Memoirs of an Adwick Resident on Adwick Le Street Pre War II
The following memoirs are the exact wording of Robert Martin, who sent me this text from Santa Monica, California where he was living in the 1980’s. Robert went over to the States after the war and has visited Adwick on numerous occasions. His brother, Joe was once the steward of Adwick Working Men’s Club.
This part of Adwick was situated at the bottom of Adwick bridge and was the sprawl that is now an industrial estate its end was the start of Carcroft bridge. The area he refers to as Brooklands is the area of land that is where the mobile home place is and across the road from there. There were many shops a picture house, there was a drapers shop newsagents everything a small village required was there even as mention it own club which was situated across the road from the new part of the railway station on the and is now the large building that is Yorkshire plumbing and heating.
“Some hazy recollections of Church Lane, “Domino Row”, Adwick Le Street, in the mid 1930’s This was the right hand side of Church Lane, looking towards Brooklands. The name Domino Row or Road was used because of the white glazed bricks, which alternated with red bricks, above each front door.
Domino Row consisted of a row of terraced houses with a common backyard, which in 1933 had not been fenced off by individual tenants. In the backyard which backed onto a public alley, were five brick and slated outhouses each containing 2 coal houses and 2 flush toilets for each pair of tenants.
Starting from the Woodlands end, my first memory of tenants were the Rasdales. Mrs Rasdale I recall was a widow who had what I believe to be birth defects which included short arms and legs. On her infrequent shopping trips to Carcroft or Doncaster she wore coats which had a sort of cloak top to cover her arms. Despite her size Mrs Rasdale had a large family which included one son who was a least six foot two inches tall. The names of her offspring were; Stella, Harold, John, Ernie, Billy, Jerry, Teddy and George. The Rasdale’s house was no. 46; I remember this detail since I delivered the daily papers in Adwick for a couple of years, starting when I was 10 years old.
The first recollection I have of people living at no. 48 was that they had a daughter my age, her name was Ivy and the family name was Fleet that was about 1930 when I would be 7 years old. The next people to move into no. 48 were Mr and Mrs Middlemas with their children, Don and an older brother whose name might have been Jim. They later moved to Scunthorpe when Don had a small butchers shop.
Mr and Mrs Brooks lived at no. 50 forever or so it seemed, they had no children and they provided digs for the entertainers appearing at the local working men’s club at weekends usually. From time to time they would take in regular lodgers, one at a time, who were usually Irishmen moving to South Yorkshire to work in the coal mines. One of these Irish lodgers had a bagpipe which he used to play, in his bedroom and some times in the outside toilet, he wasn’t very good, I thought.
We lived at no. 52 from around 1927-28, I had two brothers, Joe and Jim and a sister, Doreen who was born at no. 52 in 1930. With 2 bedrooms, no hot water, no electricity, no bathroom I wondered how everyone in the street managed to have large families and survive. I never knew who owned the houses but a short man collected the rent on Saturday mornings, he was from the Estate Agents, Bell and Watson, who had an office in Doncaster, probably still do.
At no.54 lived the Colcombes, they had moved from Wales and Mr Colcombe had been a boxer in the featherweight division, he was a miner and was the father of Betty or Cynwyn, Raymond, Ralph and Roland they moved to Bentley around 1934-35 and gave way to the Croppers, Albert and Esther, who with their 2 children Dorothy and Albert, lived there for as long as I can remember.
No.56 changed hands quite a lot, but the earliest occupants I remember were the Marfells who had 3 daughters and1 son, Albert. I recall Minnie, the only daughter whose name I remember; taking me unwillingly to the little School in Carcroft that was probably 1929.
No. 58 was the Kays Mr and Mrs Fred Kay with their grown up family Paul, Fred, Annie, Miriam and Joe. I think Joe was the only one living at home, perhaps Annie was there at the same time, but I don’t recall just when she moved in. By local standards the Kays were a very respectable and prosperous family.
No. 60, by my earliest recollection was the home to the Meakins, Mr and Mrs Meakin and their family Ralph, Bobby and a girl whose name I think was Annie. Also living there was an elderly man, Bob Woods, who was the father of Mrs Meakin, he also had 2 sons Alfie and Harold who appeared to live there too, at least in the very early days. Bob Woods was a skilled farmworker who ploughed with and knew everything about horses.
Mr and Mrs Lunnis and 1 daughter I believe lived at No. 62.
Mrs Dilks with Son Charlie and a daughter lived at no.64. There was also a man lived there, probably a lodger, since no one identified him with the Dilks family. The Dilks house was the end terrace house.
Still looking towards Brooklands there as about 250 feet of vacant property before a group of five shops, namely; Gaythorpe’s, who sold paraffin, bicycles and accessories and of all things baking, this I remember because I used to buy 2oz of yeast probably twice a week for my mum who baked twice a week. Mrs Gaythorpe had a lodger who worked at the L.N.E.R plant in Doncaster, he cycled to and from work daily and he was the bicycle man at Mrs Gaythope’s shop. His name was Mark Hilton he took over the store after Mrs Gaythorpe’s death and made it a full time job selling and repairing bicycles.
