice Admiral Sir James Porter, came for convalescence. There were Canadian remount horses in the stables, which Aunt Flo and her cousin Elsie would ride. All this kept my mother busy and no doubt whatever her anxieties were about my father - made her feel, to use the then war time phrase, that she was “doing her bit”. In due course the Petere’s left, Monsieur to get back to occupied Belgium as a secret agent and Georges to join the Belgium Army at eighteen and be killed. Whenever after the war, and after the second war also, Monsieur came to England he went to see my mother - the last time when both were well into their 70s.
If 1914 changed things for the family - 1917 altered it even more. The Pater died after a short illness on 2nd January and one of the causes of his death on his death certificate is “overwork” - a unique entry which as a Deputy Coroner for some 35 years I have never seen elsewhere. As well as running the office and his public appointments without my fathers assistance, he shouldered a vast amount of social work in connection with the war. He was Commandant of the local defence force, the equivalent of the Home Guard in World War II. Tributes poured in from many quarters, the City Council, the Magistrates Bench and the local Authorities with which he had been associated.
Monthly Feature Page
Stephen Beaumont
As we have added Stephen’s personal reminiscences of Hatfeild Hall to the site this month, it seemed a good idea to also add a little about the man himself.
Group Captain (Flight Lieutenant during the Battle) Stephen Beaumont, who died in 1997, aged 87, fought as a 30-year-old Spitfire pilot in the Battle of Britain until his 26-year-old squadron commander felt that, at such an advanced age, his survival was unlikely.His life was probably saved by the decision but at the time he was most reluctant to be posted, as an instructor and flight commander, to an Operational Training Unit (OTU). Once there he helped to produce hastily trained Hurricane and Spitfire pilots to replace the high daily casualties. Beaumont was thus spared the perils of several sorties a day against experienced Luftwaffe pilots, many of them "blooded" in the Spanish Civil War. He served with distinction as a station commander and staff officer.
Beaumont's background was quite unlike that of RAF regulars and his opponents. He was a solicitor who had learned to fly at his own expense. In 1936 he had become a "weekend flyer" in No 609 (West Riding) Squadron in the Auxiliary, later Royal Auxiliary, Air Force. With the coming of war in 1939 the squadron replaced its obsolete Hart and Hind biplanes with Spitfires.During the "phoney war", the squadron undertook defence patrols over the north of England and Scotland: when France and the Low Countries were invaded in May 1940, 609 was ordered south.
On June 11, Beaumont and eight other pilots were dispatched to Warmwell in Dorset to rendezvous with an Imperial Airways Flamingo containing Winston Churchill and escort it to Briare, near Orleans in falling France. Two days later he again escorted the Flamingo, which this time carried the Prime Minister and Lords Halifax and Beaverbrook to Tours in a bid to keep France in the war.Beaumont recalled:
The airfield at Tours must have been a good example of the disintegration into which France had sunk. Here we were with the Prime Minister and, initially there was no one there to meet him. Tours airfield with its uncut grass and shabby buildings, resembling a bankrupt flying club, was totally unlike our spruce RAF stations. If this was an aerodrome of the French Air Force, then its morale must have been rock bottom.
When, at the end of May, the BEF was evacuated from Dunkirk, Beaumont flew sorties against heavy odds to provide a semblance of fighter cover for troops on the beaches. Subsequently, after fighting in the early part of the Battle of Britain, he left the squadron, having served briefly as its acting commander. Years afterwards, George Darley, the 26-year-old who had taken over in 1940 greeted him: "Hello Beau, still alive? That's due to me!".
When Beaumont left 609, seven of the 12 pilots with whom he had gone to war were dead and two were invalids. Of an additional 12 who had joined later, only three were alive. Posted to No 7 OTU at Hawarden, Beaumont found life "restful" after the stress of operations over the Channel and southern England. One of his pupils was Wing Commander Ira "Taffy" Jones who had been awarded the DSO, MC, DFC and MM in the First World War. Beaumont's task was to introduce the gallant veteran to the Spitfire. So impressed was the Wing Commander that upon being appointed to command a new OTU at Turnhouse, Edinburgh, he recruited Beaumont as chief instructor with the rank of Squadron leader.
