Mexborough and District Heritage Society


Society publications - available from Mexborough Library and other local outlets Postage and packing costs for 'The Village of Mexborough' and 'The People of Mexborough' in the UK is £1.81 (plus the cost of the books themselves). Postage for anywhere outside the UK will be £4.50 plus the book's cost.
Price £6.50 Our latest book is available at the following outlets: ● Newstyme and Everyday News, High Street, Mexborough ● Interiors, Bank Street, Mexborough ● 'The Old Market Hall', Weatherspoons, Market Street, Mexborough ● Pick of the Crop, Adwick Road, Mexborough ● 'The Miners Arms', Doncaster Road, Mexborough. ● Mexborough Library and The Local History Room, John Street, Mexborough.	Following the publication by Mexborough & District Heritage Society’s first publication ‘The Village of Mexborough’ in 2005, we are pleased to present our second book, ‘The People of Mexborough’. The photographs are taken from the archives of the Society, some of which are from the Leonard Harrop Collection, added to and preserved by our late President, Norman Watson, a well-known Mexborough teacher. Other illustrations come from postcards and purchases at antique fairs and the internet; others have been donated by local businesses, individuals and families. This is a ‘snapshot’ of what is available in the archives and it was a difficult choice selecting pictures which justified their inclusion to the exclusion of others. It proved impossible to organise the photographs in chronological order, therefore, for easy reference, alphabetical order according to names and surnames has been used throughout. By and large we have used mainly old photographs but felt it important to include people alive today who will recognise themselves and be identified by friends and family members.

GREAT SAVINGS	Mexborough is fortunate to have had two local historians of note in the same family. The first, Leonard Harrop, collected material (newspaper cuttings, photographs and notes) from the nineteenth century until his death in 1939. After his death much of his collection was rescued by his nephew, Norman Watson, who himself then added to the collection. Norman Watson died in February 2000, aged 94, and his family, following his wishes, donated this wealth of scrapbooks, notebooks, maps, photographs and many other articles to Mexborough and District Heritage Society, of which he was a founder member and Honorary President. It is from this collection that much of the material in this book was obtained.
WAS £6.50 NOW £2.50	INTRODUCTION Mexborough was no more than a village for centuries, believed to have grown around an ancient river crossing. It remained a self-sufficient farming community with a population of no more than 400 people up to the coming of industry in the 1 800s. The two most important families to live in Mexborough, the Homes and the Saviles occupied its larger houses — The Old Hall and the Parsonage. The remainder of the village was made up of farmhouses, barns and cottages, many grouped in yards and rows dating from different periods. The majority that survived to be photographed were from the 17th and 18th centuries. With the 19th century came change; water transport was improved during the 1 830s with the construction of the Mexborough new cut. In 1840 the new turnpike road was opened, followed some years later by the railway. The enclosure of common land transformed the Parish and by 1900 the village had developed into a thriving industrial town with a population in excess of 10,000. To cope with the migration of people into the area during the 1800s, finding employment in the potteries, quarries, waterways, railway	and most importantly, coal mines, the village had to expand. Most of the building was to the north and west leaving the old village largely intact. Having survived the boom of the 19th century regrettably most of the old buildings were to meet their end during the next. One by one the houses, barns, cottages and yards were removed. Had these buildings been allowed to remain and undergo sympathetic restoration we would now have a very different town. Many scenes that have been lost have fortunately survived in photographs, often taken for reproduction as postcards. From these some impression of the character of the old village can be obtained, and it is to these that most of this small book is dedicated. AVAILABLE FROM THE USUAL OUTLETS, THIS BOOK IS REDUCED TO JUST £2.50, and can be mailed at the usual rates.

Price £2.95 Price £1.50 Price £1.50	An everyday story of Mexborough folk Introduction by author J R Ashby, Archivist The more I learn about the people of Mexborough and its area, the more endeared I become to them. The normal everyday people you meet in the street when shopping, or see in the supermarket all have a surprise somewhere in their past, like the man many of us used to see walking down Mexborough High Street nearly every day of the week in his navy blue overalls, coat and woolly hat, who turned out to be an ex-guardsman who guarded the King in the Second World War, and was one of the creators of Denaby Ings Nature Reserve. Then there is the man who drives a beautiful Morris Cowley car around the streets who is our last horse marine. Included in this booklet is the story of Thomas Barron who started as a glass blower and went on to own one of the largest glassworks in the country. Just normal, everyday Mexborough folk who turn out to be not so everyday after all! A short history of Mexborough From the book, by J R Ashby Mexborough goes back to some unrecorded point in time when the population of the town lived in huts close to what became known as Mexborough Ferry which was, until 1963, at the end of Ferry Boat Lane. The earliest inhabitants must have found this an idyllic spot in which to live. There was a 200 ft south-facing cliff which sheltered them from the cold northern winds of winter, an abundance of clean drinking water, good grazing for their animals, stone to build substantial houses and clay to make pots. The river was teeming with fish and it was not uncommon to catch sturgeon. The river did not flood at this point even at the worst of times but, most important of all, it was the only place for miles around where the River Don was fordable. So travellers would have had to pass through here carrying goods and news. They would have needed somewhere safe to stay for the night as well as food for themselves and their animals. It is known that, when the Romans came here, there was an Iron Age settlement in the area and they found a well-worn road crossing the River Don at two points. Trams, tracklesses and buses From the book, by J R Ashby Its great body emerged from the winter’s smog like a huge green insect, its eyes blazing and antennae swaying. As it negotiated the corner, and hummed to a halt, dark shapes were seen to alight, their faces swathed mummy-like as protection from the polluted air as they walked over to the light of the YEB showroom windows. This workaday scene as a ‘trackless’ (trolley bus) stopped to allow its passengers to disembark at the bottom of Adwick Road was seen almost every morning as I walked to school, but little did I realise that smoggy morning almost thirty years ago that this would be one of the last times I ever saw a trackless at work in my town, as the last of these friendly green giants of the road were to be taken out of service. Just a few months later on 26th April 1961 the last trackless, with children and adults lining the main roads to say goodbye (I was one of them), passed through our town.


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