Hi,

We've just started a community history project in Kiveton Park and Wales, with funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund, we're doing lots of events and activities over the next year, including:

A History Website ( (w)ww.kivetonparkandwaleshistoryproject.org.uk - give us a couple of weeks to get it going, with a nice link to SF of course!)
Oral History Archive of local memories
On-line Museum
Old Photo Archive
Activities with Local Schools
Heritage Trails around the area
A History Documentary, with dramatic reconstructions
Exhibitions about the area locally and in national museums
History Float for next year's carnival
Community Coach Trips
Tracing Your Family Tree Workshops (in the new year)

Please PM or e-mail history@kpwcdt.co.uk if you would like to be involved in any way - from coming on trips to go underground at the National Coal Mining Museum to taking part in historical reconstructions of scenes from the Miners' Strike!

In particular, we would be really grateful if you could get in contact if you have any memories, photographs or objects relating to the history of the area. We've already been loaned everything from miners' soap to milk bottles - we're taking photos for an on-line museum and giving objects straight back.

In the meantime, it would be great if forummers could contribute to this thread with memories or thoughts about the area (I know many forummers live here, some who have worked here in the past and someone else who used to come to take part in the pantomine each year back in the eighties!).

There is a coffee morning at the Festival Hall on 25 November, between 10am and 2pm, if you would like to pop down to see what we're doing. Please bring any photographs and objects with you.

Look forward to hearing from you,

John Tanner
Kiveton Park and Wales Community History Project
(ps it feels strange posting on the History Section using my own name!)

Are you the History Project Manager? The job was advertised in the Star and I applied for it- got rejected unfortunately!

hi john tanner hope it goes well with the site me being a kivo lad born and bred look forward too taking a look at the site when its up and running.may well be able to help you out with some photos and stories and just to start you off i live in the only house in the village that had a child from down london sent there during the war for safe keeping and i belive he is 75 now and still alive

Hi,

Sorry for not getting back sooner.

Tom - yes, I was the one lucky enough to get the job, I know there were lots of applications.

Neil - sounds really fascinating, I'll look into it. We're putting together a series of local history pamphlets, one of which will be about the villages' war-time experiences, including evacuees. I'll PM you when the website is sorted, the History Morning at the Festival Hall on 25 November should be interesting and give an idea of what we're doing, if you're around and fancy a cup of tea and a chat.

Look forward to hearing from you and thanks to those who have e-mailed me since this thread was started.

John T.

Is this the job Dave used to do ? Are the meetings still happening @ the hut on 1st Tuesday in every month ?

Hi Lindsey,

I'm not sure - this is a 15-month project which only started two months ago, but I know history activities have taken place in the area before, and we're certainly benefiting from the hard work done by people in the past.

The History Volunteers tend to meet towards the end of the month at the Parish Rooms - the next meeting is on 16 November at 3.30pm - although there are tend to be various activities most weeks.

John T.

Hmm call me a cynic but I suspect this will all come to nothing - just like the whole pit head regeneration project.

Lindsey,

'Hmmm call me a cynic'? I'm not sure why you're being so sceptical, but this was meant to be a positive thread about a project which many members of the local community are already very involved in.

I don't see how it can come to nothing. For a start, I'm giving a great deal of time and energy into the project and I don't really fancy doing 'nothing' all day for the next year or so. National funding has been provided by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Dozens of local people have come forward to offer their help. Local schools, colleges and universities are involved. The website is a couple of weeks away from completion. We've already got many activities planned over the coming months, including workshops with the Oral History Society to put together an on-line oral history archive. A touring exhibition of Kiveton and Wales History will be shown locally, in Rotherham and at the National Coal-Mining Museum. The first publication should be hitting the presses by the end of the month - I'll post details on here as it will be available to download free of charge from the website.

I'm not involved in the pithead regeneration project and I'm not in a position to comment on it, or the work which has been going on for the last few years.

John

Lindsey,

'Hmmm call me a cynic'? I'm not sure why you're being so sceptical, but this was meant to be a positive thread about a project which many members of the local community are already very involved in.

Becasue we see these things come & go thats why :|

I don't see how it can come to nothing. For a start, I'm giving a great deal of time and energy into the project and I don't really fancy doing 'nothing' all day for the next year or so.
I dont doubt this for a second, but usually it comes to nothing


National funding has been provided by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.


It was last time


Dozens of local people have come forward to offer their help. Local schools, colleges and universities are involved.


