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Wales Bar 1940'S

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I am one of the old Pharts who remember deprivation and rationing, and I am thankful to the new generation who are co-operating to keep us all healthy. So far I have avoided nature's latest cull of our  generation and I wonder how many of my playmates from the postwar period are surviving. I  remember Les Moseley (RAF,) Harry (snowy) Allen (soccer),Jack Grace (Dec), Kenny Bonsall, Bobby Coxon, brother of Cynthia Coxon (maiden name) also Dot Askew, Vennie Harris, Avis Shaw and the principal 'boy' from Wales church panto Doreen Hale.

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I was born July 1940 and lived in Swallownest unitl 1966/7

 

I remember Wales Bar very well and the Lord Conyers Arms on the corner where the road turns up towards Kiveton

 

My mothers cousin was a teacher at the school in  the late 1940/early 1950 period - Geoff Cope son of John Cope and Hilda Cope who lived on Red Hill - Hilda was my grandmothers younger sister

 

Another cousin of hers married to  a guy by the name of Ron Canwell, he had a son about 3/4 years younger than myself - his parents were Horace and Annice Sayles

 

Another cousin Gwyneth Batty married to a well known local guy Ray Thorpe, who also had a son called Ray Thorpe and a daughter Marion 

 

My great grandmother lived in Kiveton but her son in  law was a well known joiner - Charles ?? their bungalow was almost next to the field where Kiveton Fair was held

 

From my years at Woodhouse Grammar School 1951- 1958 there were pupils from Wales and Kiveton/Kiveton Park/Harthill

 

Names I remember - Sandra Fenton,  Jeff Woodward, Derek Eyley, Brian Elsey, Wainscotes, (tink one of my mothers Wainscote cousins was also a teacher at Wales school at some point - Worthy Cope

 

I can see many other faces in my mind but cannot put names to them as yet

 

Will keep thinking - Victor Hutchinson - Wangsa Baiduri, State of Selangor, Malaysia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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11 hours ago, victormh said:

 

Worthy Cope rings a bell, and the one name I know definitely went to Woodhouse Grammar was Ron Grace, he became a Draughtman at Davy United. The Lord Conyers became a venue for Folk music and Ron's brother Jack was influential there. The other pub in Wales was a venue for our skiffle group The Harlequins. Hope you are safe and well over there.

Edited by minertone

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Late last year I met with a client company in Abu Dhabi and as it turned out the project manager was from the uk - somewhere in the north east but right now I cannot remember until I look in the project file

 

His close relatives lived in the row of cottages just before the Lord Conyers Arms some years ago - all dead now of course. He did give me their names at the time and that also will be in the project file at my office here in Malaysia

 

He remembered when younger visiting them regularly and also going down to the fishing ponds. When younger we often rode our bikes from Swallownest to Aston then down he side of he church to the ponds. I note now that they have been commercialised into a business. My daughter told me they hd visited them (she lives at Brandesburton just our side of Driffield) and they have Starr Cars fishing Lakes, 4 no stocked lakes with hard standing for visitor caravans and also they have built very plush cabins for rent

 

Cannot think of the Roy Grace right now unless he was a year above or below me at the time

 

Another name I recall from the area was a Jaqueline Jones - blonde girl turned out to be very attractive as the years rolled by according to some friends who knew her

 

There was also a rather chubby girl called Rosemary ???

 

Just remembered  - the joiner I referred to was called Charles Harrison - with his wife Phyllis (my grandmothers youngest sister) they had 2 no sons maybe now in their early 70's - think they emigrated to Australia soon after my great grandmother Charlotte Wasteney died

 

Also remembered that Ray and Gwynneth Thorpe lived on Storth Lane when they were alive -m certainly there before I left Driffield for Malaysia end of 2006 because I remember phoning them

 

Back around 1957/8 I knew a lad due to him going out with a Swallownest girl by the name of Pauline Deakin, in our class at Swallownest school

 

The lad worked at one of the pits, possibly Waleswood and although possibly on ly 18/19 ad a very fast Triumph Speed Twin and he used to ride it far too fast and take far too man y risks - goggles on but no proper clothing or crash helmet

 

He was doing his usual dangerous riding one day between Aston and Wales Bar and somewhere after the bottom of the dip in the road and before the bridge he came off and was killed - that is what I remember unless you can refine it

 

Memories keep trickling back of course

 

Hope you and your family are virus free and that you continue to be so

 

Very Best Regards - Victor

Edited by nikki-red

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Hi Vic, good to hear from you, sorry I can't be of any help with jogging your memory. It seems I am half a dozen years ahead of your time so people's names don't correlate .Nevertheless it is good to hear about the old  places, whenever we had a night out in Sheffield,(Locarno, Cutlers Hall etc) we would have to catch a bus as far as Swallownest and walk the rest of the way home because our last bus was 9.30 from Pond St. We sometimes went to Dances in Swallownest, I think it was a community Hall and when we got kicked out of the pub in Wales (Skiffle/rock group), we tried to transfer our clientele to the same dance hall in Swallownest. It didn't catch on then but Dave Berry had the same idea just a little while later.

