Smithy Wood Lane Coking Works

The above was mentioned in the last post. Readers may wish to note that the remains of the coking plant are still in existence, at the bottom of Smithy Wood Lane.

IT IS LIKELY THAT THEY ARE ON PRIVATE LAND SO ALL USUAL CAUTIONS APPLY INCLUDING THE NEED TO AVOID DANGEROUS SITUATIONS AND ACTIVITIES

The remains have deteriorated and been vandalised signfictanly over the years and that destruction is continuing. There may thus be little time left to explore them. They consist of damaged 'beehive' kilns and brickwork. Much rubbish has been dumped on the site in recent years, and the place is overgrown. The map reference taken from Google Maps is shown below:

53.533055, -1.513581

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.5313462,-1.5067358,15z



At one time there were 'tennis courts' nearby, and the very old 'Berry House' was close by too, the Strafford Pit was even nearer, and the Damstead Cottages were close also. DOES ANYONE WANT TO SHARE ANYTHING ABOUT ANY OF THE ABOVE?

UPDATE ON A COUPLE OF ITEMS


Hi to the chap from the Worsborough area - who write an interesting bit about Lowe Reservoir, River Dove etc. Thank for sharing your information.

I am sorry but I cannot find a way to reply to you anonymously. SO - if you contact me again [and I hereby encourage you to do that] please make clear if I have permission to publish / share with readers of this blog, your comment.

What I term the 'River Dove', is sometimes referred to as the House Carr Dyke [Huskar] / Stream, however S.P. Sykes in his seminal work / thesis 'In the shadow of the hill' [that being the prominent hill at Stainborough known as 'Stainborough Lowe'] - available from Barnsley Archives and Dodworth Library] - he calls the stream / dyke "...the embryo River Dove...". Other sources use the same term[s].

It is definitely not the Baggerwood Dyke, but that water-course does join it at the following map reference 53.531231, -1.524181, available on Google Maps at on https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.5330425,-1.522872,15z.

I have recently read somewhere that it is not called the River Dove until it leaves Worsborough Reservoir.

However - it is CURRENTLY joined just before it enters Worsborough Reservoir - by the stream that you mention coming from Rockley at map reference: 53.527686, -1.487960   On Google Maps  https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.5256192,-1.4948053,15z  .

I suspect the answer lies somewhere in the naming process - which probably occurred before Worsborough Reservoir was built - I think about 1802. So I think that it is the River Dove - historically.

The reservoir at Stainborough was not built to serve the canal, but a long time before it, at least initally. In the work mentioned by Sykes elsewhere on this post, it says that it was one of two dams built on that water-course, and that it was probably the original 'Smithy Dam' serving a smithy at the bottom of Smith Wood Lane which is nearby.

Documents in the 'Wentworth Papers' say that the Smithy Dam was demolished and replaced by the one holding back Lowe Lake / Stainborough Lake, about 1730 by William Wentworth. Some decades later the Wentworth's sunk the Strafford Colliery nearby.

Around that time the canals were not competing very well with the up-coming railways of the day, so the Dearne and Dove Canal Company widened and deepened the canals in a bid to compete. For that they needed more water. By then the Wentworth's had ceased use of that valley as a part of their landscaping, possibly because of the presence of the mine and its associated industrial complex, and about then they sunk the Strafford mine even deeper.

So to provide more water the Lowe Lake / Stainborough Reservoir was considerably enlarged, I think to make it 23 acres in size and 34 feet deep, by widening the basin up stream of the lake.

Some time after that the water of the dam leaked into the mine workings, so the reservoir was drained and the site of the lake and the dam abandoned. Probably because the mine was more valuable than the lake. The mine was subsequently dried out and continued to operate until pre-WW2.



Hello also - to the person signed 'anonymous' who commented on the 'tunnel from Stainborough / Wentworth Castle to Saville Hall. Thank for sharing your information. Please contact me to say if I can publish it / share it with others on this blog.

