While we are ' locked down' however we can still talk to our friends. In my case some of these friends - are also students in my local history classes. We normally come up with interesting topics during our meetings but now I keep in touch with them in other ways and and we have been discussing the area around Rawcliffe Bridge.
This was instigated by a picture which appeared on a facebook post, submitted by Roland Chilvers. The picture was captioned Rabbit Hills farm, Rawcliffe Bridge 1929.
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| Rabbit Hills farm 1929, courtesy of Roland Chilvers |
Pauline is a very keen and thorough researcher and this set her thinking. The Rabbit Hills area was an ancient piece of land but after World War One the West Riding council bought the Rawcliffe Hall estate and divided much of it into farms. In 1923 she found an advert asking for potential tenants for several farms, with preference given to ex-service men.
One of these was George Alfred Almond. He was an ex-serviceman originally from the Swinefleet area and had married the former Emily Drury at Swinefleet in 1921. This fits in with what another lady, Heather posted. She said that a member of the long-established Sykes family of Rawcliffe remembered that George farmed at Rabbit Hills with his wife Emily. They had two children Jim and Mary. Mary married Rex Wood who had Villa Farm in Snaith and Jim worked at Fisons.
Another friend, Steven, asked his father, David Goulden who used to live in Rawcliffe and he too remembered the Almond family.
George we believe later lived at White City on Rawcliffe Road and a family called Lewis took Rabbit Hills.
Pauline also sent me some of her memories of the farms in the 1940s.
I spent my junior school years living at Black Drain Head, a cottage and pumping station at the side of the River Don, about halfway between Rawcliffe Bridge and Newbridge. Our nearest neighbour was Maurice Baldry at Plum Tree Farm. When we arrived he was a single man and Mr and Mrs Thompson lived with him. When we left in 1948, he was married and daughter Barbara had just arrived. Son Colin arrived not long after.
Then, in memory, off I went down Johnny Moor Long, first Mr Procter, and then Norman Lifesey’s smallholding at the corner of Greenland Lane, the Torn family at Greenland Hall and Philip & Jean Micklethwaite at the Fox & Duck which was also a pub. It now has its original name, Fox Gate Farm. I liked Jean. Before she married, she was a bus conductress on the Majestic buses that ran from Doncaster to Goole.
The memory can play funny tricks at times because a lot of people remember the Blue Line & green Reliance buses on the same route, but I’ve yet to find someone who remembers the red buses with wooden seats. (sorry – I got side-tracked.) Greenland Lane ran straight from Johnny Moor Lane back to the river bank and turned just short of Newbridge.
Close to where the lane now bridges the M18, were the Scrutons and the Fox brothers and a bit further along, the Chafers. I don’t remember the family but son David started Goole Grammar School while I was there.
When I was asked about Rabbit Hills farm I remembered that there was a farm at the back of the Rabbit Hills but I thought it was Langham Farm. What did I remember? Leaving Rose Hill & walking towards the railway station, I passed a farm on the left. That was Mr Scawthorne who was also the village milkman until Northern Dairies arrived.
At the side of the first entrance to the Rabbit Hills was a large house called “North View” and for a short time, about 1946, the Hedges family came home from India to live there. School mistress Mrs Banham sat daughter Elizabeth with me in a double desk. The entrance to the wood at the side of this house was the only one I ever used which was quite often when a group of small children, after Sunday school, would be searching for treasures to put on the Nature Table in the classroom on Monday morning.
The other entrance, which is still there, was opposite the two large houses close to the station. Mr and Mrs Rowntree, who were members of our chapel, lived at Woodlands and Mr & Mrs Hargreaves, both teachers at Goole Grammar School, lived at Wynne House. The lane from this entrance leads to Rabbit Hills Farm. Was there a Langham Farm?
Looking at local maps, there were two more farms close by: South Farm and Langham Farm. The address for both farms was New Lane. This led from Mill Lane, the short cut from Rawcliffe station to Cowick. The Langham Interchange cut through New Lane but South Farm survived. So was Langham Farm lost under the motorway? It’s almost half a century since the motorway ploughed through this area and the local people have forgotten what it looked like. Of all my local contacts, only one could remember Rabbit Hills Farm because her Mother worked there for a Mrs J Lewis.
And there are the Dobeller farms and Pastures farms and Bridge farm, Bankside & Decoy just for starters and no photographs of any of them. I have one photo of Dobella Farm where I was sent to buy fresh eggs.
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| Pauline and her friend Shirley on the river bank at Black Drain Head |
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| Dobella/ Dobeller Farm |
My mum was Shirley Torn, youngest daughter of Alfred and Dorothy Torn, and lived at Greenland Hall. I would love to know if you have any photos of the farm, or if you knew her or her brothers and sisters. I know the Hall was taken down in the 1970s, but if you could help me pin down where on the road it was, that would mean a lot.
ReplyDeletedavid.susman@gmail.com
David, Can you use Google maps? Find Rawcliffe Bridge and take the road south from the village. It's called Jonny Moor Long Lane. It runs at the side of the river and then turns south towards Thorne. Just past the Greenland lane junction, on the left-hand side of the road, you'll see a sign for C S Backhouse. That is /or was Greenland Hall.
