Article - Mystery motoring men (Finningley)

A sale notice in the Doncaster Chronicle of June 17, 1881, the Finningley Estate was described as “a most compact and important landed investment of Freehold tenure consisting of about 2, 418 acres.

“The land lies almost entirely in a ring fence, is fertile in its character, chiefly arable, with several closes of pasture, interspersed with thriving plantations affording excellent cover for game and recognised also as one of the best partridge manors in the district...The annual income amounts to about £2,277.”

On August 21, 1903 the Doncaster Gazette noted: “For sale by private contract (in consequence of the decease of George Spofforth Lister Esq JP the late owner) The Finningley Estate.”

Details were also given about the house: “The residence contains on the ground floor, entrance hallway, bay-windowed dining room, drawing room, with small recess leading into a small conservatory, morning room, billiard room, study, housekeper’s room, butler’s pantry, butler’s bedroom, servants’ hall, kitchen and scullery, store rooms, with dairy and boot house outside, etc. There are 20 bed and dressing rooms, stabling for 14 horses, coach houses and well appointed out-offices”.

Later the Estate was owned by the Parker Rhodes family until the death of John Parker Rhodes in 1943.

John Parker-Rhodes’ obituary in the Doncaster Chronicle of January 7, 1943 noted the following: “[He] died at Honeywick Hill,Castle Carey, Somerset last Friday. He was the only surviving son of the late Frederick Parker-Rhodes, at one time senior partner in the firm of Parker-Rhodes Cockburn and Co, solicitors of Rotherham, who lived for some years at Finningley Park. Mr Parker-Rhodes, who was educated at Uppingham and Penbroke College Cambridge, was a keen sportsman and a Fellow of the Royal Zoological Society.”

Two months later, the Finningley Park Estate, comprising over 1,505 acres, was sold for £45,000. Starting at £15,000 and rising in bids of £1,000 and later £500, the Estate was sold by auction as one lot, at the Woolpack Hotel, Doncaster to W Elmhirst of Rotherham for £45,000. The latter bought for a client. The 1,505 acres included three farms, Finningley Park Hall and other lots. Six hundred acres of the estate, sold in the previous July, had made £30,000.

Pevsner (1959) noted: “The Georgian house of three bays and two and a half storeys now overlooks a desert of sand and gravel digging.”

Finningley Hall was later demolished.

Hamilton Lodge, a villa-type residence set back from Carr House Road, was built by a Captain Robson c 1856, to the designs of BS Brundell and Tom Penrice, who were brothers-in-law. Later, Brundell was involved with the designs for the recently demolished General Infirmary & Dispensary/Education Offices in Princegate.

Perhaps the lodge’s most noted occupant was AO Edwards and it is tempting to suggest that he is one of the men pictured in the car outside the house in the photograph here. If any reader can confirm or deny this, I would love to hear from them.

AO Edwards developed the Wheatley Estate in the 1920s and later went to America where he was engaged upon the creation of a 220-acre estate at Palm Beach Shores, with the luxury Inlet Court Hotel as the centrepiece.

Hamilton Lodge was purchased by the Corporation in 1924 from AO Edwards, as noted in the Gazette of May 9, 1924: “The Doncaster Town Council on Wednesday confirmed minutes relating to the purchase of Hamilton Lodge near Race Common for use by the Public Health Department as a maternity home. These stated that Mr AO Edwards had accepted £4,500 for the house and grounds subject to the minerals of a lower depth than 700 yards being reserved. The Council agreed that a contract be entered into with Mr Edwards for the purchase of the premises on these terms.”

HR Wormald recorded: “[Hamilton Lodge was] developed by the corporation as a maternity home at a cost between 1925 and 1928 of £6,805, also taken over by the National Health Service, has become redundant to the service by the opening of the new maternity wing, in 1971, at the Royal Infirmary and is now used as a club for hospital service employees in all the Doncaster hospitals.”

Many Doncastrians, including myself, were born in Hamilton Lodge and the interior view here will bring fond memories for many readers.

Rossington Bridge House continued to be used as an inn until 1850 when the licence was not renewed.

Tom Bradley in The Old Coaching Days in Yorkshire (1889) gives some details about the house during the coaching era: “A few of the coaches were horsed from the Rossington Bridge Inn, and the stages they worked were from Rossington Bridge to Barnby Moor on the one hand and Red House on the other.”

From 1850, the property has remained primarily a private house. One of its noted tenants during the 20th century was PH Beales, consultant ear, nose and throat surgeon at Doncaster Infirmary. Just before the Second World War, brewers Whitworth, Son & Nephew proposed to return the site to a pub. On May 11, 1939 the Doncaster Chronicle reported: “Farm buildings at Rossington Bridge, at the junction of Sheep Bridge Lane and the Great North Road, are to be demolished and in their place is to be erected a new hotel.”

The pub was never built but during the 1990s, Rossington Bridge House became the Hare and Tortoise pub.

From: http://www.thestar.co.uk/community/nostalgia/mystery_motoring_men_1_3796634

Article - How coal was discovered underground despite war, delays and disappointments (South Yorks)

The Doncaster Gazette of June 2, 1922, reported that after many disappointments – including delays due to high wages, labour troubles and coal trade depression – sinking operations resumed at Markham Main Colliery, Armthorpe.

But it was still expected to take about three years to reach coal.

Fourteen years had passed since the development of the coal reserves under Armthorpe, the Fitzwilliam Cantley estates and the Doncaster Corporation Race Common property was mooted.

It was not until the lease passed to Sir AB Markham, who had extensive colliery interests in the Doncaster district, that practical steps were contemplated.