I haven't seen a single thing about this - anywhere. Other than the uproar over the job advert. I am very involved with the local schools, and still haven't seen anything.


The website is a couple of weeks away from completion. We've already got many activities planned over the coming months, including workshops with the Oral History Society to put together an on-line oral history archive. A touring exhibition of Kiveton and Wales History will be shown locally, in Rotherham and at the National Coal-Mining Museum. The first publication should be hitting the presses by the end of the month - I'll post details on here as it will be available to download free of charge from the website.



Then I shall see then. I am not having a go about it - it's just all these things get promised & nothing happens.

Hopefully this will be different, it would be a real shame to see all your hard work was for nothing.

Cheers Lindsey - I'll PM you when the website is ready.

In the meantime, give me a shout if you'd like to pop down sometime for a coffee and to see all the stuff we've collected so far (I try to be in the Colliery Offices from Monday - Wednesday, but I'm in and out this week).

JT

Cheers Lindsey - I'll PM you when the website is ready.

In the meantime, give me a shout if you'd like to pop down sometime for a coffee and to see all the stuff we've collected so far (I try to be in the Colliery Offices from Monday - Wednesday, but I'm in and out this week).

JT

Sounds good to me - it's only at the back of my house so I will pop round.

L

Hi John, Cheshire calling! Wish I were nearer to offer support. My husbands paternal family first moved to Stavely and then Kiv circa 1890's. Maternal line from circa mid 1800's. 3 generations then worked in the mines up until mid 1950's/60's. The sons started working at the pits around the ages of 13/14 and were generally pony drivers before being 'promoted'. We have some lovely family stories of day to day life but very few pictures (didnt have cameras) that may be of interest. Have to say life was hard. Up until 'grandad's death (mid 1960's), he still used to throw his cap into the house when he came home from the pub. If it got thrown back out, he'd turn tail and return to the pub. Let me know if I can be of any assistance, albeit remotely. Regards Caroline PS If anyone can assist me with some 'Storr' family history from the area, I would be greatly appreciative.

PS On checking the fam history, it would appear that Thomas (the migrant) moved across to work on the railway lines initially (census occupation) before his career change to the coal face. Im sure a lot of men did, but I understand they were in situ when the coal face was first opened up as I can now link the stories of the children being taught in the colliery offices, before the school was built, which will tie up with the mines history.

Hi Caroline,

I've only just seen your post, cheers for all the information and your offer of help. I'm just heading out of the office and won't be back in till Monday, when I'll reply properly. It sounds like there are some fascinating contributions you could make to the project!

John

Hi Caroline,

The name certainly seems to mean a lot to some of our volunteers - I'll PM you when I've had a chat with them properly after our Coffee Morning on Saturday. Not least, I've got the original surfacemen's signing on book - signed by every man and boy who worked on or around the pit top between 1916 to 1952. I think there were a few Storrs on there but I'll have to check through properly. Similarly, the name rings lots of bells with other material I've seen, which I'll check properly for you. The chronology you mention does check out, but it would be interesting to find out exactly when your ancestors arrived.

My office is in the colliery offices so if you're ever in Kiveton give me a shout - the clocktower is working now too! We're putting together a history of the schools as an article for the website. Not least, we've been given partial confirmation of the opening date for the Infants School - watch out for unexpected centenary celebrations in the nearish future!

We're also putting pages on the site about specific families in the area: so far, we've got contributions on the way from ancestors from one of the pitsinkers (1866-7), one of the first men to die down the pit, Herbert Chapman (former Arsenal manager - considered one of the best ever) and two brothers who fought in the First World War (the diaries of which will shortly be our first local history publication). It would be great if you, or anybody else reading, could contribute their family memories and stories, and have a page of the site devoted to them.

I hope we can help family historians too. One of the things going on the website will be listings of the pit records, school records and other material we've got, to try and help people interested in family history in the area.

I look forward to hearing from you, and hopefully meeting some SFers in the flesh on Saturday!

JT

Hi John Thank you so much for the response. My husband is one of 6 children so Ive prompted a lot of history hunting amongst them its marvelous! Im sorry to miss the coffee morning but hopefully we can manage a trip in the new year. Keep up the excellent work! Kind regards Caroline

Hi its a reply to KiWAhistory.

