Our first meeting got off to a great start
last night, despite rain pouring down.
About 35 attended and lots of talking followed the first part, with
people catching up after 30 years plus
in some cases.
The Rev’d Amanda Barraclough of St
Mary’s Church welcomed everyone to the meeting and I gave an explanation of why
I had suggested the idea, what my background was and where I hoped it might
lead. Cllr Cynthia Ransome then
explained the sort of help that might be needed and asked everyone to sign in
and suggest ways in which they might be able to help.
So that those who couldn’t get to the
meeting might understand what is involved, I am copying below the talk I
gave. I hope everyone interested will
become followers of the Blog and I will do my best to keep everyone up-to-date.
The next stage is to make the
application to the Heritage Lottery Fund and this should be completed within
the next week or two. There will then be
a wait, maybe of a couple of months, until we hear whether we have been
successful. If we are not successful, we
will have to consider whether we can go ahead anyway, but maybe in a smaller
way.
Everyone at the meeting seemed to think
it was a good thing to do, so let’s keep our fingers crossed for a successful
outcome.
Twenty-nine people actually put their
names down on the list and 17 have already agreed to be interviewed so that’s a
fantastic start.
My Introduction to
the Project
As the person who began
looking at the possibility of this project, I’ve been delegated to tell you all
about it. So, first of all, I’ll begin
with my credentials and background.
Some of you may know me as
the Secretary to the Don Gorge Community Group, which I’ve been for about 13
years now, but my family actually came to Sprotbrough in 1924 and we lived at
Tower Cottage, Lower Sprotbrough, behind the Boat Inn, from about 1938. My mother’s sisters and brothers always
talked about their lives and so, as I grew up, I picked up quite a lot of
information.
When we got married, Mick and
I lived in Hexthorpe for 10 years and then moved with work to Derbyshire. In 1999, we started on the renovation of our
cottage at 4 Lower Sprotbrough, which my mother bought in 1956, when it was
condemned for human habitation. We sold
up in Derbyshire in 2000 and moved back to Sprotbrough in December 2002. My mother died in 2005.
Mick and I have both been
interested in family history for a long time and this project is just an
extension of that really, but a few things really set me off, generally due to
selling calendars for the Don Gorge Community Group.
A couple of years ago, I had
a phone call asking to order one and, by the end of two hours, had discovered
that the caller had lived in the village when I was a child. I didn’t know Arthur Radford, but when I was
much younger, I had known his mother and two of his sisters who had attended
the Methodist Church. He told me that he
would like to draw up a map of the village because he could remember everybody
who lived there. I told him that I would
get back to him when I had time. I
didn’t manage it.
Since coming back to
Sprotbrough, I had been going to the library and met there several people there
who were of my generation and, just before Christmas this year, again whilst
selling calendars, I met three more people who I had known through church.
Two of these were Marilyn
Oliver, sister of Graham, who reminded me I used to take them to Sunday School,
and her father, Reg Middleton, who surprised me by telling me he had known my
father, who died in a road accident when I was 10, and so had only vague
memories of, and a cousin, who my mother had brought up, and who had been a bit
of a lad and had stolen a van and then crashed it on Mill Lane at
Warmsworth! Reg is getting on a bit and
that set me wondering how many others of his generation might still be living
in the village.
I then received an email
saying that there was funding available from the Heritage Lottery Fund for Oral
History projects by registered charities.
The Don Gorge Community Group
is a registered charity, but as it doesn’t cover the village, that was no good,
so I approached Amanda who agreed that Churches Together could make the
application using one of their charity numbers.
And so the idea was born and this meeting arranged. When I told members of the Don Gorge
committee about it, Cllr Cynthia Ransome immediately showed an interest and
came on board the planning group.
The time scale we’ve chosen
is 40 years from 1925 to 1965 and the boundary of the project is roughly from
the houses on Cadeby Road to the west and the A1(M) motorway in the east; and
from Spring Lane in the north to the River Don in the south.
The reason for these
boundaries of time and place are reflected in the title we’ve chosen: ‘From
Rural Estate to Real Estate’ and are important because in 1924 Lord and Lady
Copley died within a week or so of each other and the Estate, including 12
farms, was sold in 1924. Plots of land
were then sold to individuals to build houses and the Hall was demolished in
1926. So, before 1924, everyone who
lived in the village was controlled directly or indirectly by the Copley family
who had lived in the village for generations.
The farms were leased to tenants, but people’s homes were tied in with working
at the Hall or for these tenant farmers.
Just a couple of examples:
Firstly, one of my aunts, who had an illegitimate child soon after they arrived
in the village, wouldn’t have been allowed to live there if the Copleys hadn’t
died and, secondly, my granddad, who came to the village as an agricultural
labourer, was sacked and lost his family’s home, as he had the courage to
refuse to do something which was against his principles. As a result, they had
to move to the only work with a house attached which he found in Cadeby. This was the type of control exercised over
people’s lives before 1924.
The transition of power from
the landed gentry estate owner to ownership of real estate by individuals began
then and so this is the period that we feel it is important to cover at this
stage.
We also know that people from
nearby villages, such as Cadeby, High Melton and Levitt Hagg relied on
Sprotbrough for schooling and shops, etc, so we think they should be welcome to
contribute too.
By the early 1960s, the
village was changing again with the first housing estate being built and we
thought it was important to see how these new residents felt they had been
received into what had been for a long time a more or less closed community; so
we intend to cover up to 1965.
Since then, several other housing
estates have been built and, as I’m sure we all know, in-filling continues and
even more housing may be required.
What do we hope to achieve? - Some Suggestions – not set in stone
·
Recordings of
interviews with people who fit within this time frame, a copy of which can be
given to the families concerned and a copy kept for the project.
·
An Exhibition of
old photographs and research records would be great.
·
A Tapestry of
memories about the village, representing buildings, activities, etc, would be
nice.
·
The Map suggested
two years ago by Arthur, including residents’ names would be amazing.
·
And lastly
·
I would really
like to produce a book giving a general history of the village, particularly
covering the agreed period, quoting personal stories and memories and including
photos of participants, buildings and views.
These are just a few ideas
I’ve come up with, which will need organisation, input and effort by other
people, and you’re welcome to suggest other ideas that might fit within the
project’s scope.
If it is to work well, it
will have to be a whole-village effort and so I hope everyone will be
interested in it sufficiently to put that effort in and make it a worthwhile
project that the village as a whole can be really proud of.
I think this project should
have been begun 10 or 20 years ago before many of the older people had passed
on, but we are where we are and so can only work with the memories that are
available now, so if anyone thinks they ought to continue the exercise from
1965 to the present day, they should start now and I bet they’ll find life very
different, even over the last 20 years, from 1965.
Liz Reeve
24.4.18
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