DeleteDoes anyone have any information on the Scrutons please
ReplyDeleteI'm the lady who wrote about my memories of the Greenland farms in the 1940s. At the Greenland lane farm was old Mr Richard who died in 1963 with Mr And Mrs Tom and Ada and their two girls, Ivy born 1933 and Enid born 1939 and Mr Harry. He was single and brother to Tom and his twin brother Ted. Ted lived in a cottage close to Newbridge with his wife Emily and daughters Marjorie and Audrey. The family originated in Eastrington. Harry, Tom and Ted were illegitimate and raised by their grandmother Jane Scruton and she moved her family to Greenland between the 1901 and 1911 census. Jane, Richard, Tom and Ada, Ted and Emily and Harry ( John Henry) are all buried in Cowick.
DeleteCan anyone tell me if paper mill road was originally called dobella road before the council houses were built. I live there and I was told the terrace houses were re numbered when the new houses came. Trying to find out my original number. The os map of 1907 only shows the houses but no road name. Any help is appreciated thankyou
DeleteShirley, the little girl on the above photograph, was born and lived at Number 5 Paper Mill Road but it was 43 Dobeller Road when she was born. We were both born in 1936.
DeleteAudrey Scruton married Derek Cawkwell and they lived on the farm that was once Bill Pindar's, on Station Road
ReplyDeleteDoes anybody have any information on the farm that used to be down Greenland lane , on the right before the motorway bridge (driving from Jonny moor long lane side). My ancestors used to live there. thank you.
ReplyDeleteDo you mean the Fox family? I doubt there is anyone around to remember them. As a small girl who used to visit the Scrutons on the opposite side of Greenland Lane, all I remember are two old gentlemen and a house almost falling down. The house had gone by the time I was married, so presumably the farm land was sold. Both farmers were unmarried and John William, the eldest, died in 1967.
DeleteMy grandma lived there Beatrice May Nottingham Cockin her brother Harry and their parents John Cockin and Ethel Mae Nottingham-Cockin. circa 1905. I believe the Fox brothers may have inherited the farm after John Cockins death?
ReplyDeleteI've checked the 1939 register for you and Ethel was housekeeper for the Fox family. At the farm were, Mr John William Fox, Harry Fox, Fred Cocking, Ethel Cocking and Arthur Penistone. I checked the 1911 and 1921 census. Ethel May who was single lived in West Cowick with her Grandmother Sarah Cocking. Her two children Fred and Beatrice were there too. Beatrice was christened in Cowick and her mother Mary Jane is recorded as single.
Deletethank you for reply and research. Ethel was previously housekeeper for John Cockin who owned the farm and Beatrice and Fred were their children. when John died the fox brothers claimed the farm because Ethel and John must have been unmarried at the time and the children were classed as illegitimate and had no claim. How times have changed it be a different story today, I'd be interested to know who inherited the farm from the Fox brothers since they had no children of there own and were single.
Deletei also need to check that Beatrice and her brothers mum was called ethel may Nottingham there grandma was Sarah Nottingham. some confusion between Cockin/Nottingham. Beatrices name was Nottingham-Cockin
DeleteI suggest that you contact me through Susan. If you go to the top of the page you can see how to get in touch because you have the wrong idea about Fox's farm. William Fox moved into the farm on or before he married his first wife in 1881. She died in 1886. His house-keeper was Mary Jane Cocking. He married her in Cowick church on April 8th 1901 and I'm looking at their marriage certificate. His sons Charles & John William, were to his first wife and Harry was born two months after Williams second marriage.
Deleteokeydoke, Mary Jane wasn't my grandmothers mum, that was Ethel may Nottingham-cockin
DeleteHi Pauline - My partner’s family also lived at Black Drain Head on the 1911 and 1921 census and afterwards (Charles Holland & family). Is there any trace of the property today and where exactly was it please? A lot of the family lived in the cottages on Thorne Road (including one with apple trees)/ Canal Cottages and River Cottages over the years. I believe Charles’s son (also Charles) had a hook for a hand so someone may remember them.
ReplyDeleteI can only repeat the description that I gave at the beginning of my article - at the side of the River Don, between Rawcliffe Bridge and New Bridge. Both the cottage and pumping station are long gone. Have a very careful look at the photograph of two small girls sat on the river bank. Behind us in the top right hand corner, you can just see the huge window of the pumping station. In the far distance is the tall chimney of Rawcliffe Bridge paper mill. On Google maps, you can clearly see the site. Leave Rawcliffe Bridge travelling south along Johnny Moor Long Lane. When you get to the corner where the road turns south away from the river bank. Stop. Park the car and climb on to the river bank. ( Not allowed now). Walk past Plum Tree Farm and look for a drain outlet into the river. On the map, you can see where the buildings stood.
DeleteMuch appreciated. Thanks very much for getting in touch so quickly. I’m finding the family history/ local history research very interesting indeed.
ReplyDeleteI've just been looking at old Sunday School photos of Brenda and Mary. Their father George is on the 1911 census with your Charles. They lived in Bank Cottages when I first knew them and they were one of the first families to move into the new council houses opposite Rawcliffe Bridge Hotel. If my memory serves me right, The girls had a little brother shortly after the move. Named Micheal, I think.
DeleteI visited Scrotons Farm as young child, seeing Uncle Tom and Aunt Aida. I remember Enid and Ivy being quite grown up at the time. I think Aunt Aida was a relation of my grandmother Alice Hill (Steeper being the name of her first marriage). My Father Tom Steeper told me he spent a lot of time at Greenland Farm as a young lad.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting to read about the area as I was born a Rawcliffe Bridge and lived in there until my teens.