The engineering challenges involved in building such a tunnel, especially centuries ago, are / would have been immense - and around these parts we have lots of people who know about tunneling, as they did much of it making coal mines.

The current Saville Hall - as I understand it - is just one wing of a much larger building, the other wing having been demolished many years ago. I suggest that when it was complete it probably had a shared cellar, and it is that which was / is blocked off by the concrete slab. However - perhaps you could check if it really is 'concrete' and say how old it appears to be. I would have expected any opening in antiquity to have been sealed off by stone or brick. Incidentally the book / thesis referred to above has things to say about Saville Hall, and about the Saville family.

The tunnel notion is firmly in people's minds - but you are the first one to say anything about the Saville Hall end of it.

It's an idea that bears continuing consideration. Other places have similar stories e.g. Nabbs Hall to Silkstone Church; Sheffield Castle to somewhere I cannot recall now.


The Editor

The Garrett

'The Garrett' was a steam locomotive - a steam engine - that passed through 'The Dam' part of the village for many years on its journeys up and down the railway line.

Many people knew about The Garrett, not least because it could be heard from almost any part of the village, even though it was far away from most places.

Many stories are told about that famous train engine - and here the aim is to gather them together and share them. Do you know anything about The Garrett? or about anyone associated with The Garrett? or any of the stories about The Garrett?

Information may be shared through the following email addresses, telephone numbers, or in person by speaking with Patrick at Dodworth St Johns Church on a Thursday morning (the coffee morning). Messages written in any form may also be left there or at Dodworth Library.
dodworthkronicle@googlemail.com
muckbank@yahoo.co.uk
249231 / 0746599171

Here's a few 'facts' about the Garrett.

It was the most powerful steam engine ever built in the UK - far more powerful that the engine which pulled The Flying Scotsman. However, both engines were designed by the same man Sir Nigel Gressley.

Perhaps only the one was built, but the plan was for 3. Being unsuccessful the plan was shelved.

It was made at the Peacock Works in Manchester.

It worked the line from the Wath-on-Dearne marshalling yards to Dunford Bridge Railway Station and return for about 25 years, until after WW2. That may be a journey of only 17 miles each way. That line included the steepest part of any mainline railway in the UK - The Worsborough Bank Line.

It was about 185 feet long, and weighed about 200 tons.

The trains involved were usually 'mineral wagons' containing coal, had about 40-50 wagons, and weighed about 1000 tons.

The engines were heavy on maintenance being prone to burning out fire grates, generated much slag, were disliked by 'firemen' due to the vast amount of shovelled coal needed to feed the great boilers.
The heat inside the cab was said to be immense.

The Garrett usually 'pushed' the train rather than pulled it. So the pressure on the Train Guards Van at the rear of train of wagons - jammed between the pushing engine and the weighty train - was so great that it was known to buckle the frame of the van holding shut the doors and preventing the Guard from getting out!

Locals robbed the train when it slowed on the hill to walking pace.

'Lady Asquith' was known to take rides on The Garrett 'footplate' from Smithywood Lane Crossing to Dunford.

Don't forget to send comments enhancing any of the above tales or sharing new ones.


Regards,

The Editor

Baker of oat cakes on Dodworth High Street / Dodworth War Memorial Project Group

A small group of dedicated and talented individuals are working in their own time to find out about people from the village who were involved in the First World War / WW1.

PLEASE HELP THEM - if you can - by sharing any information that you may have - the group especially want to trace living relatives of people whose names appear on the local war memorial.

If you have information such as letters, photographs or artifacts like medals, coins and brass shell casing ornaments please let the group know AND BE ASSURED that you will not be asked to part with anything - as COPYING and PHOTOGRAPHING of any item can be done - without taking it away - and - that everything gathered will be shared with the public unless the supplier wants privacy in which case that wish will be honoured.

Memories are especially valuable. Tell the group what you remember - of what your relatives said to you - BEFORE it is forgotten. Remember - once its gone - its gone for ever!

