Dore to Door internet edition

Local history - Autumn 2005

Jean recalls - Oral History Collection - Letters

Jean recalls

I read with interest John Taylor letter's. I remember John and his family very well. The Nurse Frith he mentions lived on Devonshire Terrace in I think the house that Reg Skelton lives in now. She lived there with her husband Dougie and son Pat. Some how Dougie was related to the Friths who had the dairy at the bottom of Brickhouse Lane. His father, 2 sisters, Alice and Mildred and brother Reg, all delivered milk, but Doug worked for the council until he took over as landlord at The Devonshire Arms. Pat helped in the pub until he went to work for Gordon Tools as a rep. The Wilsons who owned Gordon Tools all lived in Doer.

Gordon Wilson lived in the bungalow at the corner of New field Lane and Kerwin. He was a great supporter of Village events especially the Football team. Every year the team and supporters had a dinner in the snooker room at the Dev. We had many an enjoyable time in there. Doreen and George Fletcher helped behind the bars and Chris Fearnehough waited tables.

We used to travel by coach to the away matches. The women supporters of Bradway were particularly aggressive to the away side. One old woman used to trip our players up with her stick as they ran down the side line. I can still hear the crack in my imagination of the time one of the players had his leg broken on the park at Bakewell. Doer won the Hope Valley League Cup in the season 1955/6

Regarding Jean Pearson's article in the last issue, and the photo of her father pulling pints. The customers are Jean's mother, her younger sister Lyne and senior Atkins.

Jean Dean

Oral History Collection

In conversation with Graham Thorpe.

Graham was born in Dore in 1937, at 14, Church Lane, one of the old cottages that used to stand opposite the Hare and Hounds, where the Country Garden is now situated. He is the eldest of three children, having a sister and brother. His parents were Sammy and Norah Thorpe.

Sammy and Norah both came from Dore, Sammy from Townhead Road and Norah from Woodbine Cottage on Vicarage Lane. Graham recalls that his mother's family were very close and he remembers his grandmother in particular as being a "very kindly lady" and he was very attached to her.

Sammy was well known around the village as the local odd-job man, chimney sweep and gardener. It was a very hard life being a sweep and took a lot out of him, as Graham remembers. He would return home from sweeping chimneys in the afternoon and "my mother had to get the old bath out and he had to be bathed on the hearth in what we called the back kitchen, and scrubbed down". However, following the Clean Air Act, his services were no longer required except at weddings, when he was in great demand, as it was regarded as a sign of good luck for a newly married couple to be greeted by a chimney sweep on their wedding day. He would dress up in all his kit and blacken his face. Graham describes this as a "nice little side line"

Graham has fond memories of growing up in the cottage on Church Lane and he would often see people coming out of the Hare and Hounds "worse for wear". Occasionally there would be a fight, which made life a little more interesting.

At the age of five, he attended Dore School, where he recalls some of his teachers. He particularly remembers Miss Dobbs, who taught Infant 1. She lived in Dronfield Woodhouse and would walk to Dore and back every day. Apparently, she lived well into her nineties and was "a lovely lady, much loved by all the children". Then there was Miss Palmer, "who is renowned amongst people of my age" and was "not particularly well liked by quite a number of the children." But Graham found her discipline good for him, as his father was away at war and it wasn't easy for his mother to always enforce it at home. His mother worked in service for the Firth family at King's Croft during the war while Sammy was away.

The headmaster was Mr. Clark and he remembers him particularly because he always wore spats, something he had not seen before or since. "You were sent to him if you did anything wrong." He also had a punishment book, in which Graham feels sure his name appears.

At the age of eleven, he left Dore School and moved on to Hunter"s Bar School where he was particularly impressed by one of the teachers, Mr. Bower, who encouraged him in many ways "not least of which was in sport - particularly football". It was largely thanks to him that Graham took the entrance exam to the old Central Technical School on Leopold Street, where he was introduced to the building industry, in which he is still involved on a part-time basis. He did well there and was obviously suited to this type of education. The teachers were very practical men and he responded well to them. Here he learnt his trade and thanks to the headmaster, Mr. Herbert Wadge, the boys were encouraged, "not only in their educational studies but again in sport."

