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Hemsworth
Hemsworth maps
Historic maps of Hemsworth and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Hemsworth maps
Hemsworth photos
We have no photos of Hemsworth, although we do have photos of these nearby places:
South Kirkby| Ackworth| South Elmsall| Cudworth| Royston| Featherstone| Thurnscoe| Pontefract| Goldthorpe| Barnsley| Staincross| Wombwell| Stapleton| Normanton| Wakefield
Hemsworth area books
Displaying 1 of 28 books about Hemsworth and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Hemsworth
Displaying a selection of personal
memories of Hemsworth.
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Memories of People I Knew in Wortley Place, Hemsworth
I have lived in Hemsworth all my life from being 4 years old and I remember a family called Farrel - one was Mr Jack Farrel - the others were Percy Fillingham, Trevor Morrison, Alec Garbutt, Jim Cherry, and others who at the moment I cannot bring to mind, I am going back to the 1940s /1950s when I knew these people.
Old Days
Does anybody remember a family called Farrell from Hemsworth? My father was from there and had a big family of 13, so I think there must be some still family members around?
West Yorkshire memories
The 1940s
I remember going to the local primary school at the top of Second Avenue from the age of 3. Mrs Dobson was head of the Infants School and Mr Perry was head of the Junior School. We slept in the hall in the early days of our school lives; I had a blanket with a rabbit motif on it. I still slept with my thumb in my mouth. In junior school our playing fields were ploughed up for vegetables because of the war years. Mr Perry had a farm in the village and so it was natural enough for him to farm the playing fields when everyone was being asked to 'dig for victory'. During the war we were bombed once - a bomb fell in what were called the Bullfields which were just beyond the school. The story was that some German engineers had worked at the colliery before the war and passed on information to the German High Command. My... Read more
Sinking Feeling
My grandad used to work at South Kirkby pit for many years, so growing up I was forever hearing stories of his days down the mine. Being a very inquisitive child I would spend hours exploring, even though my grandad used to tell me how dangerous it could be round the colliery. He used to also live on the Northfield estate, which was also known as Little Wigan. I am told this is because of the miners that moved from that area. I was staying at my grandad's this one day waiting for my tea. I'd been in all day as it was raining heavy, so when the rain stopped I couldn't wait to get out. My grandad said 'don't be long' and I was on my way. I walked over towards the pit to see how I could amuse myself for an hour before tea. I didn't notice at first but I'd ended walking straight into a slurry pond. For people that don't know what this is, it is... Read more
Colliery Blacksmith
My granddad, Arthur Walker, was a miner at South Kirkby colliery until his retirement around 1960; and my dad, Richard Edwin Walker, known as Ted to his mates, was a blacksmith. Dad started at the colliery when he left school aged 14, in 1936, as a blacksmith's striker, eventually becoming a blacksmith himself. I visited the colliery many times with my dad, and I remember the noises of the colliery: the shunting engines and their whistles, the sounds from the smiths' sheds; watching the huge pit-head winding wheels as the cages took the miners far below, or up again after their shift; and also the huge spoil buckets moving along in line to tip their contents on the 'muck stacks', which eventually were grassed over after the demise of the pit. What I really liked to see, though, were the forges and their glowing coals; hearing the roar of the bellows blowing air into the forges, and the hammers striking red-hot metal on the anvils - and no-one wore goggles or... Read more
My Christening
I was christened here in April 1966. I was born December 1965 - lots of my relatives' funeral services have been held here and it was also where my parents got married in 1956. I now live near Caerphilly in South Wales. My father is travelling to Yorkshire on Sunday as my mother's brother passed away on Bank Holiday Monday last week and as she is unable to travel due to ill health, my dad will be representing us....funeral 10/05/2010 12 mid-day....R.I.P Uncle George Newcombe
Memories of Little Wigan
I grew up on the estate near Kirkby pit known to locals as Little Wigan. It was a great place to live where everyone knew each other and I know peaple say you didn't have to lock your door in days gone by, but down Little Wigan you realy didn't. Virtually all my family worked at the pit, either down it or on the pit top this is where me and my mates spent most of our spare time and, I've got to say, usually up to no good. I can still remember laying in bed as a kid and the noise from the coal washers used to echo up the estate, I loved that noise. We also spent a lot of time on what we called the pit tips, sliding down them on an old conveyor belt and making dens. Nobody had much in them days but what a fantastic place to grow up it was, Little Wigan and its surroundings.