A bore hole was sunk in 1913 and a second one in 1914, when good workable coal measures were proved.

Sinking operations were postponed because of World War I and were not restarted until the early part of 1920 – and then faced more delays and disappointments.

Sinking operations were started in Askern’s No.1 shaft on December 5, 1911.

A powerful pumping plant was installed to deal with the tremendous influx of water – which sometimes reached 4,000 gallons per minute. On Saturday morning, September 14, 1912, the Barnsley seam was reached at Askern at a depth of 565 yards and the coal was found to be of excellent quality.

This made the fourth occasion on which the Barnsley seam had been tapped in the Doncaster district in little over two years – after Maltby in June 1910, Edlington in July 1911 and Bullcroft in December 1911.

The Doncaster Chronicle of September 6, 1912 mentioned that the whole of the work in the colliery shafts had been done in the most efficient manner (day work) under the superintendence of Sam Howard.

“He has employed the best men in the country he could lay his hands on... the surface work was carried out by Messrs Charles Baker and Sons of Chestefield...the pit is equipped with the latest and very best machinery.’

During 1910-1911 a reinforced concrete ‘heap stead’ was erected at Bentley Colliery over the No1 shaft due to the bad foundations upon which the pit was built.

The construction was about 45ft high up to the level to which the tubs would be raised and there was another 14ft of concrete above. Around 150 tons of steel bars were used.

The countryside was stirred on Saturday afternoon December 9, 1911 by the sound of half a dozen buzzers announcing that coal had at last been reached at the Bullcroft Colliery sinkings at a depth of 657 yards.

The Bullcroft enterprise was one of the Markham group of new collieries encircling Doncaster.

The coal was beneath the estates of Major Anne, Mr Cooke-Yarborough, and other local landowners. Sinking operations began in May, 1908, and water was soon encountered.

At a depth of 70 yards the rush of water was so great the work had to be stopped.

The strongest pumps seemed useless, so the freezing process worked by the Germans was given a trial.

The waterlogged ground was frozen to a great depth by means of chemicals and sinking then proceeded.

As soon as sinking had passed the danger zone the shaft was encircled by an iron casing, then the ground was thawed and the water held back by the casing.

This work took over a year, and it was not until November 1910 that the shafts were pumped dry and further sinking could be resumed.

At first progress was slow owing to the hardness of the frozen ground, but by March 1911, the workers had sunk beyond its range, and from that time everything had gone like clockwork.

The coal reached on that Saturday in December 1911 was the Barnsley Seam, and it was nine feet thick.

From: http://www.thestar.co.uk/community/nostalgia/how_coal_was_discovered_underground_despite_war_delays_and_disappointments_1_3552433

Article - Mansion had to be demolished in late ’60s after arson attacks left it badly damaged (Crookhill Hall)

Crookhill Hall was situated between Edlington and Clifton.

It stood in the middle of 90 acres of parkland, overlooking an extensive sweep of the countryside.

The Doncaster Gazette of June 12, 1925 claimed that it was not a mansion around which a wealth of historic and romantic associations clung. ‘Yet, it was of interest because it had been the home of one family, [the Woodyeares] for a good many years... [So], there is not much doubt that it was a Woodyeare who built the present mansion.’

Nickolaus Pevsner in his Yorkshire The West Riding (1967) gives the following description of the hall: “Plain Georgian house of seven bays and two storeys with three bay pediment, quoins of even length, and a doorway with a Gibbs surround.”

Colin Walton in the Doncaster Free Press of January 3, 1985 states: “[Crookhill Hall] consisted of a handsome entrance hall, a dining room, a breakfast room and library, and a Green Room. On the first floor were six handsome lodging rooms, with a dressing room to each, together with a water closet.”

From the deeds and documents relating to the Crookhill Estate held in the Doncaster MBC Legal & Admin Department, details may be gleaned of how it left the Woodyeares’ ownership. John Fountain Woodyeare (a retired clergyman) died in July 1880 leaving his wife Emily, the tenancy for life of the Hall.

Their marriage was childless and following her death in February 1919, the estate passed to Lawrence Woodyeare Blomfield.

In 1924 the Crookhill Estate was offered for sale, but was withdrawn at £3,750. A year later, Lawrence Blomfield jointly owned the estate in partnership with his son John.

For a time, during the 1920s, Joseph Humble was a tenant at the hall. On March 22, 1926, Lawrence and John sold the property to the West Riding County Council for £6,500, including the mansion, workshops, cottages and just over 90 aces of land. On January 7, 1927, the Don Gaz gave news of developments at the Hall: “The latest and most modern home for consumptives in the West Riding came into existence on Monday when Crookhill Hall opened its hospitable doors for the reception of early and serious consumptive cases...

“A wonderful transformation has taken place in the building. At the beginning of the year it was empty and in disrepair. The alterations include modern drainage and sewerage, central heating with radiators in every room, electric lighting, the letting in of about 30 additional windows, reflooring and rewalling.”

In 1948, on the introduction of the NHS, the hall was inherited by the Doncaster Hospital Management Committee, continuing to run the premises as TB hospital until 1963, when it was closed due to fewer cases of the disease.

Sadly, some time afterwards, the building became a target for vandals and was severely damaged by two fires in September 1968, resulting in it subsequent demolition.

Later, during 1973, the grounds were converted for use as a golf course, a club house being erected on the old hall’s site.

From: http://www.thestar.co.uk/community/nostalgia/mansion_had_to_be_demolished_in_late_60s_after_arson_attacks_left_it_badly_damaged_1_3416486