I worked at Kivo pit for about two years and left just before it shut. I wondering whether the South Yorkshire BAT Group could survey the roof voids of the old managers offices at Kivo pit site. The old victorian building has some excellent high roof voids that bats may utilise for roosting in and if this is true it would be another attraction for the former site both as a future bat walk starting point when the park nearby is matured and also from the fact that any bat roosts in there would be protected un legislation that would help secure the building from any future ugly developments or alterations.

regards

Graham Gregg
SYBG

Hi,

Thanks for the support Caroline, we had a great coffee morning last week, when people brought along things ranging from silver medals from Wales Cricket Club in the 1890s to the original radio out of a Lancaster Bomber! These have all been photographed for our on-line picture museum (the website is looking great, but we're still tweaking it before putting it on-line). The geneology parts of the site are going to be bigger than we expected, partly because we've had a huge response to Family History Classes which are being run next year, and because we've turned up many more family history resources, including school records going back to 1870, which we hope to digitise and put on the site. I'll keep you posted.

Huge apologies, but in the excitement of the Coffee Morning (myself, my very pregnant wife and lots of history volunteers were running around from the crack of dawn to the late afternoon!) I forgot to ask the other volunteers about your family. I'll make sure I do it next week. Similarly, I've now got dozens of school photos, carnival photos and sporting photos, many of which we've got the names for. I'll look through them for Storrs.

Hi Graham, That sounds fascinating! I'm sure it would be absolutely fine, but I'd have to check with a few people. The building is listed so should be well protected for the future, but anything that might guarantee this would be welcome. Similarly, batwalks sound an excellent idea, and I'm working closely with the Forestry Commission Rangers who would be keen to be involved. Do you want to pop in some time to have a preliminary look around? Having said that, I've not heard anything about bats, but I agree it's a possibility.

Let me know when you might pop in and I'll make sure the relevant people are around. I'm in on Monday and Thursday, but at the Junior School all day Tuesday for their History Day. Similarly, we're turning the place into a film studio on Wednesday, for a documentary which is being filmed about the miners' strike, so that might be difficult. If you prefer evenings, I'm working late on Tuesday until 7pm, so that might be a good time to meet up.

Let me know what you think,

John

ps. I'll pop back with project photos next week

Cheers for e-mails and its been good chatting to a couple of Forummers recently - sorry for not popping back on here sooner. Caroline - I'll PM you tomorrow. Not least, I'm running family history workshops in a few weeks time using local and national sources. Some of those attending are new to the area, so I'm sure they'd be happy to look for your stuff when we're using local resources.

If anybody fancies a listen to me and a few of our volunteers (please don't laugh at us!), we were on Radio Sheffield today and you can listen to it by clicking on the listen live link to the right of the screen ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/southyorkshire/content/articles/2006/02/22/radio_sheffield_radio_player_list.shtml ), clicking on the 'Phone Rony' program and fast-forwarding to approx 2 1/2 hours into it.

It would be great to hear from anyone who has any photos/memories/objects about Kiveton or Wales, past or present.

All the best,

JT

ps: website going live next week, I'll post the link here!
(if that's ok with Geoff et al - of course, I'll stick a link to the SF History Board on our site)

pps: We have an oral history training day at the colliery offices on Saturday, food and drink provided. Please PM me or phone 01909 773348 tomorrow if you'd like to come along. Otherwise, just come down at about 10am. It should be fun and there will be no obligation to go out into the community interviewing people, but of course this is what we're hoping people will be happy to do.

PS On checking the fam history, it would appear that Thomas (the migrant) moved across to work on the railway lines initially (census occupation) before his career change to the coal face. Im sure a lot of men did, but I understand they were in situ when the coal face was first opened up as I can now link the stories of the children being taught in the colliery offices, before the school was built, which will tie up with the mines history.


Hi

My Grandfather also followed the railway to Kiveton. Born in 1866, he left Ireland c1880 and worked in St Helens nr Liverpool first, but then worked as a tuneller on the Railway lines at woodhead eventually ending up on the Stavely Tunnel. He lived in Eckington & Killamarsh then. He then got work at Stavely Pit and Norwood pit before getting a pit house in Kiveton, when he got a job at Kiveton Pit. He lived in Kiveton until his death in the 1930's.