The guy I know who went to Woodhouse Grammar would be 88 now so he would have been before you.

I made my way to the West Country (UK) due to my interest in Rock and Roll and stayed.My pal from the group eventually built a lovely bungalow down here overlooking the ocean so turning our back on traditional mining jobs (almost an obligation to follow your predecessors down the pit) didn't do us any harm in the long run. 

Good to talk stay safe.

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My dad was born in Wales/Wales Bar in 1905. His birth was registered in Eckington which must have been quite a distance to travel in those days. He left in December 1948 to marry my mum never to return. I didn’t find out why - it was just something that I knew must not be talked about. Consequently I have never had any contact with his family. His name was William Leslie Watson and he had several siblings. When I was around 16 years of age (1967) an old friend of his called Ernest Harper  managed to track him down. I’ve no idea how he managed it. I think his mum - my grandma who I’d never met - was nearing the end of her life and she wanted to see him. He refused even though I begged him to take me. After he passed away I found a very old newspaper cutting regarding a woman’s body being found in the river Rother. It was one of his sisters and she had committed suicide. I think she was living at Beighton  at this time. 
If any of this rings the slightest of bells it would be nice to hear from you. I must have/had cousins but as dad was over 40 when he married for the first time it’s probable that most are no longer with us.

Thank you for taking the time to read.

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hi Sue, Watson does not seem a familiar name to me ,in 1948 I would have been busy playing football etc and wouldn't have known much grown up stuff although this does sound dramatic.

Edited by minertone
date errors

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Thank you minertone. I’ll just have to live in hope!

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Hi Sue - in case it is helpful, I may have found your father's family in the 1911 census return - below is a link to a scan of the page. If this is the right family, your grandmother was Octavia Furness/Furniss (both spellings can be found in GRO records)  born on 15 January 1880. She married your grandfather John Gervas Watson in 1903. and died in Oct.-Dec. 1969.  https://i.postimg.cc/3NW0gPDM/1911-Watson.jpg

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Thank you so much! Yes this is the correct family as I remember my grandad’s name and the names of his two sisters. I must have gleaned this information from my mum. I thought that there were a couple of brothers too but they must have been born after 1911. I never knew my grandmother’s name or place of birth. Thank you once again 🙏 

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Hello again Sue - I'm pleased to be able to help a little with your family history. I just looked at births from 1911 onwards and found the two brothers, also another sister born later in 1911 (the census was taken in April). These are:

       Priscilla Mary, born Jul-Sep 1911

       John Robert, born Oct-Dec 1913

       Albert Edward, born Oct-Dec 1915

Your grandmother Octavia's parents were Jane Parr and Frederick William Furniss, who were married at Chorlton, Lancashire in 1878, but they evidently separated around the time of her birth. At the time of the 1881 census, when Octavia would have been about 15 months old, she was living at Spinkhill with her mother Jane and grandparents Thomas and Ann Parr. By the time of the 1901 census she was living with her uncle William Parr of Spinkhill, and supporting herself as a dressmaker. Here is a link to a scan of the 1881 census data. Note that Jane's family were from Leicestershire, and Jane is described as "Unm(arried)" despite having a different surname from that of her father! https://i.postimg.cc/hv6Xxd38/1881-Parr.jpg

Edited by hillsbro

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Thank you once again Hillsboro. Since yesterday I’ve been having a good think about what caused the rift between my dad and his parents. He was a colliery surface worker at Walewood pit throughout the war years and beyond. But I believe that both brothers went to war and both survived. Unsurprisingly they returned to a hero’s welcome which I assume continued for many months. I think dad felt very pushed out by all the attention - as if the job he’d been doing wasn’t worthy of any praise. I can’t thank you enough really I can’t. I’m totally useless at this type of thing and not computer savvy! I might let slip my mother’s maiden name slip - which was very unusual -  at some point to see what you can dig up.It’s like long lost family 😊 Many,many thanks 

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