The group can be contacted through Dodworth Library, or Patrick at Dodworth St John's Church on a Thursday morning - or - through this website - just send an email to either of the following addresses: dodworthkronicle@googlemail.com; or to muckbank@yahoo.com. Or ring 249231 / 0746599171

RIGHT NOW THE GROUP ARE TRYING TO TRACE PEOPLE WHO KNOW ABOUT:

A local baker of oat cakes, who may have traded on Dodworth High Street. 

It was a man, named Ben Brooke. Are you related to him? Is anyone you know related to him?

Where was that bakery?

Whatever you know - be it just a tiny bit - please share it.


Many Thanks,

The Editor

Farms on Dodworth High Street

Many years ago there were farms on the High Street. Three or more farms existed.

One was at the top of Jermyn Croft - it was known as Senior's Farm.

Next, going down the hill, on the left, was Pashley's Farm - some of the buildings still stand - it is almost opposite the former 'pop' factory.

Just below Pashley's Farm, also on the left, was John Barrett's Farm. This is now the site of a housing development.

What do you know about these farms?
Do you know who lived in the farmsteads?
Do you know what was farmed there?
Do you know who worked there?
Do you know when they were in operation as farms?

Answers to the above and any other information will be warmly received.

Development of the Pheasant Inn site of Dodworth High Street.

After a long time, during which the site has been a derelict eyesore, the clearance work which precedes the building operation, has begun.

In his thesis (1984) on Dodworth and Stainborough, Sam Sykes, speculated that the site - which was formerly known as 'Delf Garth' - may have been the location of the earliest human settlement in Dodworth. However work by an archaeologist for the South Yorkshire Archaeology Department a few years ago, soon after the Pheasant was demolished, revealed little in the way of evidence. So let's see if anything is turned up by the current work.

Also let us hope and believe that whatever is erected on the site is a credit to the village and something which enhances it.

Prisoners of war - World War 1 and World War 2

Do you know anything about prisoners of war in our area?

It has been reported that German prisoners worked at Home Farm at the top of the hill on Dodworth Green, and that one of them made wooden toy hens! do you know anything about that?

Italian prisoners are reported to have worked on the railway line by 'The Dam', Have you heard that too?

Someone mentioned a legendarily strong prisoner who 'set gateposts' on local farms. Was it you who said this? Do you know about it?

Where did the prisoners live?
Who looked after them?
Where did they come from?
Where did they go?
Were there any incidents?

Missing large stone post from site near old coal mine

Near the site of the 'Old Sovereign Pit', close by the stream and the footbridge over it, was until recently a very large stone post, perhaps a former gate post.

In recent times the post has disappeared. Do you know where it has gone and why it was removed?

Langsett to Derwent and Ashop Valleys - footpath over 'Cut Gate', and by Marjorie Hill.

The above mentioned footpath has been in use for longer than human memory can say.

At one time it was used by 'drovers' who took sheep that way, over the 'Cut Gate' pass from the valley that holds the Lady Bower Reservoir, Howden Reservoir and Derwent Reservoir - to the market in Penistone. That was long before the reservoirs were built.

Marjorie Hill is the highest point of 'the moors' visible from around these parts.

Towards the top of Cut Gate is a shaped stone with a deep cross cut into it. Do you have any idea what that stone is and why it is there?

This item will be shared on other similar sites - and if any information is gained it will be put here.

Hood Green - camp between there and Eastfield after World War 2

Until perhaps 1970-80 a camp was situated in a field to the south-east of the road that runs between Hood Green and Eastfield. Do you know anything about it?

Nowadays a public footpath goes across the field from the said road towards Stainborough Fold or Crane Moor, but there is no trace of the camp except for a few bricks and bits of rubble in the nearby hedge rows.

I recall the camp as consisting of a series of huts - like army huts - each made of a concrete frame with brick walls and metal windows, and a concrete road between the entrance gate and the huts which were around the centre of the field.

Who lived there? Was it for prisoners of war or resettlement or something else?

When was it built and removed?