He had 12 children- Steve, Tom, Walter, Jim, Willy, Edmund, Kenneth, Michael, Winifred, & Catherine plus two other girls who died as children, He was the first Irishman in Kiveton and my Dad Ken, was named after the first Scotsman, a Doctor. Most of his children (the males anyway) worked at Kiveton Pit at one time or another. Walter served in the RE during the D-day landings in Normandy, Kenneth left the pit c.1953 and joined the Sheffield Police, Michael went to work for Austin in Birmingham, Jim became a Phsicyatric Nurse in London. Stephen moved to Langold and became an Alderman in Worksop. A daughter, Winifred was in the ATS during the war. Edmund became a pit deputy at Kiveton, Catherine (Kitty) lived in a Bungalow (Druids lodge) at Low Laithe Farm, Wales. Willy worked at UNBRAKO and was the Secretary at Wales Jubilee Club

This was his obituary, quite a few names on it some of the descendants of these may still live in Kiveton.

Mr. Michael Burke, Kiveton Park

A well know and much respected resident of Kiveton Park has passed away in Mr. Michael Burke, who died on the 18th inst, after a week’s illness, at the age of 71 years. The deceased was born in Roscommon, Ireland, and came to Killamarsh about 46 years ago finding employment at the Norwood Collieries. Mr. Burke had lived in Kiveton Park for the last 22 years and, until his retirement a few years ago was employed at the Kiveton Park Collieries. He leaves a widow, eight sons and two daughters to mourn his loss.

The interment took place at Wales cemetery, the service being conducted by the Rev. Father Whitehead, of St Josephs, Dinnington. The Mourners were; Mrs. Burke, widow; Mr., and Mrs. T. Burke, Mr. and Mrs. S. Burke, Mr. and Mrs. C. Elliott, Miss W. Burke and Messrs James, William, Michael Edmund and Kenneth Burke, Sons and Daughters, son-in-law and daughters-in-law; Eileen Burke, Patrick Burke and Tony Burke, grandchildren; Mrs. Anderson, Mr. and Mrs. E. Spencer (Worksop), Mr. and Mrs. Newstead, Mr. and Mrs. J. Malone (Killamarsh), Cousin; Mr. E. Malone, the Misses Winifred and Mary Anderson, Nephew and nieces; Mr., and Mrs. Speed, Mrs. P. Lorgan, Mrs. Dowd, Mr. and Mrs. McNulty, Mrs., J. W. Sissons, Mr., and Mrs. Kelly, Mr. and Mrs. F. Whittingham, Mr. J. King (Aston), Mr. and Mrs. J. Atkin, Mr. and Mrs. G. Clarke, Mrs. Fairbrother; the Kiveton Park Co-operative Women’s Guild was represented by Mrs. L. Jarvis and Mrs. Rhodes, and there were many other friends.

The bearers Messrs. A. Shaw, A. Fletcher, W. Barber, W. Pearson, J. Kelly and J. Stanniland.

Floral tributes were from: Wife and Children, Winnie and Kenneth; Kitty and Cyril: Willie and Edmund, Michael and Ray; James and Lena: Tom, Edith, Tony and Keith; Steve, Dolly and Children; Nellie and Ernest; Clara, Peter and family; Jim, Lizzie and family; Tom, Kate and family (Worksop); Mrs. J. W. Sissons and family; Low Laithe Farm, Wales; Mr. and Mrs Kelly; Wales Jubilee Club; Ladies Domino Party ( Wales Jubilee Club); Kiveton Park Co-operative Womens Guild) (Friends and neighbors).

The Funeral arrangements were in the hands of Mr. A. Powis, and the motor hearse and cars were supplied by Mr. A. Bartrop (Worksop)

Not related to the Kiveton area in any way, but I work for a Community History Project in Hillsborough - our web address is

www.burtonstreethistory.org.uk

Lostrider - that's fascinating, could you let me have the date of the obituary so I can get hold of a copy?

SolidsSister - I'll email you this week if I may. A number of people have highlighted the great work the Burton Street Project has been doing and I'd like to pop in and say hello.

Cheers,

John

hi john
just wonderd when the web site will be up and running,and just thinking how funny it is ending up living where you do.if it wasnt for my grandfather and his brother walking from bradford ,calling at as many mines as they could looking for work in the depression.they were set on at kiveton thats why my family live in the village

John - that would be great, we work M,T,W email (if you haven't found it on the website) is commhist@burtonstreet.org.uk

Penny

My Grandma who still lives in Kiverton Park, still talks about the White City and how the houses were only suppose to last 20 years. an history of them would be a great idea if possible:D

Solidsister - fantastic, I'll try and pop in asap. I'm a little hectic at the moment and have just realised that I've arranged interviews for every morning and afternoon this week and next! Our first baby is due in the next couple of weeks, but I'll try to pop in before that. Michelle Winslow forwarded me your latest newsletter last week and it'll be great to swap ideas.

exmrdbd: could you ask your grandma to give me a ring on 01909 773348? It would be great to interview her. I've got lots of photos of the old white city. A local person did some university work on the White City which is interesting, and as part of the project we're putting together a pamphlet of photos about different parts of the village.

