"TYKE TALK" - "art oft box"

There is a saying in Yorkshire  "Ifs thas nowt to seh -  seh't to thisen"  -   

" Av got a lot to seh"  :-)  ..  .. especially now I have found my ancestral roots  ..  ..   



Part 1

I guess I was 8,9 or10 here 

I was born within a working class family, living and working in the South Yorkshire coal fields, in a small village/town by the name of Wath-upon-Dearne (pronounced as Waf on Dern ) and referred to locally as the“Queen of Villages!” !!. First of all I should explain…. It was not a village, nor indeed could it legitimately be justified in a boasting and calling  of itself as the “Queen of Villages “ but it did?????.”.
However, it could boast as having TWO major coal mines ( Manvers Main and Wath Main) - both complete with majestic Pit Head Winding Gear. The largest - Manvers Main also had the added facility of huge Coke Ovens, which continuously spelched out, acrid smoke and toxic fumes all over the “Queen of Villages”….. it also had numerous slag heaps. Slag heaps of such stature they obliterated the mid-day sun (on the occasion it managed to break thro the smoggy atmosphere) these slag heaps spread far and wide over miles - honestly ! Actually they probably rivalled the ski slopes of the Cairngorms and Glencoe put together. So intimidating were these Coal Mines, slag heaps and smouldering Coke Ovens that, and even until the age of 11 , I assumed and really believed we were actually living alongside HELLS BOILERHOUSE ( I have typed this is upper case so that it shouts out at you in the same way as it shouted out at me.. .. .. .. for all of 14 years.)  Yes for all of 14 years I constantly saw both of the two Pit Heads, only a few hundred yards away (sorry it was the pre-metric” era ). They were always there, both of them, - always. When I looked out of our back lounge window it was “Manvers Main” I could see, then when I looked out from the front room window (a room which we only used on "high" days and special occasions) it was “Wath Main“ on view. It was when I was 11 and started going to the school in the next village - Brampton (“10 Bus Stops” away) - sorry but this is a much easier way to describe distance than quoting a metric measurement) it was then that I accepted that it could not be HELLS BOILERHOUSE - It was my nightmare, it really was how my imagination had decided it would be - looking and smelling as I imagined it would.

Our “Queen of villages” could boast as having, not just one, but TWO railways - complete with stations and tracks - the old LNER and its rival the LMS lines. The LMS was our own personal operation (our home was an LMS owned terraced cottage) and it could be seen from both our lounge and front room windows. The rail track was constructed on the crest of a 25 foot (Sorry! Cannot convert English feet to New World Metric)embankment only 400M away (about 1 Bus Stop) away - (See! I can occasionally use metric as a measurement). It ran in a direction which was across our vision ,which meant it remained visible for quite a time. To a small child as I was at the time the trains were magical, immense, noisy yet spectacular. As a result I became an avid Train Spotter and I even saw the "Flying Scotsman" once - I swear. .. 
Our “ Queen of Villages” could also boast as having the largest Rail Marshalling Yards - devoted to coal distribution - in the whole of Great Britain. Yes they were huge and took up a great area of land for years on years, until coal went out of fashion and the land became the home of huge and modern Distribution Centres and Warehousing ( not too far and convenient for the M1 Motorway you see)
Wath-upon-Dearne could also boast of having it own Gas Works and Storage Tanks - I couldn’t see these from our lounge or front room windows ( and it was only 4 Bus Stops away), although frequently I am sure I could smell them, particularly as I had to walk by them each day, to and from my Infants and Junior schools - "no school-runs in those days ;-)"

My village could boast of having a Canal System also (The Don and Dove), a Brewery (Whitbreads), 2 Cinemas ( the Majestic and the Grand), A purpose built Swimming and Slipper Baths  ( I never did understand what “Slipper” meant ), an Athletics and Sports Ground, which occasionally hosted Yorkshire Crickets second team. I occasionally operated one of the large rotating ratchet counters in the Score Board, poking my head thro the small purpose made sight holes to watch for Umpires decisions  (by the way all of these facilities were only 4 Bus Stops away from my home , except the Grand Cinema which was 6 Bus stops - we also referred to Cinemas as “Picture Houses” in those days)

Are you following me ? .........


Part 2 to follow .. ..  

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