In July 1941 Beaumont moved on to Fighter Command’s No 9 Group defending the North West and was mentioned in despatches. Feigning puzzlement about this he told enquirers that the mention was for designing the layout of WAAF sleeping quarters. In fact he had played an important part in organising the design of the Group’s new fighter stations.In August 1942 Beaumont was promoted Wing Commander and posted to Andreas on the Isle of Man.
The posting was urgent as his predecessor had crashed a Whitley bomber on a joy ride killing himself and six passengers including a woman friend. As a solicitor Beaumont was ideal for the mission. He discovered that on the afternoon of the flight the last entry in the station commanders mess book was two bottles of port.Andreas was a diversionary airfield for Flying Fortress bombers coming in from the United States and Beaumont invariably welcomed pilots and crews. When Beaumont greeted a top sergeant who bad just landed on the Isle of Man, the American airman remarked: "Say colonel, I always knew England was it little island but I didn't know it was as small as this".
In the spring of 1943 Beaumont briefly commanded Woodvale on the Lancashire coast before moving to Zeals in Wiltshire, where he boldly amalgamated the RAF and WAAF messes. Posted as group captain in July 1943 to No 84 Group, 2nd Tactical Air Force, in the role of Deputy Air Officer Administration, he was soon involved in preparations for the D-Day invasion on June 6. In Normandy he lived and worked in the back of a three-ton truck complete with washbasin. After being invalided home with hepatitis he returned to 2nd TAF in time for VE Day.
Stephen Gerald Beaumont was born on May 2 1910, the eldest of three sons of Gerald Beaumont of Hatfeild Hall, Wakefield. His father, who had been awarded the MC and Bar in the First World War, headed the family firm of Greaves, Atter & Beaumont, solicitors. Young Stephen was educated at Oundle and New College, Oxford. In 1931, after visiting Kenya, he entered the family firm. After his father's death he took on increased responsibilities in his twenties. Yorkshire clients and colleagues accepted his youth, but were inclined to comment: "We like thee lad but we can't always understand your Oxford accent".
After the war Beaumont became Clerk to the Governors of Wakefield charities, Clerk to the Commissioners of Tax, Secretary of the Wakefield Chamber of Commerce, Deputy Coroner for Wakefield and Chairman of the Wakefield Hospital Management Group. During the next 50 years he said that the appointment which brought him most satisfaction was the clerkship of the Wakefield Grammar School Foundation consolidated charities.
In 1967 Beaumont was appointed Deputy Lieutenant for the West Riding of Yorkshire, and in 1979 High Sheriff of West Yorkshire. Beaumont's sense of humour was proverbial. As High Sheriff he was responsible for judges' lodgings and he liked to tell of how he appointed a replacement house-keeper after a lady lawyer complained that her smalls had not been washed.
In retirement at Devizes in Wiltshire, Beaumont liked to read poetry. He particularly enjoyed Lear and Belloc, whose verse he imitated wittily. He was also a keen historian and published histories of Wakefield rural district council and of the sheriffs of Yorkshire and Wiltshire.
Beaumont was awarded the OBE in 1945 and twice mentioned in dispatches.
Stephen Beaumont married first, in 1936, Elisabeth Joan Porter Kaye, who died in 1976 and secondly, in 1979, Mrs Marjorie Douglas who also predeceased him. He had two sons and a daughter by his first marriage.
The Stephen Beaumont Museum of Mental Health
Recently voted in the top 10 most unusual museums in the country by The Telegraph, this is a rather unusually-themed museum, but a fascinating place to visit nonetheless. The museum, which is situated within the grounds of Fieldhead Hospital, is devoted to the history of the West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum. The exhibition covers the topic of mental health throughout the ages. There is a range of historic pieces of restraining equipment, photographs dating back to 1862, surgical equipment and documents. There is also a scale model of the original 1818 layout. The museum is open Wednesdays between 10am & 4pm.