Neils: The site is almost there (I've been saying this for a while I know!). It is looking really good, although in the first instance only around thirty old photos (of the 400+ we have collected so far) and thirty or so pictures from our picture museum will be online. The rest will be added in the summer.

Cheers,

John

Hello Neils, Sorry to contradict you. Kiveton Lass born and bred. My mother had a family of 3 evacuees from London. A girl and two brothers. I have photos, also a friend and neighbour had a cockney boy. They all stayed until a year after the war. The cockney would be about 74 now, not sure if he's still around. Some years later he was front page of a well known newspaper arrested for armed robbery. Good job he didn't hang around.

Hi,

I'll pop on again to give you more information about what we're doing tomorrow, or tonight from home, but I wanted to let you know that the site is finally on-line. A few things which we need to iron out and a fair few typos, but we're almost there!

www.kivetonparkandwaleshistoryproject.org.uk

The site is only a small part of what will be on there by the summer. For example, we have 1400+ photos to put in the photo archive and another few dozen to put in the Photo Museum (the next stage is to include categories and a search engine).

The main focus of the project is to record the mining heritage of Kiveton Park and Wales but, as you can see from the publication list, we are ensuring that we are recording the wider history of the mining communities in the area. Because of all the help we've got from local people, whether researching, writing, editing and proofing books and pamphlets, there should be more than twenty downloadable by the end of the year. Please let me know if you have any other ideas for a publication.

I look forward to seeing you/chatting soon - there will be a big history walk and tour in April which is being arranged by myself and the Forestry Commission around Kiveton if anyone fancies it, including talks by former miners and the chance to explore our full photograph collection.

Please feel free to pop in for a coffee at the colliery offices, and to have a look at our new museum/archive/history workshop (having said that, my baby's due next week so you might want to leave it a couple of weeks!)

All the best,

John

ps. if you have any photos, memories, objects, or would like to get involved, please get in touch:

John Tanner
Kiveton Park and Wales Community History Project
Old Colliery Offices
Kiveton Park
S26 6LR
01909 773348

Hi, I was born and grew up in Kiveton. My father was one of ten children of a well known Kiveton family. He and his four brothers all followed their father to work at the colliery.As far as I know three of them remained there, one left when he got married and moved to Langold and my dad eventually became Steward of Wales Club.
In 1956, at Wales Church, I married a member of another well known local family. We had two children and later left Kiveton in 1967. My brother still lives in the area(Thurcroft) It shouldn't be difficult to work out who I am and I would love to hear from anyone who might remember me

Hi Amadoresblue,

I think I might know which family you're from - could I show your post to a couple of people tomorrow before I hazard a guess by PM? I think we've got lots of photos you'll be interested in!


John T.

(ps. still no baby arrived yet!)

I do not mind; if you want to show my message to someone else please do so

Hello John,
I also was born and raised in Kiveton. My father worked down the pit and died young from kidney disease, brought on, so my mother said, by working up to his waist in cold dirty water. My grandfather also worked down the mine and his father was born in Swadlincote, Derbyshire and came to Kiveton to help sink the mine shaft. My father's brother escaped the pit by playing football. He played for Sheff Un and Chelsea amongst others, and later he became landlord of the "Beehive" at Harthill. I escaped by going to Woodhouse Grammar School and then Hull University. After National Service my wife and I lived in Kiveton for several years and had two children before my work took me to Scunthorpe, then Kuwait, Guisborough and finally I retired to Saltburn. I have many happy, (and a few not so happy) memories of my early years in Kiveton. Miss Thorpe and Miss Jarvis in the Infant school, Miss Bradley, Mr Bass and "Daddy" Boulton in the Juniors. "Bobby" Prince, Dr McKenzie, Nurse Hope and Bill Pritchard who looked after the tennis courts, bowling green and putting green all spring to mind, and as I write,so many others come to mind. I would be very happy to hear from any of the people I knew back then, and if you have any information about my family, (I'm sure you will have guessed which it is) I would be pleased to hear it. I have looked at the photos on your web site and recognise some of the faces. It would have been a great help, though, if they had titles and dates, even if only approximate. I believe I have some which I will look out.

