Between the old village and the school, on the opposite side of the road, was
the vicarage and, on the adjoining piece of land, was the village/church hall –
a wooden hut in which we held dancing classes and the scouts and cubs used to
meet there. My uncle (Norman Ellison) and his wife ran the scouts and cubs
– and we had quite a lively scout band in those days!!The dancing classes were
held on a Saturday afternoon and cost fourpence (2p today).
Ravenfield School,( I was there -1935-39) had three classrooms which were
separated by folding screens and a wide corridor alongside which was used for
assembly and singing lessons!! The Infants and girls had their own
entrance and playground on the side nearest Moor Lane and the boys entered the
school and their playground at the old village end of the school. The
Infant teacher was Mrs. Hobson – she lived in one of the houses at Hellaby View
and had two daughters, Joan and Roma. The lower junior teacher, Miss
Barker, lived at Wickersley and travelled to school on a motor cycle!! The
upper juniors were taught by the Headmistress, Miss Wilcocks, who lived with her
sister in the school house adjoining the boys playground. The
toilets in those days were outside and in the playground. However,
we were lucky in the sense that we had a covered shed which we could shelter
under when it rained at playtime!!! Every day we were given a
bottle of milk to drink during the morning break (one third of a pint each).
Also, we were made to drink a small spoonful of cod liver oil each day (there
was a charge of ¼d a day or 1¼d per week for this extra treat!!)
During the
wartime, the school was often used for dances and fund raising efforts – the
folding screens separating the classrooms were folded back on these occasions.
The school was also used in the evenings for wartime cookery classes where our
mothers learned to make flapjacks, fatless sponge cakes and sweets made from
dried milk, a little sugar and some peppermint essence!!
Another event in the village during the war was when we had evacuees brought out
from Rotherham to live amongst us. Some didn’t stay very long before returning
home, but some stayed with us until the end of the war.
I remember the
church of St. James at Ravenfield very well. I was confirmed in the church in the
days of the Rev. Whittaker – I still have the hymn & prayer book given to me by
the vicar at my confirmation in 1942!! Along with friends, we sang in the choir
and were paid 1 shilling (5p) a year. We were also expected to take it in turns
to pump the bellows of the organ for the organist – Mrs. Thornton, [
Janette Stender writes :- who was married to Ernest and the mother of
Zilla, Jesse, Margaret, and Kathleen? My late Uncle married Margaret, and my
late Aunt married Jesse. ]
who cycled
from her bungalow in Hollings Lane (opposite the entrance to Reasby Avenue)
every Sunday, come rain or shine, to the church.
The church was in
the grounds of the Ravenfield Hall and we gained access by parking our bicycles
at the foot of the village and then walking across a field and up to the church
- cars were a rarity in those days, unless you were one of the few wealthy
farmers!!
On the corner at the cross roads (where the Cavalier
public house is now), was a shop run by the Sanderson family selling sweets,
newspapers etc. It was also the post office. Across the road was a general
grocery / hardware store known as “Bashforth’s”, and a little way down
Ravenfield Common was a fish and chip shop.
When we first came to live in
Ravenfield, we were the first tenants in one of the houses newly built by the
Taylor Brothers and known as the Silvermoor Estate – later re-named Silvermoor
Drive. If I remember correctly, Taylor Brothers consisted of three brothers –
Bill, Edwin and Horace, together with their sister “Miss Taylor”. The brothers
built the houses (and later built Reasby Avenue) and Miss Taylor was the rent
collector. Bill Taylor and his sister lived in the first houses to be built in
Silvermoor Drive, whilst Edwin and Horace lived down Ravenfield Common – I was
at school with Ben Taylor (son of Horace Taylor.) Edwin Taylor and
his wife were also musicians and regularly played for dances in the village
hall.
At the top of Silvermoor Drive were open fields where we would play
football, look for birds nests and also walk across to the smaller wood leading
down to the colliery – or take the path across to Sunnyside. There were lots of
skirmishes in Silverwood between the boys of Ravenfield and “the enemy” from
Sunnyside – all of which were quite harmless!!
At the bottom of Silvermoor
Drive and round the corner towards Bramley, there was a row of houses known as
Stone Row and these houses stretched almost to the brow of the hill leading over
to the houses at Hellaby View. Between these two sets of houses were open fields
and, during the war, an anti aircraft searchlight battery was stationed there.&
There was also a small farm across the road from the Hellaby View estate owned
by the Goldsborough family – they delivered milk locally, together with Turners
who farmed in the old village.
On the subject of
churches, my grandparents and family and my father all came from Thrybergh and
were regular worshippers at St. Peter’s Church at the top of Whinney Hill. My
father was in the choir at St. Peter’s, worked at Silverwood and also played
cricket for Thrybergh The vicar at the time of my early childhood was the Rev.
Guy Cook who later moved to be vicar at Tickhill. Whilst living in
Ravenfield, and before joining the choir at St. James, my sister and I were
expected to walk down to Sunday School at St. Peters at Whinney Hill every Sunday
– and then walk back home in time for lunch!! In the evening, along with our
parents, we would again walk all the way to St. Peter’s for evensong and then go
back to my grandparents house in Eastvale Drive for supper – the treat then was
that we travelled back to Ravenfield on the 9pm bus !!! In those days, the
Cenotaph was halfway up the hill leading to Silverwood Colliery. It may have
been out of the way by modern day standards, but I think it was a much nicer
setting. I can remember how, once a year we would parade all the way from
St. Peter’s Church to the Cenotaph for a special service.
