Owston, South Yorkshire

My childhood

I was born in this year, but do not have much to remember from then. About 1974 and I remember playing with a few children in the village. The Lister children really I rember. The Twiggs lived in the Abbey. I spent endless happy days there with the horses. The ghosts, mainly monks from the abbey. I lived in 3 Station... [more]

All our Yesterdays

I was born into a family of 6 brothers and four sisters in 1936, attending Barnby Dun infants and primary schools and then Armthorpe secondary modern school until the age of 15. Our family ran a large market garden on Top Road, the house was named Leven Croft. Our mother's brother Tommy sired a family of 10 children. I worked for Arthur Coates at... [more]

My father at Doncaster grammar school

My father John Granville Turner attended Doncaster Grammar School in the 1910s. He was born in 1904 so would have started in the early 1910s, I assume. He was for a time a boy soprano at the school. He also spent at least one Christmas at Shibden Hall but there is no record of him there so I wonder if he... [more]

Conisborough Castle

I lived in Rawmish, and as a special treat my dad's mate Tony Williams got his mate the caretaker to let me have my own personal look roun't castle. My dad used to work at the pit offices in Denaby. When I used to go and see my dad in't olidays I'd go train spotting to the station and then ride... [more]

Cricket on the green

I was brought up in Tennyson Avenue off Sprotborough Road and at weekends in the Summer would cycle 20 or so miles all around south Yorkshire. If on the way to Conisbrough, Barnbrough or the River Don we would pass the Ivanhoe Hotel which, to a 14 year old in 1950 looked to be a very grand place indeed. ... [more]

3 Skulls

To reply to Sandra, the 3 skulls have now been replaced behind a safer glass case. I live in Goldthorpe but my husband's family share some links with Hickleton from the family branch of his mother's side. His grandmother had some relations from Hickleton, I think the family name was Ball. My mother-in-law too in her 20s delivered some products to... [more]

The 3 Skulls

I remember walking during the 1950s, from where I used to live in Goldthorpe, up the hill to Hickleton, as far as the church to view the three skulls within the wall of the lych-gate... "Today for me, tomorrow for thee" was the chilling message around the window where they were set.  Unfortunately they were stolen some years ago.  I am... [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... [more]