Updates added 29th July
War Memorials Page
First World War Hero, Captain T W Dobinson
Born in 1882, Tom married Mary Elizabeth Nettleton on 28th July 1909 in Saint Peters Church. He joined the volunteer army on 18th December 1914 as a private in 10 Lincolnshire Regiment. In September 1915 he was commissioned as a 2nd Lt in the Royal Engineers and left for active service in October. He was in the newly formed 183rd Tunnelling Company in July 1916, during this period he was severely wounded in the leg “A blightly wound”. After a lengthy recovery Tom went back to France. The Commander In Chief, Douglas Haigh, mentioned him in despatches on 18th March 1917 for good work on the Somme.
He was wounded again on 27th March 1918 by a shrapnel blast, which happened at Swan Chateau Farm, Bussemboom, south of Poperinge in Belgium. After the Armistice on 11th November 1918 he was in Le Cateau, Cambresis, France, where he died of Spanish Flu on 1st December 1918 aged 36. He was at his death a Captain. There was an article about him in the Wakefield Express on 14th December 1918, his grave in Le cateau is tendered by the Commonwealth War Grave Commission. The book of remembrance at the cemetery includes the following;
“Dobinson Capt Thomas William. 183rd Field Cov Royal Engineers, mentioned in despatches, died of Pneumonia 1st December 1918 aged 36, son of Lancellot and Elizabeth Dobinson of Stanley, Wakefield, Husband of Mary Elizabeth Dobinson (Nee Nettleton) of 23 Albermaria Crescent, Scarborough”.
Sportsmen & Clubs Page
Kevin Ward
Born 5th August 1957, Kevin Ward started his career at Stanley Rangers. He made his rugby league debut for Castleford and embarked on a remarkable career which earned him recognition as one of the all time great forwards in both Great Britain and Australia.
He had flirted with a career in professional football before Castleford seized the initiative and signed him as an unproven but highly promising rugby league player. A key member of a superb Mal Reilly side, Kevin soon achieved cult status for his powerful, aggressive and highly skilled play.
He signed for a 'summer season' in 1987 with Manly Sea Eagles in Australia. Again he received recognition for his massive impact on the game and added a Grand Final winners medal to boot. Even today, Manly-Warringah fans often remark, 'what about that pommy Kevin Ward!'
Joining St Helens in 1990, he was again a hit with the fans for his tremendous power and ability and was a member of the 1993 Premiership winning team until a tackle resulted in a horrendous broken leg and ended his career. He almost lost his leg in the weeks that followed. Even now he can't walk long distances, let alone run.
During his playing career, Kevin was also chosen to represent Great Britain on twelve occasions, the last being the 1992 World Cup Final against Australia at Wembley. At club level, arguably his biggest career highlights were winning the 1986 Challenge Cup with Castleford, The 1987 NSWRL Premiership with Manly and the 1992 Lancashire Cup with St. Helens.
Local Collierys Page
Mr Fox, Newmarket Colliery Manager
Born 28th May 1897, Herbart Howard Fox was Newmarket Colliery’s longest serving Manager taking up the position on 1st April 1926. He came from the Forest Dean coalfield firstly to Altofts to take up an appointment as Under Manager at Pope & Pearson Colliery before then moving onto Newmarket. On April 30th 1926 the miners went on strike, a strike that continued until 12th November 1926. They were eventually driven back to work by hunger after a bitter campaign, upon returning to work they would have to work longer hours for less money than before.
There was bitterness against the Government, the Colliery Owners, Management and Union officials. All this creating an extremely difficult situation for a young, newly appointed Manager who had only worked at the colliery for a month before the strike! Within a short time the workforce developed a great deal of respect for Herbert, he was keen on discipline but fair. As years went by he had a workforce of men and officials of the highest order. Newmarket, a family pit, with men who were skilled miners, had in Herbert the management skills and personality to ensure strong leadership. The foundation he set down would continue at Newmarket until its closure in September 1983.
Many future mining engineers were given encouragement and help in their training and studies by Mr Fox, and during the war years he made available accommodation at Newmarket for the home Guard, Air Raid Wardens, First Aiders and Fire Fighters as well as Air Raid Shelters.
Newmarket was also one of the first colliery’s in Yorkshire to have bathing facilities under Mr Fox.
His management t Newmarket ended on 15 March 1953, sadly he died at the age of 55, having been the Manger for 27 years. He was buried in Stanley Saint Peters Cemetery.
More to follow
