Hooton Roberts

A Memory of Hooton Roberts.

I was born a Willertt at 5 Kilnhurst Rd in 1940. I remember the noise of German fighters going to bomb Sheffield and many German or Italian prisoners marching from Kilnhurst to the camp at Ravenfield. They used to throw us tins containing sweets and we used these tins when playing hopscotch. We had no electricity in the house which is very different now.  I wonder whether the cellar still floods! We had gas downstairs and candles upstairs, no curtains and it was always very cold. The windows would be covered with thick ice in the morning. When electricity finally came to the village, we were too poor to pay the connection charge. We lived with my grandfather William Willert who used to look after the cricket ground before the war. My maternal grandparents lived in an old coaching inn at the bottom of Doncaster Rd on the left looking up the hill. There were many bottles in the cellar; the house was demolished to widen the road. Next door to them lived Mrs Totty who collected the rent. There was a Whitsuntide procession every year and my mother would scrape together enough money to buy us new clothes. I went to the school in the village and was taught by Miss Vickers who had taught my mother. I think she walked to school from Kilnhurst to school every day. The day when a mobile library arrived in the village was wonderful but they would only let me have simple books which I had read before they left! I could read at 3 years old and read every word on the old newspapers that we were given to tear into squares to use as toilet paper in the outside loo! If I was lucky, I would get a book for Christmas! My mother worked at Briggs' farm which I see is now being converted into cottages. Old Mrs Briggs used to chase us out of the field in front of our house if we were brave and tried to get to the brook to play! We collected watercress from streams and spring water from the cliff. My great grandfather Fox used to have the milk round in the village (taken from the census). At Christmas we would sing carols at the manor house and would be given a penny. I remember going to the manor house with other children to see a movie.  My grandfather married Alice Thompson from the village; she died when Les was born so I never knew her but I know what she looked like because her portrait and one of my grandfather were hanging in the house. If anyone could help me to find out more about the Thompsons, I would be grateful. Many members of my family are buried in the graveyard at Hooton Roberts but I have not been able to find where the graves of Alice and William are. Again, any help would be appreciated.
Patricia Stirk

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