Graham has always been interested in sport and as a youngster was very much involved in forming a boys' football team, called the Dore Rovers. They would play on the Recreation Ground, which Graham remembers was not always easy because of the ridges. They used to use two coats for goalposts. He recalls, with amusement, "We thought we ought to all have the same coloured shirts and we decided we'd ask our mums for an old shirt and we went and bought some green dye and we dyed our shirts, a whole manner of different shirts. I remember the one I had was grey, I dyed that green and so it came out a very dark green. Somebody else would have had an old white shirt and dyed that green and that came out a bright green. But, nevertheless, we got together the semblance of a football team." They then persuaded their mums to embroider a little badge on the shirts which said DR. and set about trying to arrange fixtures. They played ten or twelve games a season.

At this time, there was also a men's football team in the village and a rival team in Totley. They both played in the Hope Valley League. The rivalry between the two teams was strong and it was a tradition that the two teams would play each other at Christmas. On Christmas Day they played at one ground and on Boxing Day at the other. The people of Dore and Totley used to really look forward to these matches, but according to Graham, they would invariably end up with people scrapping in one corner of the pitch or on the touchline because they didn't agree with a decision. The boys always looked forward to these matches but Graham laughs, "there wasn't much peace and goodwill" Dore, sadly, no longer has a football team but Totley apparently does. In the mid '50s, when Graham was 17 or 18, he caused great consternation among his family and friends by deciding to play for Totley Football Club. He thoroughly enjoyed his time with them and made many friends there.

Apart from his sporting tales, Graham recollects his childhood when he was a member of the Parish Church Choir. The choirmaster was Mr Arthur Farnsworth, a relative of the farming family. According to Graham, "He was a dear chap who encouraged me greatly." Graham would sing in the choir at the morning and evening services but in the afternoon he would attend Sunday school at the Methodist Church in the village. This was because the Parish Church did not have a Sunday school. He recalls with great affection Sarah Sylvester who was the village Postmistress, Mr and Mrs Wilkes and Mrs Nassau, who encouraged the children to take part in concerts, which they all enjoyed. There was also Mr Harold Tomlinson, one of the early Methodist ministers, who brought his older son, Chris, to Dore "in a pioneering attempt to set up a youth club".

There was, apparently, not much to do in Dore in the early 1950s, as times were hard. However, Graham does remember that when he was in his early teens there was an annual ploughing match held in the village, often at either Farnsworth's farm or at Avenue farm. This was a much anticipated event. After the match everyone would retire to the Devonshire Arms where they would "put on a spread" and then the prizes would be presented. There were also village dances, held in the Church hall and productions put on by the then thriving Dore Amateur Dramatic Society.

When he was a lad, Graham and his friends had two favourite activities. One was to play in the stream, which runs through Wagg Wood. Here they would dam up the stream just below the bridge on Whitelow Lane and would fasten ropes to branches and swing over the water or simply jump into the stream. The local lads knew this area as "the ducker". The other favourite was to go up onto Blacka Moor, where they would play at cowboys and Indians in the bracken and would go home at the end of the day, "sunburnt and as black as anything through running through bracken and doing what boys do". He remembers these times with great humour and affection.

Graham has other reminiscences about his life in the building industry and his footballing escapades but, above all, it is evident that he feels very privileged to have lived all his life in Dore, which he regards as "one of the finest spots on earth. It's great here". Long may it remain so!

Tricia Pitchfork

Dore Oral History Group

Letters

Dear Sir,

A friend passed a copy of your Summer 2005 Edition to me. I was particularly interested to read the article on the front page, "Buy a Brick Appeal". I'm delighted to learn that the Scout Group still flourishes.

In 1964 I took over as Venture Scout Leader from Ron Bradford, who had been promoted to Assistant District Commissioner Venture Scouts. Two persons in the photograph, Syd Crowson and Peter Jackson were Group Scout Leader and Scout Leader respectively.

At that time the Dore Scout Group enjoyed a very successful Parents Committee who provided funds for the new sectional concrete building and also to support the activities of the Cubs, Scouts and Venture Scouts.

The Venture Scouts supported the Well Dressing each year with a sheep roast on the Green.

There were two Venture Scout Patrols and each built it's own two man canoe. The Patrol Leaders each built their own one-man canoe. With the assistance of a friend at a local steel works we acquired a purpose built trailer to carry the four canoes behind my car.

