My Grandparents

My grandparents come from Elsecar and Wentworth, in Mill Lane, you may have seen the Roundhouse,Can`t miss it really just up from Pondside. When my real grandad died my grandmother remarried a man named Stanley Horn from Harley. Now from the age of 13 he used to walk from Harley through Mill Lane.along Pondside as they called it and go to work in Elsecar Pit. he did this until he got married in 1947 and then only had half of the journey to make. He did this until he retired at the age of 65 having done 52 years there. When I stayed there as a child I would meet him or go with him to get his wages. We used to go into the corner shop and then he would go into the pub opposite, not sure but I think one of them was called Thickets. All this was unknown to my grandmother of course. The names in my family were Wilkinson, Dean. my uncle Laurence (Lorry ) Dean worked at the Sewage works in Mill Lane which meant he only had to walk a few hundred yards. No worry about him polluting the air with green house gasses. I remember a story about my great uncle Charlie Wilkinson when he was born in Elsecar. They thought that he was stillborn so they wrapped him up in paper and put him under the table,they were going to burn him I think (horrible isn`t it). any way as it happen Uncle Charlie moved , at first they thought it was the cat, fortunatly for him someone decided to check and found that it was the baby alive and kicking. I think they should have called him Lucky Wilkinson . I hope some of you readers will remember these days ,no midwives and long years of working the pit. Get in touch if you wish . Sue