Oh no, a Flash site that requires a loading bar for every page. Nice layout, not sure about all the colour changes though.

I'll stick with the longer established www.j31.co.uk

Hi alchresearch,

Paul from j31.co.uk and myself are working closely together. An interview with Paul will be appearing on our site shortly which we recorded a couple of weeks ago. It isn't some kind of competition and both sites serve different purposes, so I don't quite follow your post.

The point has been taken about the flash and had already been recognised. We're taking steps to offer an alternative for those with slower connections.

Cheers for the feedback.

Hello John,
I also was born and raised in Kiveton. My father worked down the pit and died young from kidney disease, brought on, so my mother said, by working up to his waist in cold dirty water. My grandfather also worked down the mine and his father was born in Swadlincote, Derbyshire and came to Kiveton to help sink the mine shaft. My father's brother escaped the pit by playing football. He played for Sheff Un and Chelsea amongst others, and later he became landlord of the "Beehive" at Harthill. I escaped by going to Woodhouse Grammar School and then Hull University. After National Service my wife and I lived in Kiveton for several years and had two children before my work took me to Scunthorpe, then Kuwait, Guisborough and finally I retired to Saltburn. I have many happy, (and a few not so happy) memories of my early years in Kiveton. Miss Thorpe and Miss Jarvis in the Infant school, Miss Bradley, Mr Bass and "Daddy" Boulton in the Juniors. "Bobby" Prince, Dr McKenzie, Nurse Hope and Bill Pritchard who looked after the tennis courts, bowling green and putting green all spring to mind, and as I write,so many others come to mind. I would be very happy to hear from any of the people I knew back then, and if you have any information about my family, (I'm sure you will have guessed which it is) I would be pleased to hear it. I have looked at the photos on your web site and recognise some of the faces. It would have been a great help, though, if they had titles and dates, even if only approximate. I believe I have some which I will look out.

Your memories have just prompted a lot of nods and agreement from a couple of volunteers who have been down here recording a radio show! It would be great if yourself and amadoresblue could jot down your memories of the area and e-mail them to us so we can put them on the site and in the archive. Quite a few people who left the village a while ago and have been in touch and getting memories from that perspective is very interesting.

If you had any further information or photos you could e-mail me about your families' time in Kiveton it would be much appreciated - it sounds like you'll have some fascinating things to share. I've got pit records, including the original surfacemen's book - which if they started on the surface (which most did) will have your family's signatures from the days they first started work.

Similarly, could you let us have more information about your uncle and his time with United and Chelsea? One of our volunteers (who had uncles who managed Arsenal and played for Wednesday - two lots of rivalry!) has just identitified who you are and said it would be great if we could get some more information and meet up sometime.

Might you be able to pop down to see us in June? We're turning the colliery site and offices into a living museum for four days - I've been around all the schools and the youth and community centre this morning finalising details and it all looks very promising - it's great how everybody is pulling together and being so positive about the project. There will be photo and museum displays, barbecues, pit ponies and lots more, with the local youngsters putting on drama and music displays related to local history and particularly the pits. The saturday is the big day (the other days are devoted to the schools) so it would be great to see you there.

I look forward to chatting properly at some point!

John

Hi my name is Graham, not from kivo, but doing a history degree and hoping to contribute to the genealogy side of the project have met John at Hallam uni a few weeks ago and I am putting resources together for family historians based on the census returns

Cheers for all your efforts Graham (surprise to see you on here!). I'm at home but have asked volunteers to check our collection of maps about your queries, will get back to you asap.

Amadoresblue/Sybarite Six - Many thanks for the e-mail and apologies for not replying as yet. I decided to not read it until I could sit down in peace with a coffee but I've been out of the office since and can't access it from home - baby is already a week late!!!! Could you resend it to my university e-mail, which I can access from home? (j.tanner@shef.ac.uk)

Could you forward me some more information and any photos of your uncle I could use on the website, SybariteSix? We have a new section waiting to go on-line which celebrates what have been quite astonishing sporting achievements by local people since the late 19th century and I would like to include more information about him.

Similarly, I am putting a new section together about the sinking of the pit, for which I have a number of photos, local reports and many anecdotes. It would be wonderful if you could contribute any more information. Could I mention that I have been in touch with you when I write this section (I presume your ancestor was Jonas Eames - could you let me know if this isn't the case?).