One expedition with the canoes was to the Norfolk Broads. My wife Eva and our dog Robbie camped separately from the boys to enable their freedom and development, but we arranged a meeting point each evening. The boys were entirely reliable and always waiting for us, I gained great confidence in them. We consolidated the confidence the Parents Committee had in us.

I can't remember all the names but some were Ian Darley, Roger Brown, Peter Coggins, Peter Earnshaw, and Beverly Smith.

My task as Venture Scout Leader was less demanding than it could have been because my recruits were from the very successful Scout Troop run by Peter Jackson, assisted by Michael and Godfrey Wilkinson. I think their Mother was the Cub Leader.

My predecessor Ron Bradford's wife Beryl was the Guide Leader and I think she became a Guide Commissioner.

In 1967 I was honoured to be appointed Assistant Leader of the South Yorkshire contingent to the World Scout Jamboree at Idaho, U.S.A. Our first daughter Nicola was born in Jessops Hospital just before I departed!

My career in the oil industry dictated a move from Sheffield, but the scouts of Dore and their parents enabled a very memorable phase in my life.

J. Brian Hudson

Dear Sir,

Recently I joined the "Watermills" walk organised as part of Walking Week 2005. This was very enjoyable and informative as I used to live close to Oldhay Brook. It has led me to doing some looking up of my own maps and books.

I was especially interested in the siting of Nether Mill as it appears that in my childhood I lived about 200 yards away in King Ecgbert Road. Careful measurements transposing my Ordnance Survey 1st edition one inch map onto a modern map confirm your positioning of this mill. Then in my teens and twenties I lived close to Bradway Mill. Although on one occasion I visited the former dam of Bradway Mill, I knew nothing of the existence of either mill until some years later.

On Grove Road we admired the signal box which dates from 1893 when the line was opened. I think there is just one other box on the line as old as this and that is at Edale. I was surprised to find that nearly all the Victorian houses had gone from the road and been replaced by a modern housing estate. I remember that several of the old houses used to form Dore and Totley High School for Girls (preparatory for boys) - Principal Miss Trott. Some of the girls were borders. I think that the school must have closed in the 1960s.

The mill pond for Totley Rolling Mill was large as the map on page 23 of Brian Edwards "Totley and the Tunnel" shows. As well as occupying the site of the present Milldale Road it is shown extending as far as the old Thompson's barn in back Lane behind the Totley Rise shops. Brian Edwards writing about this structure says "We do know that in 1876 an unmarked building was in this position by the side of Rolling Mill Dam" (Totley District in Old Photographs page 22).

John Booth

Dear Sir,

I have just been reading a copy of the Dore to Door and in it the question was asked did Dore ever have a band. It did indeed the bandmaster was a Mr Shirley Taylor, he lived in the block of houses at the bottom of Townhead Road opposite the Chemists. They held their meetings in the old British Legion club also on Townhead Road. I know that because I once went for cornet lessons they didn't last though, much to my regret as I had other things to do in those days.

It was very interesting reading Jean Clarkes memories as a lot of those are my memories too. I can recollect at least two bombs dropping in Dore. One was right opposite our house at 96 Townhead Road, it came whistling down and landed about 50 yards away in the field opposite making a big crater. The other landed in the middle of Hartley's house at the top of Old Hay Lane. It split the house in two and if I remember rightly the only casualty was their dog.

We spent many hours huddled in the Anderson shelter buried in the back garden waiting for the all clear to sound. I much prefer the picture of the old Dore not a car in sight. I suppose that's what they call progress.

The cows that came through Dore used to come to the recreation ground, we had to play football and cricket around the cows pats. There was also a stream and a pond near the passage that goes into Kerwin. It was filled in and the stream piped underground. It grew lovely watercress and was full of frog spawn. We climbed every tree in the recreation ground or the "recca" as we called it. There are still nails in some of the trees that we used to make them easier to climb, the old bent oak tree in the top corner was our base, we called it The "Geeza", but don't know why.

Fred Marshall's shop was the first shop to sell ice cream after the war, it was yellow and full of bits of ice but we thought it was wonderful. My uncle ran a bakers and confectioners next to the now pulled down Rose cottages. His bread was supplied by a bakery behind the Devonshire arms called Watchorn's. There was also Levesley's butchers, Midgleys greengrocers, and Henry Bells electrical and cobblers shop. We had a watchmakers shop too, it was in a wooden hut just below what is now the chemists.

J Taylor